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Holiday Bowl 2004: Cal Spirit Rally
Thousands of Golden Bear football fans packed a ballroom at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego Wednesday night to salute their team, their coach and their school at a Cal Spirit Rally that left the hotel echoing with the songs of the Sons of California.
(29 December)
Holiday Bowl 2004: Kickoff Luncheon
Getting an autograph from a favorite Cal player was just one of the many perks for Bear fans who attended Wednesday's Kickoff Luncheon at the San Diego Convention Center.
(29 December)
Holiday Bowl 2004: Battle of the Bands
Playing not just to rattle the rafters but to literally shake the floor, the University of California Marching Band took on Texas Tech's Goin' Band from Raiderland in the Holiday Bowl Battle of the Bands, one of a series of pregame contests taking place this week in San Diego.
(29 December)
Holiday Bowl 2004 coverage
With the Golden Bears facing the Texas Tech Red Raiders in this year's Holiday Bowl in San Diego, the NewsCenter has traveled south to bring back a taste of the festivities.
(29 December)
How the brain tunes out odors
The brain doesn't passively absorb all that's around us. A new study shows that with the sense of smell, certain areas of the brain actually suppress our perception of odors until we want to smell the roses.
(23 December)
Sheldon Margen, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of public health nutrition, dies at 85
Sheldon Margen, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of public health nutrition, dies at 85.
(21 December)
Long journey’s sweet ending
A tired and nervous Charles Man Fong Tung was filing his final dissertation papers in the Graduate Degrees Office this week when a small but sweet ritual collided with a tall Canadian newcomer, and a bit of serendipity occurred.
(17 December)
"Drawn West" readers tour collection from early California, West
A new book called "Drawn West" offers an intriguing glimpse of a Bancroft Library pictorial collection of paintings, watercolors, lithographs, music sheets and more that depict the romanticized, often brutal and commercialized exploration and settlement of California and the West.
(17 December)
James Carman, UC Berkeley business professor emeritus and marketing expert, dies
James M. Carman, a professor emeritus of business administration at the University of California, Berkeleys Haas School of Business and a pioneer in economics and the marketing of health care systems, died on Thursday, Dec. 9, at his home in Kensington. He was 73 and had been diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago.
(16 December)
Hummingbirds lose power at high altitudes
In the Peruvian Andes, hummingbirds have reached an amazing diversity, even moving up mountain slopes to 14,000 feet to feed on flower nectar and insects. But doing so has had a cost. UC Berkeley and Caltech scientists have found that their adaptation to hovering has made them less able to power up to flee predators or chase the competition.
(16 December)
UC Berkeley researchers developing low-altitude robo-copters
When scale model helicopters pass through a makeshift "urban canyon" in a test field, or engage in a game of aerial "chicken," the drills may look like a robotic stunt show to outside eyes. But behind the exercises lie significant technical breakthroughs by researchers at UC Berkeley. Members of the university's Berkeley Aerial Robot (BEAR) program have successfully conducted a series of field tests with 130-pound helicopters that not only fly without human control, but that also react to avoid obstacles in their flight path.
(15 December)
Weir to explore regional challenges, solutions
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded a $400,000 grant to University of California, Berkeley's Margaret Weir, a professor of sociology and political science, for a program investigating how regions can successfully meet often staggering economic and demographic challenges.
(15 December)
Latest student survey at UC Berkeley finds undergraduates hard to categorize, but feeling positive about their education
The latest annual survey of undergraduates at the University of California, Berkeley, provides a snapshot of students' views on life at UC Berkeley, from classes to politics to romantic relationships.
(15 December)
2004 undergraduate survey tackles stereotype of Berkeley as rich in research but poor in teaching
Everybody knows that UC Berkeley is a top-ranked research university. (If you haven't heard, a London newspaper recently decided we're No. 2 in the world.) And everybody also knows that for Berkeley undergraduates, that means a miserably impersonal education with large lecture classes conducted by teaching assistants, since professors are locked in their labs – right? Well, no…at least not according to the actual students. The image of the chilly research factory is just one of the under-examined stereotypes about UC Berkeley that the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) puts to rest annually.
(14 December)
Keasling and Cal: A perfect fit
UC Berkeley chemical engineering professor Jay Keasling's dream is to see his laboratory's breakthrough technology producing inexpensive drugs for the Third World. With its history of public service, UC Berkeley is the perfect place to achieve that dream.
(13 December)
$43 million grant from Gates Foundation to produce inexpensive antimalarial drug for developing world
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is taking a gamble on a technological solution to the shortage of antimalarial drugs for the Third World. Through the non-profit pharmaceutical company, the Institute for OneWorld Health, the foundation is putting up nearly $43 million to shepherd a breakthrough technology by UC Berkeley's Jay Keasling out of the lab and into the marketplace to produce the miracle antimalaria drug artemisinin at a price the world's poor can afford.
(13 December)
Edging out MIT, UC Berkeley named top university for engineering
UC Berkeley is the No. 1 engineering and information technology (IT) university in the world, according to rankings published today (Dec. 10) by the Times Higher Education Supplement. The weekly British newspaper also named Berkeley No. 4 on its list of the top 100 science universities.
(10 December)
Deep tremors under San Andreas Fault could portend earthquakes
Seismologists have recently detected faint tremors deep underground where the Earth's tectonic plates plunge into the mantle, but now UC Berkeley researchers have discovered similar tremors under a horizontally moving transform fault. Moreover, changes in the tremors seem to precede microquakes on the fault, opening the possibility of predicting future quakes based on tremor activity.
(09 December)
Five more years!
A rose is a rose is a rose, but there’s only one Tedford — and the Bears’ golden boy is firmly committed to Cal.
(08 December)
Procurement initiative takes aim at campus buying challenges
The Berkeley Procurement Initiative is designed to help streamline business operations for campus departments.
(08 December)
Doing his best in the space between life and death
Guy Micco, clinical professor in the UC Berkeley– UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP), encourages future physicians to contemplate their own mortality.
(08 December)
A career spent unearthing ancient history
On Dec. 31, Stephen Miller, professor of classical archaeology and director of Berkeley’s excavations in Ancient Nemea, Greece, will retire after a remarkable campus career that began in 1973. UC Berkeley Public Affairs recently asked Miller to reflect on the past three decades and look ahead to a retirement that will include living in both Berkeley and Greece with his wife, Effie; working as acting director of the excavation site until June 30; continuing his scholarly work on the artifacts unearthed at Nemea; and occasionally returning to campus to teach.
(08 December)
Framing the Questions gets a bright new name
The Arts and Humanities Division of the College of Letters and Science has announced the results of a competition to rename its online publication, Framing the Questions. Chosen unanimously by the selection committee, the new name will be Illuminations: Berkeley’s online magazine of research in the arts and humanities. The online publication showcases research of Berkeley faculty and students in the humanities and arts.
(08 December)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(08 December)
Memorial service to be held Saturday for UC Berkeley professor Martin Malia
A memorial service will take place on Saturday (Dec. 11) for Martin Edward Malia, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus and a leading specialist on Russia who died last month.
(07 December)
Researchers launch Smart Parking project at Rockridge BART
Drivers on Highway 24 will soon see road signs flashing real-time data on the availability of parking spaces at Oakland's Rockridge BART station. The signs are part of a new "Smart Parking" management field trial launched Dec. 7 by transportation researchers at UC Berkeley in partnership with officials at Caltrans and BART.
(07 December)
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown to address December UC Berkeley graduates
Former state governor and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown will be the keynote speaker at the December Graduates Convocation at the University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday, Dec. 11.
(07 December)
UC Berkeley appoints new admissions director
Walter A. Robinson, associate director of admissions at the University of Florida at Gainesville, has been appointed director of undergraduate admissions at the University of California, Berkeley. He will begin work here on Jan. 18.
(07 December)
Tedford signs 5-year contract to remain at Cal
Coach Jeff Tedford, credited with turning around the Golden Bears' football fortunes, will stay on at Cal under a new five-year contract that nearly doubles his base salary to $1.5 million a year, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau and Athletic Director Sandy Barbour announced at a press conference Monday (Dec. 6).
