With three minutes, one sticky problem, and a standout performance, Kirstin Rollins won the 2025 UC Santa Barbara Grad Slam.
A Ph.D student in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Rollins bested a competitive field of more than 40 graduate students and eight finalists to claim the $5,000 top prize for her presentation called A Sticky Situation: Target Cell Adhesion Inhibits Macrophage Therapy.
Her win was announced at the final round of the campus-wide competition Grad Slam, held recently at Campbell Hall.
“I am honestly in such shock because of the caliber of all of my other competitors,” said Rollins, whose talk described a technique for battling tightly bound tumor cancers by loosening their bonds with a protein before treatment with macrophage therapy.
“It has been such a kind of camaraderie, and I wanted every individual to win.”
Yuting Ma, a Ph.D student in statistics and applied probability, won $2,000 for second place.
Selected by the audience, Tiffany Ta, a Ph.D student in the Department of Music, won the People’s Choice $1,000 prize.
“As a Gaucho alum and a representative of the university’s namesake city, I felt honored by the invitation to participate,” said Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, who served on the judges panel. “The size and enthusiasm of the audience was impressive, as were the presentations.
“I’ll admit it felt awkward to sit and judge these incredible people, but getting to engage with them at the reception made me not only proud of the products of our university, it also enhanced my optimism for the future.”