What is the Hayes Forum?
The 39th annual Hayes Forum will be held on Friday February 28th, 2025. The Hayes Forum presents exemplary research by graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from across Ohio State and facilitates fruitful exchanges between graduate students, trainees, faculty, the administration, and the public.
Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from all academic areas participate and cash prizes (generously provided by the Graduate School, Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and ERIK) are awarded to top candidates from each academic category. This year’s prizes will total more than $17,000 across all competitions.
The forum presents an opportunity for interdisciplinary learning and scholarly exchanges, for presenters to share their work in a public forum beyond the scope of audiences they regularly see in their “home” field conferences, for professionalization through receiving feedback on their work, and for CV/Resume enhancement (through presentation or through service opportunities for non-presenters).
Why serve as a judge for Hayes?
Hayes judges create an impact through helping to improve and reward the exemplary research of graduate students & postdoctoral scholars here at the Ohio State University. The value of your presence as experts in your subject fields contributes to the prestige of the Hayes Forum itself.
The Hayes Forum is not possible without the experience and adeptness of judges from all levels of OSU employment (faculty, staff, researchers, and more) and beyond like you. Without adequate judges to review and score abstracts of applicants to select presenters for the forum, and adequate judges to evaluate paper and poster presentations on the day of the forum, sessions are cancelled, meaning participants lose out on valuable experience, and on the chance to win prizes rewarding their effort and excellence.
Judging for the forum can be a valuable experience for you as well! These opportunities can help give valuable experience and professionalization for your CV or resume, can be useful for P&T packets, job applications (both academic and non-academic/alt-academic), and for visa and immigration documentation purposes. The Hayes Forum Chair will provide a letter thanking you for your service if you evaluate abstracts or presentations as proof of this service.
Judging Eligibility
The only requirement for judging is that you must possess a terminal degree in a relevant field for the academic area you apply to judge in. This can be widely interpreted. If you have specific inquiries or seek guidance on which academic areas you might be eligible to judge in, please contact Hayes Organizing Chair Katie Conner at cgs-hayesforum@osu.edu. Please share with non-academic/alt-academic colleagues beyond OSU, and with non-faculty OSU employees, as being a current OSU faculty member is not a requirement for judging. In the past we have had a number of excellent non-faculty judges from across OSU and beyond OSU, and the varied professional perspectives are valuable to presenters.
Applying to Judge
At this time, while we always welcome additional judges in any area, we are especially in need of and seeking judges for both graduate (oral and poster) and postdoctoral (oral only) presentations on the day of the forum in the following broad academic areas...
- The Arts
- Business
- Education & Human Ecology
- Engineering
- FAES
- Health Sciences
- Humanities
- Math & Physical Sciences
- Social & Behavioral Sciences
- Postdoctoral: Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering
- Postdoctoral: Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
If you are interested in serving as a judge, please email Hayes Chair Katie Conner at cgs-hayesforum@osu.edu as soon as possible.
We hope that you will strongly consider participating in the Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum as a judge this year. This would not be possible without the service, time, and energy of hundreds of judges over the last 38 years of Hayes.
Cheers,
Katie A. Conner
Vice President, Council of Graduate Students
Chair, Hayes Advanced Research Forum Committee