(06 December)
Roses wither, but what a season
As a disappointed Cal Bears football team heard the news that they had been bumped from a Rose Bowl berth by the barest of margins, players and coaches kept their focus on the 10-1 Golden Bears' stellar accomplishments this year on the field. "We are so very proud of this team," said Athletic Director Sandy Barbour.
(06 December)
Renowned mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, who revitalized the study of geometry, has died at 93 in Tianjin, China
Shiing-Shen Chern, a renowned and much-admired mathematician and cofounder of UC Berkeley's Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, died Dec. 3 after a heart attack at the age of 93. Students of Nankai University in Tianjin, China, his alma mater and the site of a math institute he founded, lit candles on the campus to mourn his passing.
(06 December)
UC Berkeley releases final fall 2004 enrollment data
University of California, Berkeley, officials today (Thursday, Dec. 2) released final enrollment figures for the fall 2004 semester. The total campus population, including all graduate and undergraduate students, is about 32,800.
(02 December)
No matter the bowl, Bear fans hungry for tickets
Bowl bids won't go out for a few days yet, but Cal Bears fans dreaming of roses are already jockeying for tickets and hoping they wind up in Pasadena.
(02 December)
New study links occupational exposure to low levels of benzene with decreased white blood cell counts
A new study has found that people exposed to low levels of the chemical benzene in the workplace had significantly lower blood cell counts compared to workers who were not exposed. The study, to be published Dec. 3 in Science, found that white blood cell and platelet counts were lower even with exposure levels below one part benzene per million parts air, or 1 ppm.
(02 December)
Norvel Smith, former UC Berkeley vice chancellor, dies at 80
Norvel Smith, a University of California, Berkeley, vice chancellor for student services for nearly 10 years, a pioneering African American educator and a longtime community leader, died of a brain tumor Saturday at his Oakland home. He was 80.
(01 December)
We’re #2! (Now what?)
No, it’s not the BCS standings. A new set of university rankings places Berkeley second worldwide. Should we shout the news from the rooftops, or put it gingerly back in Pandora’s box?
(01 December)
25 ways to avoid the mall
Thanksgiving is behind us. Stores have started playing holiday music. There’s no use denying it’s that time of year again. To lighten your shopping burden, the Berkeleyan has updated its holiday shopping guide to all things Cal.
(01 December)
Researchers use physics to analyze dynamics of bestsellers
A PR blitz might work temporary to push a book off the shelves and onto the bestsellers list, but nothing simple word-of-mouth works best over the long haul, researchers find.
(01 December)
Getting to know Mary Catherine Birgeneau
Life has been a whirlwind for Bob and Mary Catherine Birgeneau since July 27, when his appointment as Berkeley's chancellor was announced, but Mary Catherine is finally starting to feel settled in. Although University House's newest resident describes herself as by nature a "people person, but not a public person," she seems to enjoy her visible new role almost as much as she did being a behind-the-scenes mom and social worker.
(01 December)
John Searle, the Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language, awarded National Humanities Medal
John Searle, the Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language in the College of Letters & Science at the University of California, Berkeley, is among eight recipients of the 2004 National Humanities Medal.
(01 December)
Red, blue, and shades of gray
As Jack Glaser sees it, a half-century of psychological research
shows conservatives to be less comfortable with uncertainty and
ambiguity than liberals, who tend to take their politics with a dash
of nuance. While those thumbnail descriptions might well bring to mind certain candidates in the 2004 presidential race, Glaser, who is an assistant professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy, thinks it's not that simple.
(01 December)
Week of Caring serves Bay Area’s neediest
Some Bay Area residents are more in need of holiday cheer than others. For them — and for Berkeley staff and faculty in search of the true spirit of giving — there’s the annual Food, Toy, and Gift Drive.
(01 December)
Obituary
Joan B. Gruen, a fundraiser in the Office of University Relations for the past 16 years, passed away on Oct. 22.
(01 December)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(01 December)
Study explores Iraq impact on U.S. presidential race
Contrary to current conventional wisdom, deaths and injuries of American troops in Iraq did hurt the election efforts of President George Bush while gay marriage ban initiatives in 11 states had no measurable impact, say two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
(30 November)
Two major landscape plans plot out UC Berkeley's green future
Two major landscape plans for the University of California, Berkeley, detail a strategy for improving the landscape at 29 campus locations, reviving several spots to their original splendor.
(29 November)
Green is the new blue, and other Elements of Cal Style 2004
To the untrained eye, UC Berkeley fashion hasn't changed much since last year. The No. 1 campus style commandment is still "Comfort first," and Sproul Plaza is still a parade of mostly low-rise jeans, Cal sweatshirts, and flip-flops or sneakers. But with the aid of an expert, some subtle style shifts become visible. With slide show of campus fashions.
(24 November)
UC Berkeley cartoonist Deana Sobel makes mtvU's finals
The first round of voting for the "mtvU Strips" contest is over, and it's down to five finalists — including UC Berkeley senior Deana Sobel and her Daily Cal comic strip "Roomies."
(23 November)
UC Berkeley professor Martin Malia, prominent scholar who predicted collapse of the Soviet Union, dies
Martin Malia, a leading specialist on Russia who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for more than three decades, died on Friday (Nov. 19). He was 80.
(23 November)
"Blind" cells see the light; maybe someday humans will, too
A UC Berkeley neuroscientist teamed up with a campus chemist to create a photoswitch that makes normally sightless nerve cells sensitive to light. This clever trick could be used to restore sight to those who have lost it through disease, such as retinitis pigmentosa.
(22 November)
Russian history expert Martin Malia dies at age 80
Martin Edward Malia, a leading specialist on Russia who taught at UC Berkeley for more than three decades, died on Friday (Nov. 19) at a local hospital. He was 80.
(19 November)
George Maslach, longtime UC Berkeley administrator, dies at 84
George Maslach, former vice chancellor for research and academic affairs at UC Berkeley and an ardent academic champion for decades, died Nov. 11 following a stroke. He was 84.
(18 November)
Cal receiver is wide open to life’s possibilities
His grandfather is a USF legend. His father was a Golden Bear. Now Burl Toler III looks to Saturday’s Big Game — and beyond.
(17 November)
Bullet-point cinémathèque
Pacific Film Archive video coordinator Steve Seid decided to investigate how many people were using the ubiquitous software, Powerpoint, which for two decades has induced yawns in conference rooms worldwide. The best of what he found will be shown at PFA on Wednesday, Dec. 1, at “PowerPoint to the People™: An Evening of Automated Digital Presentations.”
(17 November)
‘Sitting in the middle of all this richness’
Anne Repp’s ‘long, different life’ has taken her to Pakistan and Namibia (as well as Pasadena and Chapel Hill). Now she’s in Berkeley, helping students compete for prizes, and feeling quite at home.
(17 November)
For the sake of the dead, or the living?
Berkeley architecture prof Andrew Shanken explores the tensions that surface when it comes time to memorialize a war.
(17 November)
When it comes to algae, SoCal’s loss is our gain
The botanical collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACM) — some 200,000 dried mosses, algae, lichens, and other representatives of the lower plant kingdom (sometimes referred to as cryptogams, for organisms that reproduce by way of spores) — is being transferred to Berkeley en toto.
(17 November)
A Week of Caring in December
Berkeley’s Week of Caring – Campus Charitable Campaign officially begins next month, giving staff and faculty a chance to make badly needed donations to their favorite charities or to the campus community.
(17 November)
Campus earns an ‘A’ in EPA review
The Berkeley campus recently received high marks — and no penalty fines — in a major audit of environmental-management practices at University of California campuses.
(17 November)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(17 November)
UC Berkeley football fans flock to pre-Big Game events
All this week, Cal fans are fueling their excitement about this Saturday's Big Game by attending events both on campus and off campus that range from rallies to friendly competitions with Stanford.
(17 November)
UC Berkeley’s historic Campanile opens again to weekend visitors
Just hours before Big Game kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 20, another University of California, Berkeley, institution is gearing up for lots of activity: The campus’s beloved Campanile is re-opening to weekend visitors.
