University of Arizona School of Art student Beihua Guo captured second place in the campus-wide Grad Slam contest with his presentation, “Designated Ground Zeros: Documenting Cold War Nuclear Targets with Uranium Prints.”

Guo, a first-year MFA candidate in the school’s Photography, Video and Imaging program, vied with five other finalists for the best three-minute graduate student presentation of a research, creative or community engagement project.

He received $2,000 in prize money from the Office of Research, Innovation and Impact, which co-sponsored Grad Slam along with the university’s Graduate Center.

Guo’s “Designated Ground Zeros” project examines 368 nuclear targets in China identified by the United States Strategic Air Command in “The Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959.” So far, Guo has photographed 49 of the targets, and his goal is to take images of all of them and publish a book on the topic.

He printed his photographs using uranium salts as the photosensitive material. Called uranotypes, the images are sepia-colored and juxtapose history with a medium that not only speaks to “the danger of nuclear weapons or how landscapes change over time,” Guo said, “but also of Western imperialism in China, because many of the sites I’ve photographed were built by colonizers, and they still stand today.”

“As an artist, I feel a responsibility to address these pressing issues and inspire social change,” he told the audience. “My uranium prints may not convince world leaders to dismantle nuclear warheads or undo the history of colonialism in China. But they serve as an invitation for us all to reflect on the violence embedded in the landscapes around us. From nuclear targets in China, to the Titan missile silos here in Tucson.”

Guo grew up in Shanghai, China, and received his BA in studio art and environmental analysis from Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

“Beihua’s work deals with sophisticated and important concepts,” School of Art Director Colin Blakely said. “His Grad Slam presentation did an outstanding job using storytelling and personal narrative to make those concepts accessible in a poignant and ultimately powerful way.”

Fellow School of Art graduate students, Blakely and other faculty cheered on Guo during the Feb. 5 competition at the School of Music’s Holsclaw Hall.

“I was thrilled to see so many faculty and fellow grad students come to support me,” Guo said. “Their presence really helped relieve my stress, and seeing their smiles in the audience gave me so much confidence on stage.”

Leading up to the Grad Slam finals, Guo presented part of his project in a January installation at the “Nice to Meet You” exhibition for first-year MFA students at the Lionel Rombach Gallery.

“I highly recommend this opportunity to all grad students in the School of Art,” he said. “Elevator pitches and shorter presentations are becoming essential at conferences and exhibition openings, and this experience really helped me improve in that area.”

Mourad Abdennebi, a doctoral candidate in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, took the grand prize with the presentation, “Multisensory Vocabulary Learning.” Geosciences PhD candidate Mudith Weerabaddanage finished third with “Reading Corals: Unraveling the Mysteries of Ocean History.” The other finalists were Elizabeth Brown (MS, Clinical Research), Eka Oktavia Kurniati (PhD, Civil Engineering) and Hosain Heshmati (PhD, Education Psychology).

“Grad Slam didn’t feel like a competitive environment. All the participants were incredibly friendly and supportive,” Guo said. “I also learned so much about exciting research happening across other colleges and departments.”

He began refining his presentation even before signing up for the contest. As a member of the prestigious 2024–25 University Fellows cohort, Guo had to give a three-minute presentation in a colloquium class last semester. He also had plenty of practice with longer presentations in School of Art Professor Ellen McMahon’s “Contemporary Art Concepts and Issues class.”

During Grad Slam’s  preliminary and semifinal rounds, he honed his presentation even more based on feedback from the judges. In the finals, the judge’s panel featured executives Susan Dumon (Sun Corridor Inc.) and Kelly Huber (Marshall Foundation) and John-Paul (JP) Roczniak, University of Arizona Foundation president and CEO.

“One of the biggest skills I gained was learning how to communicate my art and ideas to a non-specialized audience,” Guo said. “This will be valuable when I start teaching introductory-level classes or collaborating with researchers from other disciplines.”

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