For a graduate student, the input of a mentor — an adviser eager to share their knowledge, support, and experience as an academic — can provide invaluable guidance in the pursuit of an advanced degree.
The contributions of three such mentors, all members of the Berkeley faculty, were recognized at the University’s inaugural presentation of the Sarlo Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Awards. The Sarlo award, sponsored by the Sarlo Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, reflects one of founder George Sarlo’s many ambitions: to improve the capacity of Bay Area institutions to provide quality education.
THIS YEAR'S SARLO AWARD HONOREES ARE:
Maximilian Auffhammer
Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
College of Natural Resources
From the nomination: “He willingly and, indeed, voluntarily devotes enormous amounts of time and effort to mentoring our students from their early days in our Ph.D. program up to and including their placement in excellent academic positions on graduation. He has set an example for our department that the rest of us can only hope to live up to.” (Professor Anthony C. Fisher, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics)
Currently teaching: Intermediate Microeconomic Theory (covering topics including consumer and demand theory, firm, production and cost theory, competitive market theory, imperfect competition, welfare economics, choice under uncertainty and information).
Sofia Berto Villas-Boas
Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
College of Natural Resources
From the nomination: “She always makes me feel like a colleague rather than her student, gives me the freedom and confidence to develop my own ideas, and supports everything I do with enthusiasm.… Her enthusiasm and personality perfectly complement the high-quality education and stimulating and intellectual atmosphere our department and Berkeley in general provide for graduate study.” (Kristin Kiesel, Ph.D. candidate)
What she’s teaching next: Industrial Organization with Applications to Agriculture and Natural Resources (undergraduate course, spring 2008); Industrial Organization and Regulation in Agriculture (graduate course, spring 2008).
José David Saldívar
Professor of Ethnic Studies and English
Department of Ethnic Studies
College of Letters & Science
From the nomination: “Dialoguing with Professor Saldívar was always a fluid and gratifying experience because he was deeply respectful and committed — he always behaved as if he were talking to somebody he considered intellectually equal and he showed, in every meeting, an honest interest in my new developments.” (Mónica González, Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic languages and literatures, Department of Spanish and Portuguese).
Currently teaching: On sabbatical this year; during the 2006-07 school year, Saldivar taught an English graduate seminar on the cultures of U.S. imperialism and the War of 1898, as well as an English course focusing on the works of authors William Faulkner, Gabriel García Márquez, and Toni Morrison.