(16 November)
UC Berkeley chancellor named to Prop. 71 stem cell oversight committee
Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau was named today (Monday, Nov. 15) to a committee charged with overseeing the implementation of California's new $3 billion stem cell research effort. "I'm pleased and honored by this appointment," Birgeneau said, after Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante made the announcement at a press conference at UC Berkeley's Hearst Memorial Mining Building. "This is an important responsibility, and there is much work to be done."
(15 November)
Conference to celebrate Gregory Bateson
A conference honoring the late Gregory Bateson, the anthropologist whose trailblazing work profoundly affected fields from ecology to evolution, from technology to family therapy, starts at the University of California, Berkeley, on Friday (Nov. 19).
(15 November)
George J. Maslach, former vice chancellor for research at Berkeley's College of Engineering, dies
George J. Maslach, former vice chancellor for research and academic affairs at the University of California, Berkeley's College of Engineering and an ardent academic leader for decades, died Thursday following a stroke at the age of 84.
(12 November)
New study links low fish supply to increased bushmeat hunting
Low fish supply in the West African nation of Ghana, which once had a thriving fishing industry, has led to increased illegal hunting of wild game and the local extinction of several species, according to a new study led by a UC Berkeley researcher. It is the first study to provide empirical evidence of an association long suspected by many conservation groups.
(11 November)
UC Berkeley senior Deana Sobel competes for comic-strip glory
Deana Sobel wants your vote. You've probably seen the UC Berkeley senior's work in the Daily Cal. Her strip "Roomies" appears on Fridays, and she also contributes pithy editorial cartoons. Now, if enough people vote for her in the first-ever "mtvU Strips" contest, Sobel will have a shot at first prize: a development deal with United Media, a major comic syndicate.
(10 November)
Economic growth, deficit disasters, and public floggings
Just two days after the presidential election, Tom Campbell spoke candidly with a gathering of 50 Berkeley alumni about the consequences of that vote, as well as California’s political and economic situation. The keen interest in Campbell’s talk, one of the events in UC Berkeley Extension’s Marin Lecture Series, was heightened by that day’s news that he would be taking a leave from his position as dean of the Haas School of Business to try his hand at fixing California’s budget crisis as state finance director, a job he said he has committed to for the next two budget cycles.
(10 November)
From Kurdistan to Berkeley . . . and back
For Shayee Khanaka, a Doe Library staffer who was born in the oil-rich Kurdish region of Iraq, the sweetest aspects of “home” come hand in hand with harsher remembrances of things past.
(10 November)
Berkeley’s 2004-05 curricular cohort
The stories of just four of this year’s 77 new Berkeley faculty members
(10 November)
Fifty-nine outstanding staff receive their just rewards
Twenty-four individual staff members and three staff teams received Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards at a Nov. 3 ceremony at Alumni House. The annual awards are administered and presented by the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee (CSAC).
(10 November)
Ethnic staff welcome Chancellor Birgeneau
On Wednesday, Nov. 3, more than 150 people gathered in a festively decorated Tang Center room for the first official staff reception for Chancellor Birgeneau, sponsored by the Coalition of Ethnic Staff Organizations.
(10 November)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(10 November)
Awards
Recent faculty and staff awards.
(10 November)
Keck Telescope images of Uranus reveal ring, atmospheric fireworks
Uranus, once thought to be a dull and boring planet, showed some fireworks earlier this year in images taken by the Keck II telescope in Hawaii. The planet's rings also are becoming brighter and more distinct, allowing UC Berkeley and Space Science Institute astronomers to see the innermost ring of the planet that has been seen only once before, by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986.
(10 November)
Point of view: What role does religion play in your life?
These days, tables for student Bible study and campus ministry groups seem as prevalent on UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza as those for political science or environmental clubs. Meanwhile, religion is looming large in public discussions about American values. How religious are Berkeley students? Ten people describe how religion figures into their lives.
(09 November)
$5.6 million grant boosts UC Berkeley diversity program for undergraduate science students
A $5.6 million grant to the Biology Scholars Program at the University of California, Berkeley, will increase the number of UC Berkeley students from underserved communities who are admitted to medical schools and graduate science programs throughout the country.
(09 November)
Donald Noyce, professor emeritus of chemistry, dies at age 81
Donald S. Noyce, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of chemistry and former associate dean of undergraduate affairs in the College of Chemistry, died at his home on Nov. 3 at the age of 81.
(08 November)
New center to research nanostructures, design and build nanodevices
A new nanotechnology research center is starting up at UC Berkeley, where 28 physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers will design and explore the properties of nanotech Tinkertoys, then assemble them into nanomechanical devices so small they could ride on the back of a virus.
(08 November)
Getting positive about depression on campus
Anecdotal reports suggest that at least six Berkeley students committed suicide during the 2002-03 academic year, a rate twice the national average for college-age Americans — which is already at its highest-ever recorded level. Temina Madon, a 27-year-old graduate student in visual neuroscience, is on a crusade to prioritze mental health here: “This campus has a lot of catching up to do,” she insists, if it is to keep pace with other top-tier universities that have made more aggressive efforts to address students’ mental health."
(04 November)
Fighting apartheid Tooth and Nail
Tooth and Nail, an ensemble creation of the racially integrated Junction Avenue Theatre Company, was first performed for a Johannesburg audience in 1989. Next week it sees its U.S. premiere, when the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies brings servant Angelo and mistress Madelaine and other creatures of apartheid to the stage of the Durham Studio Theater.
(04 November)
Bits ’n’ pieces from Election Day
Glimpses of the post-election mood on campus.
(04 November)
On economics and aging
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 16 and 17, Robert Fogel — a distinguished professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a Nobel prize winner — will be at Berkeley to deliver two Hitchcock Lectures on “Changes in the Process of Aging in the Twentieth Century.”
(04 November)
Governor names Tom Campbell, UC Berkeley business school dean, to lead state’s Department of Finance
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today (Thursday, Nov. 4) announced the appointment of Tom Campbell, dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, as the new director of the California Department of Finance.
(04 November)
Fellowships in hand, five postdocs pursue varied research interests
The Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program solicits applications from individuals who are committed to careers in university research and teaching, and whose life experience, research, or employment background will contribute significantly to academic diversity and excellence at the Berkeley campus. Currently, five individuals hold Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowships, with interests ranging from literacy for deaf children to conspiracies in American history.
(04 November)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(04 November)
Awards
Recent faculty and staff awards.
(04 November)
Construction launched for CITRIS building to foster innovative technological research and education
With ceremonial tosses of dirt, UC Berkeley on Friday kicked off construction of the new headquarters building for the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), the campus's newest classroom and research facility.
(03 November)
Five faculty members named AAAS Fellows
Five faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the country's leading scientific society, bringing the total number of AAAS fellows at UC Berkeley to 123.
(02 November)
At Berkeley, pollsters' election-eve handicapping puts Bush and Kerry in dead heat
Despite the ocean of polling data available for political junkies everywhere, the presidential contest tomorrow between President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry is still too close to call with any scientific certainty — even for the pollsters. That was the message delivered in two rapid-fire slide presentations by polling and election experts in a Nov. 1 analysis of the race held at UC Berkeley.
(01 November)
Scramble of senses at heart of UC Berkeley synesthesia conference
Researchers and scientists are gathering Nov. 5-7 at the University of California, Berkeley, for the Fourth Annual National Conference of the American Synesthesia Association. People with synesthesia, which means "joined sensation," perceive the world with a mix-and-match sensory experience that allows them to "feel" the shape of numbers or see color in written letters.
(01 November)
Range of student clubs show off diversity of interests at UC Berkeley
Students aren’t just cloistered in the library or arguing politics at a café once the proverbial school bell rings at the University of California, Berkeley. There are more than 500 student-run organizations on campus, and this fall, in an era of instant communication and extreme sports, a few surprisingly are throwbacks to simpler times.
(01 November)
Out with the BIMA, in with the ATA
UC Berkeley's Hat Creek Observatory in northern California is undergoing a sea change as the nine 6.1-meter radio antennas of the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array (BIMA) are dismantled and trucked south to the Inyo Mountains near Bishop to make way at the observatory for the world's largest radio telescope, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA).
