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	The Power of Procrastination SURVIVING GRAD SCHOOL & DECIDING WHAT’S NEXT A talk by JORGE CHAM, creator of PhD Comics.com

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
3:15-4:15pm talk/4:15-5:30pm book signing & reception
32-123 Stata Ctr Map

Jorge Cham is the creator and artist 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 7 million page views a month from over 1000 universities and colleges worldwide. The Piled Higher and Deeper comic strip appears in The Tech, MIT’s student newspaper. For PHD Comics’ online archive, see http://www.phdcomics.com.

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 from Stanford University (specializing in Robotics), where he started drawing PHD. He was subsequently an Instructor and Research Associate at Caltech from 2003-2005, where his work focused on developing “Smart” Neural Implants. He has published and presented nationally and abroad on his Robotics and Neural Prosthetics research. He also travels and presents all over the world to thousands of graduate students, faculty and administrators on the graduate student experience.

Three PHD book collections have been published. In all, Jorge Cham’s books have sold over 43,000 copies to date.

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FEEDBACK FROM GRAD STUDENTS & STAFF About Previous Talks by Jorge Cham

• "Thanks again for the fun you bring into the labs and lives(!) of grad students.“
  -Bilal Kerman, Johns Hopkins University
• "Thank you SO MUCH for signing my books and giving a wonderful talk at Yale. You made my month!”
  -Robert Clark, Yale University
• "Thanks for helping us to keep a good perspective on grad life.“
  - Calvin Chan, Princeton University
• "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
• “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, former Dean of Graduate Students, M.I.T.
• "I've never heard so many grad students *really* laughing at the same time!“
  -Jory Zmuda Ruscio, Chair, Graduate Life Ctrr's Speaker Series, Virginia Tech
• “An excellent talk, people thoroughly enjoyed it. The Q&A session was lots of fun.”
  -Sidharth Jaggi, The Caltech Y