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Keynote Speaker - Jorge Cham, PhD
Keynote Speaker:
Jorge Cham, PhD, California Institute of Technology of
PhdComics.com fame presents "The Power of
Procrastination"
About Jorge Cham
Jorge Cham is the creator of
Piled Higher and Deeper
(PhD), the comic strip about life (or the lack thereof) in grad
school.
Often called the Dilbert of academia, PHD
has appeared in the Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Carnegie Mellon
newspapers among others, and it is published online where it receives over
2.7 million page views a month from over 1000 universities and colleges
worldwide.
Jorge Cham was born and raised in the Republic
of Panama. He obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech
and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (specializing in Robotics)
from Stanford University, where he started drawing PHD. He is currently a
Research Associate and Instructor at Caltech.
About the Talk
A recent survey by U.C. Berkeley found that
95% of all graduate students feel overwhelmed, and over 67% have felt
seriously depressed at some point in their careers. In this talk, Jorge
Cham recounts his experiences bringing humor into the lives of stressed
out academics, examines the source of their anxieties and explores the
guilt, the myth, and the power of procrastination.
Talk duration: 45 minutes, 15
minutes Q&A
 Rough outline:
•How “Piled Higher and Deeper” got started
•Grad students in the media and popular perceptions
•The big question: Why grad school?
•Average stipends
•PhD goes global: you are not alone
•The power of procrastination: arguments in favor of putting things off
•Guilt and losing your mojo: common causes for depression in grad school
•Embracing procrastination and getting back on track
Feedback about the talk from event organizers
“Jorge Cham’s talk was just
terrific. I loved it and obviously so did our audience here."
-Mary Johnson, Director, Graduate Career Services, Yale
University
“The talk was humorous and
helpful. Cham’s cartoon strip has been a giant plus in helping
graduate students acknowledge and cope with the stress they
experience.“- Isaac Colbert, Dean of Graduate Students, M.I.T.
"Thanks for helping us to
keep a good perspective on grad life.“- Calvin Chan, Princeton
Univ.
"I can’t remember when I
have had as many laughs and I am sure many of our colleagues
will benefit from your philosophy and shared experience.“
-Damian, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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