(29 October)
Air Force Two behind him, Al Gore eyes the stratosphere
With the clock running out on the 2004 presidential campaign, Al Gore came to Berkeley on Tuesday with a message that transcended — for the most part — the national obsession with undecided voters in battleground states. Time is running out for the planet, he warned, unless we stop "disgorging this ridiculous amount of pollution into our atmosphere."
(29 October)
Profile of artist Ehren Tool
In a handmade camouflage apron and with a head full of memories from the first Gulf War, University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Ehren Tool creates works of ceramic art that seem both a penance and a plea for understanding the impact of war.
(28 October)
Point of view: What issue in the 2004 presidential election is most important to you?
The Iraq war, homeland security, tax cuts, the job market, stem-cell research — these issues have been front and center during the presidential debates and the stump speeches of both President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. But are they critical to Berkeley students? As it turns out, yes and no.
(28 October)
Collaborating on community
The fifth annual University/Community Partnerships recognition reception was held Monday, Oct. 25, at University House, honoring the achievements of individuals and groups from the Berkeley campus and the community whose joint efforts benefit local residents.
(27 October)
Stellar survivor from 1572 A.D. explosion supports supernova theory
Only a handful of supernovae have been recorded in history, and the bright exploding star of 1572 was one of them. Thanks to detailed records made by contemporaneous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, today's astronomers know it was a Type Ia supernova, and now, after a seven-year effort, they have found the star's probable surviving companion. It looks like an aging version of our own sun.
(27 October)
Lawrence Stark, professor emeritus of physiological optics and engineering, dies at 78
Dr. Lawrence Stark, a professor emeritus of physiological optics and engineering at UC Berkeley, recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the use of control and information theory to characterize neurological systems, died Friday, Oct. 22. Stark died of cancer at his home in Berkeley at the age of 78, four years after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
(27 October)
Berkeley’s cradle of conversation
The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities was established in 1987 “to promote research and ongoing conversation among and within academic disciplines.” While that goal has remained a constant, the means have grown more ambitious over the years. An abundance of grant and fellowship programs, the Avenali and Una endowed lectureships, and a number of print and online publications have made the Townsend Center a kind of intellectual Petri dish for inquiring minds in the arts, letters, and social sciences, as well as a few — thanks to a determinedly expansive view of humanities research — whose careers were hatched in the science lab.
(27 October)
Chancellor Birgeneau brings upbeat message to Academic Senate
In his debut appearance before the Berkeley Division of the UC Academic Senate, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau offered a cautiously optimistic prognosis on future state funding for UC and an emphatic endorsement of the public nature of the university.
(27 October)
Writing again, after many changes
A writer who tackles the big themes — death, love, sex, spirituality — Frank Paino will read at 12:10 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 4, as part of the campus’s popular Lunch Poems series.
(27 October)
Slavery expert to deliver Jefferson Memorial Lecture
On Wednesday, Nov. 3, David Brion Davis — Pulitzer prixe winner and one of the world’s foremost historians of slavery — will present the annual Jefferson Memorial Lecture, titled “Exodus, Black Colonization, and Promised Lands.”
(27 October)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(27 October)
Publication
A collection of recollections about time spent in the Moorish-inspired building at the top of Bancroft Way, Close Encounters of a Cross-Cultural Kind packages short and very short pieces from 40-some I-House alumni into just over 100 pages of photos and text.
(27 October)
UC Berkeley students roll out Halloween fun for local kids
Young giggling goblins and smiling princesses will enjoy a safe and fun Halloween this week at several trick-or-treat bonanzas put on annually by students at the University of California, Berkeley.
(27 October)
From jarhead to bowl maker: Grad student Ehren Tool's art of war
Ehren Tool, a graduate student in art practice, draws on his five years as a U.S. Marine and Gulf War veteran to make ceramic bowls and large-scale installations designed to bring the idea of war closer to home. He has given away more than 4,000 military-themed cups, including 50 to Presidents Clinton and Bush and other world officials.
(27 October)
New analysis links breastfeeding to reduced risk of childhood leukemia
Babies who are breastfed have a lower risk of developing childhood leukemia, according to a new analysis of 14 studies by UC Berkeley researchers to be published November in the journal Public Health Reports. The authors of the paper say breastfeeding may help protect against early infections that can trigger a rare genetic change linked to childhood leukemia.
(26 October)
Total lunar eclipse on Wednesday, Oct. 27 to be visible from North America
UC Berkeley astronomy professor Alex Filippenko writes about a total lunar eclipse that will be visible from North America on Wednesday, October 27, 2004.
(26 October)
Tom Clausen to receive UC Berkeley's Haas School Award
Clausen has been a committed Haas School supporter since 1995, when he and his late wife, Peggy, funded the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy. The Clausen Center provides research, outreach and extra-curricular learning initiatives in international business to the Haas School community.
(25 October)
Regional Oral History Office celebrates 50th
What do biotechnology, Rosie the Riveter and the disability rights movement have in common? The stories of each help comprise the rich collection of the University of California, Berkeley's Regional Oral History Office (ROHO), which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.A symposium tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 23) at UC Berkeley will focus on these ROHO projects, as well as on its African American faculty and senior staff project.
(22 October)
UC Berkeley Chancellor announces community partnership awards
Six community programs that embody the public service spirit and goals of the University of California, Berkeley, will be honored Monday (October 25) by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau in the fifth annual University and Community Partners Recognition reception.
(22 October)
Unauthorized access to UC Berkeley computer raises serious concerns
Law enforcement officials are investigating the unauthorized access of a computer database at UC Berkeley that contained personal information about individuals who provide and receive in-home health care. To date, investigators have not received any information indicating that identity theft or any misuse of the data has occurred.
(20 October)
Whether it’s panthers or pollution, faith-based science isn’t enough
On Tuesday, Oct. 12, Michael Pollan — Berkeley journalism professor and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism — gathered a panel of scientists on the stage of Wheeler Auditorium to, as he put it, “document from firsthand experience the suppression or distortion of science by the [Bush] administration.”
(20 October)
Looking eastward
A new exhibition in Doe Library, “Southeast Asia: Crossroads of Culture, Politics, and Scholarship, 1954-2004,” honors a long, vibrant, and ongoing tradition of scholarship on Southeast Asia at Berkeley.
(20 October)
‘The music is what it is’
20-year veteran of the New York City jazz scene Myra Melford has accepted a half-time assistant professorship at Berkeley “to figure out how to expand the jazz performance possibilities” for Berkeley students.
(20 October)
The ‘Athens of the West’
The newly released sixth edition of the Chronicle of the University of California takes as its theme the history of arts and culture at UC and offers an historical account of artistic and cultural instruction, performance, and scholarship at Berkeley — with articles on, among other subjects, the history of visual arts, exhibition spaces, the annual spring dance concert, the Shakespeare performance program, the Berkeley Art Museum, and the Pacific Film Archive.
(20 October)
You’re either on the bus or off the bus
Campus officials, AC Transit executives, and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates have a message for faculty and staff living in the East Bay: It’s time to get on board for the Bear Pass.
(20 October)
Boalt's Edley, NYT's DeParle lead discussion of next steps for welfare reform
Following President Clinton's welfare reform bill, millions of men and (mostly) women have been purged from the rolls and forced into low-income jobs. Are they — and we, as a society — better off? That was the question debated by New York Times reporter Jason DeParle, author of "American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare"; Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall); and Cheryl Polk, director of the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, in a discussion on Oct. 18.
(19 October)
Landscape architecture class turns campus into art
Thank the Landscape Architecture 101 class for those red balloons dancing along Strawberry Creek and that leafy labyrinth making going through Sather Gate just a little trickier.
(18 October)
For some, the free-speech battle isn’t over yet
The skunk at the garden party of Free Speech Movement nostalgia turned up last Thursday at the spot where it all began, invited by one of the organizers of the weeklong celebration, FSM historian Michael Rossman. Rossman was part of an aggressively alternative quartet whose stage was a chair at the edge of the plaza, just off the Bancroft Way strip where the seeds of rebellion were planted in 1964.
