The prize for the Best Student Presentation" for the IREAP Graduate Student Seminars for Fall 2007 was awarded to Brian Layer for his presentation entitled "A Corrugated Plasma Waveguide for Ultra-Intense Laser Pulses - Getting the Most Out of Extreme Nonlinear Interactions." Brian is a student of Dr. Howard Milchberg.

We are pleased to announce that the IREAP Graduate Student Seminars are back for the Spring 2008 semester. Seminars have been scheduled for Fridays at 12:00 p.m. in the Large Conference Room (1207), Energy Research Facility. Everyone is welcome. In addition, pizzas with a variety of toppings will be provided free of charge for graduate students; others will have to contribute a small fee of $5.00. Submit your requests for pizza toppings and refreshments to Eric Montgomery (ejm1 at umd.edu) or Matthew Paoletti (mpaolett at gmail.com).

The mission of the IREAP Graduate Student Seminars is to give graduate students the opportunity to practice short presentations of their work. This is a stepping stone for preparing them for their thesis defense, PhD proposals, or even conference presentations. It is a valuable skill for all professionals, and students should be eager to present their work.

The talks will be informal with an approximate duration of 30 to 45 minutes allowing questions for about 15 minutes. There shouldn't be any stress since there is no evaluation committee coming up with grilling questions. Everyone is welcome to be the audience.

At the end of the semester, graduate students will vote for the best seminar. The winner will receive a monetary prize. For additional information regarding the IREAP Graduate Student Seminar Series, please contact Eric Montgomery (ejm1 at umd.edu) or Matthew Paoletti (mpaolett at gmail.com).