Abstract: A recent survey by U.C. Berkeley found that 95% of all graduate students feel overwhelmed, and over 67% have felt seriously depressed at some point in their careers. In this talk, Jorge Cham recounts his experiences bringing humor into the lives of stressed out academics, examines the source of their anxieties and explores the guilt, the myth, and the power of procrastination.

Short Bio: Jorge Cham began drawing PHD Comics while pursuing his doctorate degree in Engineering at Stanford University, specializing in Robotics. His research at Stanford focused on dynamic legged 'biomimetic' robots that incorporate novel manufacturing technologies and design lessons from biology. He also spent time at Caltech developing work on Neural Prosthetics. Since 1997 when he first created PHD Comics, Dr. Cham has published four books and travels extensively giving lectures at conferences and universities about the power of procrastination and “life (or the lack thereof) in academia”. “The PHD Movie” is Dr. Cham’s first screenplay.