(14 October)
Molly Ivins said that?
“In every political race there comes a time when you just settle down, go the stretch, and work your asses off,” Molly Ivins told a packed house at Zellerbach Hall last Wednesday, Oct. 6. With less than a month left in the 2004 U.S. presidential race, the Southern raconteur was in Berkeley to spur on Democrats and entertain all at the Eighth Annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture.
(14 October)
No. 1 approach fuels No. 8 Bears
Golden Bear faithful remain gleeful at the new promise of the football program. The change in direction has been achieved with the tried-and-true combo of solid coaching, successful recruiting, and hard work, but also with a few not-so-classic gridiron practices employed by Coach Jeff Tedford and his staff: caring, empathy, and a focus on the classroom.
(14 October)
Achievement: It’s not all on the field
“Athletes and Academic Achievement” is a master’s-degree concentration within the Graduate School of Education's Language, Literacy, Society, and Culture area of study, and focuses on the experiences of student athletes and how best to foster their academic success.
(14 October)
Lighting Garbo’s cigarette
In Part II of her extended discussion with the Berkeleyan, Linda Williams, professor of rhetoric and film studies and former director of the campus Program in Film Studies, discusses her long-running interest in cinematic “body genres” — among them horror films, melodramas, and pornography — that aim to move the viewer “in often quite literal ways.” She also explores the distinctive imperatives of gay porn (both male and female), and discusses the many ways in which it can’t be truly said that “a kiss is just a kiss.”
(14 October)
New look at U.S. employment outlook
The economy may be on the mend, but the strongest job growth is in positions paying the least, and long-stagnant wages are slipping, says a report released today (Thursday, Oct. 14) by a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.In "Are Jobs Getting Worse," economist Arindrajit Dube of the Institute of Industrial Relation, found that the growth of jobs paying at the bottom third of the market outpaced those paying at the middle by nearly 2 to 1, while there was a reduction in the number of jobs paying at the top third.
(14 October)
In it for the long haul
Staff members who have marked 10 years of campus employment, and those celebrating anniversaries at each five-year increment beyond that, were honored on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at the university’s fourth annual Service Awards Luncheon.
(14 October)
Gravity’s passé in RSF’s ‘SkyZone’
Earthlings are airborne these days at the Recreational Sports Facility, where SkyZone — a basketball-court-sized trampoline playing surface — has been permanently installed on the second floor and a two-week open house is now in motion.
(14 October)
Obituary
Anne Grodzins Lipow, who worked in the Library for nearly three decades, passed away on Sept. 9 at the Belevedere home she shared with her husband, Stephen Silberstein. Lipow, who had been battling breast cancer, was 69.
(14 October)
New UCB report finds traffic "nightmare" if BART service knocked out
A halting of BART service would trigger a complete traffic gridlock on Bay Area corridors, according to a new, sobering analysis by researchers at UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies. Hard-hit commutes would include the span from Pittsburg to I-80 via Highway 4, which would take 165 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes. Travel times from I-680 to Highway 13, via Highway 24 through the Caldecott Tunnel, would go from 24 minutes to 195 minutes, eight times longer than normal.
(13 October)
Scientists prepare for space probe's plunge into Titan's atmosphere
Early next year, a space probe will enter the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan and begin a scary descent into the unknown. Newly published papers from a November meeting at UC Berkeley paint a sketchy picture of what the probe will encounter as it floats to the surface, but all bets are off about where it will land and how long it will survive.
(13 October)
Can PET scans predict onset of Alzheimer's?
The University of California, Berkeley, is joining a bold initiative to test whether brain imaging can be combined with other biological markers and clinical information to measure the progression of mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease. The $60 million project is funded by the National Institute on Aging.
(13 October)
Anand Patwardhan, the 'Michael Moore of India,' brings his hard-hitting documentary films to campus
Despite nearly constant efforts to censor his work, Anand Patwardhan continues his nearly 30-year career of making hard-hitting and often controversial documentary films. The award-winning filmmaker from India will visit the UC Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (PFA) Oct. 21-24 as part of "Documentary Voices," a project bringing international documentary-makers to the PFA as resident artists.
(13 October)
Options abound at Homecoming
UC Berkeley’s eighth annual weekend-long Homecoming celebration kicks off this Friday, Oct. 15, providing faculty and staff an opportunity to join alumni, students, their families, and the local community to take in all things Cal. While the highlight for some will undoubtedly be the gridiron match-up between Coach Jeff Tedford’s Golden Bears and UCLA’s Bruins, others may seek their excitement in locales other than Memorial Stadium.
(13 October)
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh spills the secrets of the Iraq quagmire and the war on terror
The Iraq war is not winnable, a secret U.S. military unit has been "disappearing" people since December 2001, and America has no idea how irreparably the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has damaged its image in the Middle East. These were just a few of the grim pronouncements made by Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Seymour "Sy" Hersh before a Berkeley audience on Oct. 8.
(11 October)
New study highlights survey vulnerabilities
Researchers, much less the public, find it hard to know what numbers to believe when surveys come up with significantly varying results. A researcher at UC Berkeley highlights this problem in a new study assessing two different survey methods designed to estimate the prevalence of teen smoking in California. The researcher found that two different interview methods yielded significantly different results on teen smoking behavior.
(11 October)
"Give up cynicism": FSM@40 speakers call on today's students to change their world
Free Speech Movement veterans Jackie Goldberg and Bettina Aptheker were joined by Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Chancellor Birgeneau, and student leaders in a two-hour rally that at times matched the passionate rhetoric of the historic days of 1964.
(10 October)
Faculty ‘climate survey’ — the results are in
A study of Berkeley faculty, conducted by the campus Faculty Equity Office, polled tenured and tenure-track faculty about their experience at Berkeley — what they value, how much they feel in sync with others in their unit, what their greatest sources of both satisfaction and frustration are.
(08 October)
Do we need a new president? Yes and no . . .
Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, an early proponent of “regime change” in Iraq and a leading neoconservative thinker and activist, took one for the team at Wheeler Auditorium on Monday, Oct. 4, making the case for George W. Bush despite the knowledge that “I’m not going to convince anybody here” to vote for his re-election in November. For the next 90 minutes, Kristol gamely faced off against Berkeley journalism professor Mark Danner to debate the question, “Does America Need a New President?”
(08 October)
Honoring a public-health legend
The public-health library renaming ceremony in honor of Professor Emeritus Sheldon Margen — the Berkeley icon who entered UCLA at age 15, earned a master’s degree and a medical degree by the time he was 25, started the first computerized clinical laboratory west of the Rockies, and conducted pioneering research in the 1960s and ’70s that became the foundation of the recommended dietary allowances now found on packaged food in every U.S. grocery store — featured the requisite tag-team of speakers, but the emotion palpable in the crowded lobby raised the event above all clichés of the form.
(08 October)
Researching the Free Speech Movement
Enough time has passed to allow for some historical perspective on the Free Speech Movement — though not so much time that there aren’t numerous participants still alert and able to holler “foul!” at any attempt to encapsulate the movement, let alone draw sweeping lessons from it. But that’s what’s been happening all this week, as FSM veterans and other interested parties convene on campus to note the 40th anniversary of the Sproul Hall sit-in and Sproul Plaza police-car blockade that are generally taken as the movement’s starting point. A variety of rallies, meetings, panels, and other commemorative and educational events are taking place, many of them featuring FSM veterans providing their own memories of those historic days, and offering what lessons they have distilled therefrom. In addition, a multitude of FSM-related resources, from the Berkeley campus’s own holdings and elsewhere, are available to anyone with a computer and the requisite curiosity to consult, ponder, and evaluate.
(07 October)
What does the Free Speech Movement mean to you? Is its spirit still alive at Berkeley?
The Free Speech Movement's most visible legacy is not the small plaque in front of Sproul Hall commemorating FSM leader Mario Savio stood, but the tables manned by students offering information on everything from the Socialist Worker newspaper to the Asian Baptist Student Association. Shortly before the 40th anniversary festivities, the NewsCenter asked a few people whether they thought the spirit of the movement was still alive.
