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Awards for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

CMS and IST Gradient for Change Awards

The CMS and IST Gradient for Change Awards honor students, postdocs, staff, and faculty in the Caltech community who demonstrate exceptional efforts to make Caltech and/or the broader scientific community a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. The awards recognize and highlight individual contributors or small teams who are considered agents of change, community leaders, and/or allies to historically marginalized group(s) in the information sciences, including computer science, applied mathematics, and beyond.

Nominations are reviewed by a committee of students and faculty that is selected by the CMS DEI Steering Committee. Depending on the applications in a given year, separate awards may be given at the undergraduate, graduate, staff, postdoc, and faculty levels. Awards come with a $500 prize.

These awards are open to all students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, or other protected characteristic.

Nomination instructions and requirements:

  • Nominations for 2023 should be submitted via email to Roberta Carvalho no later than Monday, April 17, 2023.
  • Candidates may nominate themselves or be nominated by their peers/advisors.
  • Nominations should take the form of a letter no longer than 1 page that describes both the activities of the nominee and the impact of those activities. Supporting materials detailing the efforts are allowed but not required.
  • The nominee must have held an active appointment/employment during the 2022-2023 academic year as one of the following: Caltech undergraduate student, graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, staff, or faculty member.
  • The activities of the nominee must contribute to diversity, equity, and/or inclusion in the information sciences, broadly defined, including but not limited to computer science and applied mathematics.

Examples of qualifying activities: community organizing; outreach; mentorship; allyship; activism; teaching; curriculum design; creation and implementation of new initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and/or inclusion.

EAS New Horizons Award

The New Horizons Award is presented annually by the Division of Engineering and Applied Science to recognize individuals within EAS who actively contribute to our goal of fostering an engineering community where all members can thrive and reach their full potential. This award is open to current EAS students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty. Eligible activities may include demonstrated leadership, advocacy and community organizing, development of resources to enhance community success, and engagement in engineering outreach to local schools or communities.