The fifth annual Graduate Students Day, hosted by the Graduate Students Association and the School of Graduate Studies, is shaping up to be a quirky affair.

A day-long celebration of education is planned for today, March 23. Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio's popular science program Quirks and Quarks, will attend the evening activities, held in the Council Chamber, which include refreshments and an awards ceremony.

McDonald will be joined by Harvey Weingarten, McMaster's provost and vice-president academic, and Susan Johnson, a doctoral economics student, for a panel discussion on “Demystifying Research in the 'Ivory Tower': Engaging the Public in a Discussion on the Importance of Graduate Student Research.”

“This is really our day to celebrate and show off the great research that graduate students are doing,” says Joan Grace, president of the GSA.

Poster sessions and oral presentations, meant to publicize to the McMaster community the research being done by graduate students, will be held in the afternoon. The goal of the posters is to attract undergraduate students to the possibilities of graduate education.