(06 October)
Cal alum David Gross (PhD '66) shares Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics went to scientists at UC Santa Barbara, Caltech and MIT today. Among the three Nobelists is David J. Gross who obtained his PhD in physics in 1966 at UC Berkeley.
(05 October)
Cal freshmen star in new campus commercial
While getting their ID cards, class schedules and books to start the fall semester, some lucky UC Berkeley freshmen also got the opportunity to star in a nationally televised commercial.
(05 October)
National magazines laud young UC Berkeley innovators
Five young UC Berkeley researchers got an ego boost this month as several national magazines elevated them to the ranks of the "Brilliant 10," the nation's "Top 100 Innovators" and the "Emerging Explorers."
(05 October)
Free speech, online: The best of the Berkeley blogs
The Free Speech Movement, which celebrates its 40th birthday this week, is alive and well at UC Berkeley. Wondering where all the crowds of opinionated students, faculty, and staff debating ideas are? Try looking for them not on Sproul Plaza, but on the Internet. That's where you'll find hundreds of blogs — the nickname for online journals ("Web logs") — offering everything from articulate left- and right-wing rants about the 2004 election to reviews of local bands, economics primers, and musings on Berkeley's wonders and warts.
(04 October)
Berkeley audience declares Kerry the winner of first debate
Ruefully acknowledging that they wore Berkeley-colored glasses, campus viewers of the debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry agreed that Kerry not only won the debate, but whacked a political home run.
(01 October)
Gates highlights critical role of university research to maintain U.S. leadership in technology
When the world’s richest man gives his thoughts about the future of technology, people – especially engineering students seeking sage advice – listen. Bill Gates' appearance at Berkeley Oct. 1 for a public conversation drew nearly 2,000 people seeking the Microsoft chief's thoughts on where the computer industry is headed.
(01 October)
USDA gives stamp of approval to campus animal care and use program
A surprise September visit by a USDA veterinarian found the campus's animal care and use program in top shape for the fourth year in a row. This is a rare record for a research university that owes much to the structure of UC Berkeley's program.
(01 October)
UC Berkeley peace and well-being center launches new "Greater Good" magazine
"Greater Good," a new magazine has been launched by the Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being at the University of California, Berkeley.The magazine provides a forum for academic research that investigates the roots of positive emotions and peaceful relationships, as opposed to research that focuses on pathology and aberrant behavior.
(30 September)
Bringing sociology home
A group of Berkeley grad students who align themselves with the intellectual trend within their discipline known familiarly as “public sociology” set out to study the situation of the lowest-paid employees on the Berkeley campus. Earlier this month they released their findings in a 34-page study titled “Berkeley’s Betrayal: Wages and Working Conditions at Cal.”
(30 September)
On/scenity: She knows it when she sees it
Linda Williams, professor of rhetoric and film studies and director of Berkeley’s Program in Film Studies, spoke with the Berkeleyan about the changing field of pornography studies. Part II of her extended discussion with Berkeleyan writer Wendy Edelstein will appear in next week’s issue.
(30 September)
A magazine about goodness and compassion
A new magazine called Greater Good has set out to provide a forum for academic research into the roots of positive emotions and peaceful relationships.
(30 September)
Climate change plus human pressure caused large mammal extinctions in late Pleistocene
Humans have been blamed for the extinction of two-thirds of all the planet's large mammals between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, but a new study shows that climate change played a key role too. According to Anthony Barnosky of UC Berkeley and colleagues, though the story varies from continent to continent, climate change and humans were the one-two punch that did in mammoths, giant ground sloths and other megafauna. Similar pressures threaten large mammals today.
(30 September)
At IGS, friendly fire over Iraq, national-security issues
A discussion on terrorism and national security featuring Berkeley’s favorite conservative target — Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo, who authored a now-notorious memo on the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees while working for the Bush Justice Department —– might be expected to yield some fireworks. But anyone who ventured to Moses Hall last Wednesday in search of a heated debate found something more like heat-related program activities.
(30 September)
The Free Speech Movement at 40
Between Oct. 4 and 10, a commemoration of the FSM will occur on and near the Berkeley campus. Organized by FSM veterans in collaboration with the ASUC, “FSM@40: Free Speech in a Dangerous Time” will honor the movement and its legacy with film showings, panel discussions, rallies, and performances.
(30 September)
Like water for chocalatyl
Through October, Botanical Garden visitors can see — and taste — traditional preparations of potatoes, acorns, soap root, and other foods of the Americas.
(30 September)
UCTV’s October schedule features programs of interest to voters
UCTV — the University of California’s broadcast and on-demand video outlet — will present a raft of politically focused programming in October as the nation counts down the days until the Nov. 2 presidential election.
(30 September)
Awards
Recent faculty and staff awards.
(30 September)
Landmark agreement between Samoa and UC Berkeley could help search for AIDS cure
Many of our best drugs were derived from traditional remedies, but nearly all pharmaceutical companies have abandoned programs to search for drugs in indigenous areas. That may change as a result of a new agreement between UC Berkeley and the government of Samoa, which recognizes the right of the Samoan people to the genetic dowry of their native plants. In return for letting chemical engineer Jay Keasling locate and clone from a local tree the gene for a promising AIDS drug, UC Berkeley has agreed to share any royalties from the gene-derived drug with the people of Samoa.
(29 September)
Cancer vaccine based on pathogenic listeria bacteria shows promise targeting metastases
Based on the work of microbiologist Dan Portnoy, a local biotech firm has developed a promising cancer vaccine using disabled listeria bacteria. Listeria are known primarily as food contaminants that can prove fatal to children and the aged, but Portnoy and Cerus Corp. scientists removed two genes that reduced its toxicity a thousand-fold. In mice the vaccine prevented the establishment of new cancers in the lung.
(29 September)
Town Hall meeting to look at No Child Left Behind
The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation will be the focus of a town hall meeting to be hosted by the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Education on Wednesday, Oct. 6.The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss with a panel of speakers how the law is affecting families, teachers, and administrators in the Bay Area.
(28 September)
Sproul Plaza webcam adds new dimension to free speech
A new, state-of-the-art robotic webcam is being unveiled at Sproul Plaza, the heart of activity on the UC Berkeley campus, as the University prepares to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement.
(28 September)
History professor Maria Mavroudi receives MacArthur fellowship
Maria Mavroudi, a University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor of history and an expert on Greek and Arabic cultural interaction in the Middle Ages, has been awarded a MacArthur "genius" fellowship. Mavroudi is among 23 recipients across the country receiving the prestigious award, which provides fellows with $500,000 over a five-year period.
(28 September)
Researchers use semiconductors to set speed limit on light
In a nod to scientific paradox, researchers at UC Berkeley have slowed light down in an effort to speed up network communication. They have shown for the first time that the group velocity of light can be slowed to about 6 miles per second in semiconductors. The achievement, researchers say, marks a major milestone on the road to ever faster optical networks and higher performance communications.
(28 September)
(
UCB center wins funding to develop wireless lighting controls
Building science researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have received a grant from the California Energy Commission to develop a flexible, low-cost lighting control system that could provide commercial building owners with significant energy savings and more satisfied tenants. The research team, based at the campus's Center for the Built Environment (CBE), will construct the system using miniature, low-power radio technology being developed at UC Berkeley.
(24 September)
‘Hot button’ issues dominate Birgeneau’s first Cabinet meeting
The first Cabinet meeting of Robert Birgeneau’s chancellorship convened on Tuesday, Sept. 21 and focused on ways to maintain Berkeley’s character and preeminence in the midst of unprecedented challenges.
(23 September)
UC Berkeley researchers identify chlorophyll-regulating gene
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a critical gene for plants that start their lives as seeds buried in soil. They say the burial of seeds was an adaptation that likely helped plants spread from humid, wet climates to drier, hostile environments. In a study published in the Sept. 24 issue of the journal Science, the researchers found that a gene called phytochrome-interacting factor 1, or PIF1, affects the production of protochlorophyll, a precursor of the chlorophyll used by plants to convert the sun's energy into food during photosynthesis.
(23 September)
Modern slavery thriving in the U.S.
