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Recent Activities

Osterbrock News

 

  • Grad Student Visit 2025

      screenshot-2025-03-11-at-10.12.21am.png OLP Director Sandy Faber gave the following presentation on recent activities to visiting prospective     grad students on Mar. 11, 2025. Read more here.

     

     

  • Success of the Osterbrock Leadership Program Seminars by Steve Mandel

    Transformative Seminars by Steve Mandel The Osterbrock Leadership Program recently hosted seminars by Steve Mandel, a renowned communications expert and mentor. Known for transforming speaking and presentation skills, Steve’s workshops continue to receive enthusiastic praise from attendees. Read more here.

     

  • Osterbrock Graduate Leadership Program Fellows Visit Washington, D.C. and Baltimore

    Osterbrock Fellows Explore Careers Beyond Academia In April, Osterbrock Graduate Leadership Program Fellows visited Washington, D.C., and Baltimore to explore non-academic careers for astronomy PhDs. They engaged with leaders in science policy, research, and advocacy at institutions like NASA, NSF, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, gaining valuable insights and connections. Read more here. 

     

  • Astronomy Grads Visit California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) 

    Astronomy Grads Explore Science Policy with CCST Osterbrock Fellows and Astronomy graduate students visited the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) in Sacramento, gaining insights into science policy through meetings with Science Policy Fellows and Science Translators. The visit highlighted exciting opportunities for STEM PhDs in state governance and advocacy. Read more here.

     

  • Honors & awards

     

  • Cesar Rojas-Bravo: A Rising Star in Astronomy and Public Speaking

    We are thrilled to announce that Cesar Rojas-Bravo has earned his PhD. Cesar has distinguished himself as an exceptional public speaker, winning the People's Choice award at last year’s annual UCSC GradSlam. This spring, he was the concluding speaker at the TEDx Santa Cruz event. You can watch his inspiring presentation here: [TEDx Santa Cruz - Cesar Rojas-Bravo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYjkTU4SYxk). Most recently, Cesar served as this year's Commencement Speaker at the UCSC Graduate Commencement ceremony. Cesar is now seeking a postdoctoral fellowship where he can combine his research expertise with his passion for using astronomy as a tool to promote international and cultural harmony.

     

  • Congrats to Sierra and Alex on winning Presidential Graduate Fellowships for the 2024-25 academic year!

    We had an excellent group of internal nominees, only a subset of which we could put forward (thank you to our faculty committee) to PBSci, who then selected a group of awardees in coordination with the Graduate Division. We have a truly outstanding group of finishing PhD students next year, and the department, division. and university decisions were extremely competitive.