“Prof Slam” kicked off UCSB Alumni Weekend on October 15, 2026. Advertised as a “Battle of the Brains,” six UCSB professors had “exactly three minutes each to present their complex, cutting-edge research in an entertaining, accessible way” at the M Special Brewing Company in downtown Santa Barbara See https://www.alumni.ucsb.edu/events/all-gaucho-reunion/prof-slam).
Amid a packed crowd, five judges rated professors from Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology; Materials Research; Chicana and Chicano Studies; History; Bioengineering; and Chemical Engineering spoke, along with Joe Walther from Communication.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s Prof Slam winner, Norah Dunbar, Walther tied for first place (with 2 minutes, 59 and 58/10ths of a second) on “why internet haters love to hate.” He synopsized his recent theory and research concluding, “Taylor Swift got it almost right: Haters gonna hate -- when other haters love them for it.”
The Communication Department will display the winners’ trophy for half a year.