A new report on forced labor in the United States reveals in disturbing detail how individuals in communities across the country are forced through threats or violence to work in deplorable conditions for little or no pay.The report, "Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States," describes for the first time the nature and scope of modern-day slavery in America.
(23 September)
Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to George Lakoff's analyses of Republican convention speeches.
(22 September)
Camejo: America can do better than ‘anybody but Bush’
Ralph Nader’s 2004 running mate, Peter Camejo, appeared before several hundred people — many contemplating their first votes in a presidential election — at North Gate Hall Thursday.
(22 September)
Who are empty-nesters gonna call?
Cal Parents is the one-stop campus resource for concerned moms and dads.
(22 September)
A poser to ponder: When is a padlock not a padlock?
Campus e-mail users are advised to be on the lookout for fraudulent e-mails asking them to enter financial data or personal information into a web page.
(22 September)
Obituary
Cal water-polo coach and legend Pete Cutino has died at the age of 71.
(22 September)
Birgeneau's on the job
Robert J. Birgeneau addresses faculty and staff as he takes over as the ninth chancellor of UC Berkeley.
(22 September)
UC Berkeley professors join Nobel laureate to launch online "Economists' Voice"
The first issue of "The Economists' Voice," a new journal featuring analysis and opinion by leading economists about key national and international policy issues, is being launched today (Wednesday, Sept. 22) by two University of California, Berkeley, economists and Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate from Columbia University.In its premiere edition, the journal tackles such topics as the fair use of intellectual property, political party flip-flops on federal deficits, the mysteries of international capital flow, and evaluation of former U.S. President Clinton's claim that he put police on the streets and took guns off while President Bush has done the opposite.
(22 September)
Thousands of invasive trees cleared in UC Berkeley fire project
At a time when the traditional fire season is in full swing, the University of California, Berkeley, is wrapping up a fire prevention project this month that will remove almost 6,000 eucalyptus trees from the hills surrounding the campus.The $100,000 Claremont Canyon Phase 4 project, done in collaboration with PG&E and the Claremont Canyon Conservancy, a local homeowners group, is one part of a 10-year plan to ultimately remove more than 25,000 eucalyptus trees from UC Berkeley property.
(21 September)
"California at 50 Million," a new series to explore impacts of state's expanding population
"California at 50 Million," a new University of California, Berkeley, speaker series starting Tuesday, Sept. 28, will explore the demographic, economic and environmental impacts of a state population projected to hit 50 million within the next 20 to 25 years.High-profile leaders from the public and private sectors will meet Tuesdays to explore such issues as California's finances, future needs in terms of roads, education, water and social services, as well as housing and technology for the state's 16 million new residents and 8 million new households.
(21 September)
Moore Foundation awards $2.38 million for supernova research
Astronomers tracking down the "dark energy" that appears to fuel the continued expansion of the universe have gotten a major boost — $2.38 million in funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to help analyze data on the exploding stars used by astronomers to gauge the rate of expansion.
(21 September)
William C. Reeves, professor emeritus and giant in arbovirology, dies at 87
William C. Reeves, professor and dean emeritus, who was widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on the spread and control of mosquito-borne diseases, including West Nile virus, has died. He was 87.
(20 September)
Expanded captioning services available for UC Berkeley students
Expanded captioning services are available this fall for hearing-impaired students at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to providing live remote real-time captioning services for five fall courses, UC Berkeley also has captioning available for webcasts and videotapes. The services are meant to provide easier, faster classroom and educational materials for hearing-impaired students
(20 September)
Chancellor Berdahl condemns apparent hate crime
In an open letter to the Berkeley campus community, Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl condemns an incident, being investigated as a hate crime, in which eight female Muslim UC Berkeley students were subjected to verbal abuse and had water bottles thrown at them.
(17 September)
Haas School professor awarded prestigious German economic prize
Oliver Williamson, an emeritus professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Department of Economics, is the 2004 recipient of the H.C. Recktenwald Prize in Economics for his contributions to the development of transaction cost theory and institutional economics.
(17 September)
Honoring those we've lost
On Tuesday, Sept. 21, the Berkeley campus community will pause to honor more than 60 of its own who have died over the past year. The memorial will include remarks from Robert Berdahl, in what will be his last official event as chancellor.
(16 September)
At home among the rushes and roses
For Barbara Errter, curator of Western North American flora at Berkeley’s University and Jepson Herbaria, matters botanical have crept into every corner of her life.
(16 September)
Pols, polls, and Yoo, too
Hosted by the Institute of Governmental Studies’ Center on Politics, “Decision 2004” runs through Election Day and features faculty experts and political analysts of diverse stripes and temperaments.
(16 September)
Empedocles, Plato, et al. offer insight into a question of moment
Beginning next week, the classics department will offer a series of Sather Lectures by visiting scholar David Sedley of Cambridge University.
(16 September)
New AD Sandy Barbour 'thrilled' by chance to lead Cal sports
Saying she'd "spent 23 years preparing for this opportunity," Anne "Sandy" Barbour met the press, the public, and the UC Berkeley community Wednesday in her new role as UC Berkeley's athletic director.
(16 September)
Center for New Media boots up
Scholars from a wide range of disciplines are joining forces through the Center for New Media to try to understand better the implications of the revolution based on 0s and 1s.
(16 September)
Hint: only one swings from a lanyard
Differentiating among the various Cal IDs.
(16 September)
Fitness is just steps away
In an effort to help campus workers fit 30 minutes of activity into their day (and to inspire those seeking more strength or flexibility) Kristl Buluran, a health educator with Health*Matters, will be teaching a fitness class called “Step It Up.”
(16 September)
Uranium/lead dating provides most accurate date yet for Earth's largest extinction
Some 250 million years ago, catastrophe struck the Earth, killing off most marine life, including the trilobites loved today by fossil collectors. A new study shows that, done properly, uranium/lead dating provides the most accurate age for this event, and places it at the same time as a massive series of volcanic eruptions that probably lead to the massive die-off.
(16 September)
News Briefs: 2020 LRDP presentation postponed, CDOP funding extended to CUE workers, and more...
Campus postpones presentation of 2020 LRDP to Regents; Agreement extends CDOP funding to CUE workers; UC Botanical Garden fall plant sale; Nominations open for Haas Public Service Award; Graduate Division lectures set; For the record . . .
(16 September)
Awards: Five UC researchers win president's 'early career award', and more...
Five UC researchers win president’s ‘early career award’; Alex Filippenko; Garrison Sposito; Cindy Cox.
(16 September)
Cockroach-like robot leads new research effort
RHex, a robot that scampers like a cockroach, is the center of a new effort to understand how animals move without falling over. With a new $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, UC Berkeley's Robert Full will lead a team of engineers, mathematicians and biologists to find out how muscles, nerves and skeleton work together to keep us on our feet.
(16 September)
Body art: Are tattoos and piercings in or out? Are you pro or con?
Has body art become just another fashion accessory? And if so, is it waning in popularity? We asked 10 Berkeley students and staff what they thought.
(16 September)
UC Berkeley announces new athletic director, Notre Dame's Sandy Barbour
At a UC Berkeley press conference today, Anne "Sandy" Barbour, deputy director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame, was named the campus's new athletic director.
(15 September)
Clutch piracy revealed as novel mating strategy in European common frog
The European common frog has been studied for centuries, since Linnaeus first classified it in the 18th century. Yet no one had noticed an intriguing mating behavior never before seen in an amphibian that fertilizes its eggs externally. Spanish researcher David Vieites has found that, because of an overabundance of males, male frogs often pirate an egg clutch after it's laid and fertilize it again. As many as four males can fertilize a single clutch.
(15 September)
Climate prediction goes BOINC
Distributed computing projects like SETI@home, which harasses the power of the world's idle computers to search for radio signals from intelligent civilizations among the stars, have been wildly successful. As they've proliferated, though, computer users have had to chose which to support. A new computer platform called BOINC allows users to sign onto as many as they want, including, now, climateprediction.net.
(15 September)
Student filmmaker Jigar Mehta documents slavery's persistence in West Africa
This summer, UC Berkeley journalism student Jigar Mehta snuck across West African borders on an unusual assignment: to find and talk to Moorish people who had been enslaved in Mauritania. Traveling on a tourist visa, with video and sound equipment in tow, Mehta and a translator spent five weeks documenting oral histories.
(13 September)
Genetic analysis rewrites salamander family tree
Over the last three years, integrative biology graduate student Rachel Mueller has assembled a set of mitochondrial genomes to investigate the evolutionary origin of the largest group of salamanders, the lungless salamanders. Little did she know that the analysis would lead to a complete restructuring of the salamanders' family tree.
(10 September)
Mission to Cameroon: Developing markets for indigenous forest products
This summer, four graduate students at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business headed to Africa ... to take a look at the kola nut business. These were not would-be plantation owners. Rather, the students went to Africa to develop a business plan for local farmers to sell indigenous forest products and, in turn, to slow the slash-and-burn deforestation common throughout the tropical forests of the world.
(10 September)
Stint in Brazil results in progress against a public health threat and heartbreak at a shantytown school
Graduate student Krisztina Szabo went to Brazil to perform research on Leptospirosis,
a disease that poses a particular threat to the lives of people living in the
slums there. While in Brazil, she took on the cause of rebuilding a collapsed
school
house.
(10 September)
Berkeley students venture into Brazilian slums for United Nations study on the digital divide
Four Berkeley PhD students visited Brazil this summer to research whether computing centers that have been opened in very poor neighborhoods have had any success in overcoming the digital divide.
(10 September)
UC Berkeley student selected for new "green" intern program
Judi Quach, currently a resident assistant in one of UC Berkeley's residence halls is picked to be UC Berkeley's first "green intern," working to educate and advise students on how they can conserve energy.She's one of six California college students taking part in a pilot project funded by the ratepayers of California under the auspices of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
(09 September)
White House honors five UC Berkeley researchers for early career achievements
Five researchers from UC Berkeley will receive the nation's highest award for scientists at the early stages of their careers at a White House ceremony Thursday, Sept. 9. The honorees are among 57 scientists from around the country to receive the prestigious award, first initiated in 1996. More of the awardees are from UC Berkeley than from any other institution in the country.
(09 September)
'Who's
going to believe us?' Richard Clarke faults Bush team's post-9/11 policies
In a Zellerbach Hall appearance, Richard Clarke, former anti-terrorism czar, warned that instead of improving intelligence and boosting security, the Bush administration has waged a misguided war, leaving the nation vulnerable to new domestic attacks and hindering anti-terrorism efforts abroad.
(08 September)
UC Berkeley study finds little union impact on company survival, wages
Despite popular claims to the contrary, labor unions in recent years have had little impact on either company survival or average wages in private sector manufacturing, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.
(08 September)
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Eat, drink, and be civil as Ombuds Office turns 20
Conflict resolution will give way to celebration at Fox Cottage on Thursday, Sept. 23, when the Staff Ombuds Office holds a daylong open house to mark 20 years of peacekeeping efforts on behalf of the Berkeley campus community.
(08 September)
Cal Band launches competition for lyrics to new fight song
The Cal Band, evidently. The rollicking, high-energy marching band is launching a competition to come up with words to the latest Cal song, "California Triumph."
(08 September)
An eBay item in the making
Fall 2004 marks the last semester that course information will be distributed in printed form. Henceforth the class schedule will be found online at schedule.berkeley.edu.
(08 September)
Campus thermometer exchange begins Sept. 20
The Berkeley campus, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and the City of Berkeley are inviting members of the community to exchange their mercury thermometers for a free digital replacement.
(08 September)
E.T., your book has come in
The Interlibrary Borrowing Service's "alien tableaux," an ever-changing exhibit of costumed inflatable extraterrestrials.
(08 September)
Breaking down the language of President Bush's acceptance speech at the GOP convention
Linguistics professor George Lakoff examines President George Bush's acceptance speech at the Republican convention.
(03 September)
Books in chains (and we don’t mean Borders)
Staff reductions lead directly to a growing backlog of library materials held in inaccessible basement rooms and on movable shelving secured shut by bicycle locks.
(02 September)
Novartis agreement became ‘lightning rod’ for debate
An external review of the much-debated $25-million research-support contract between UC Berkeley and agricultural biotechnology company Syngenta, formerly Novartis, finds that the worst fears — and the best hopes — surrounding the agreement failed to materialize.
(02 September)
Wednesday, September 1: Red-meat night frames Kerry
Linguistics professor George Lakoff explains the difference between "framing," choosing language to present your worldview, and distortion, twisting the facts to create a false impression. Th elatter is what Senator Zell Miller and Vice President Dick Cheney did to candidate John Kerry on Night 3 of the Republican Convention.
(02 September)
Brightest supernova in a decade captured by Hubble Space Telescope
Japanese amateur astronomer discovered the brightest supernova in a decade on
July 31, and within two weeks Alex Filippenko had slewed the Hubble Space Telescope
around to take a beautiful picture of it. The exploding star was probably some
15 times larger than our sun and a mere 14 million years old when it blew up
11 million years ago.
(02 September)
Celebrating Sagehen
Berkeley’s Sagehen Creek Field Station held its 50th-anniversary reunion last week.
(02 September)
Cal athletes set off medal detectors
The 2004 Summer Olympics concluded this past Sunday, August 29. Sports enthusiasts
in the campus community can take pride in the achievements of its athletes and
alums who won a total of 17 medals.
(02 September)
A cohort to envy
The newest crop of Berkeley faculty got a whiff last week of what one campus
veteran called “the Berkeley tradition of growing our own,” as a
parade of experienced Cal hands welcomed them to the quirky land of blue and
gold.
(01 September)
A mutually beneficial partnership
This summer 21 young people from the city of Berkeley worked on campus as administrative
assistants, youth evaluators, landscape gardeners, maintenance/custodial workers,
and animal technicians. They were all participants in the YouthWorks Program,
a long-running collaboration between UC Berkeley and the city (and a recent recipient
of the Chancellor’s University-Community Partnership Award).
(01 September)
Awards: APHA, Faculty Research Fund, and more
School of Public Health faculty to be honored by APHA; Four bioscientists win
Faculty Research Fund awards; Six faculty to receive American Chemical Society
awards; Andrew Janos; Archivists honor the Bancroft.
(01 September)
Obituary: William Olson
Dr. William (Bill) Olson, DPM, a volunteer for the Cal Sports Medicine Program,
died at home in Lafayette on August 24, 2004, after a two-year battle with esophageal
cancer. Since 1990, he had volunteered with the University of California Sports
Medicine Staff and worked with intercollegiate athletes. He also helped with
pre-participation physicals as a podiatry consultant.
(01 September)
Natalie Coughlin, five Olympic medals in hand, returns and learns to swim in the spotlight
The toughest opponent for a great athlete can be public expectations. An athlete can be deified one moment and vilified the next. Following incredible performances at the Athens Olympics, Natalie Coughlin made a triumphant return to Cal.
(01 September)
Tuesday, August 31: Pull yourself up by your bootstraps — if you can afford the boots
UC Berkeley linguistics prof. George Lakoff is filing daily dispatches analyzing the language of the Republican National Convention. This piece, on Tuesday' s speakers Arnold Schwarzenegger and Laura Bush, discusses how their presentation of "compassionate conservative" values align with the "strict father" model of government.
(01 September)
All terror, all the time: Nailing the frames of the Republican National Convention
George Lakoff, professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley, is filing daily dispatches analyzing the language used in the major speeches of the Republican National Convention. In this first piece, he deconstructs John McCain's and Rudy Giuliani's use of the September 11 attacks to justify the "global war on terror."
(31 August)
Astronomers searching for distant Earths find two Neptunes
Astronomers pushing the limits of observation have found the smallest planets yet discovered, two Neptune-size balls whipping around their stars in just a few days. These planets circling nearby stars are probably scorching on the daylight side, but may have solid surfaces and moderate temperatures in the twilight zone dividing day from night.
(31 August)
Stellar lineup of speakers and events coming to campus this fall
A smorgasbord of speakers and cultural events offers something for everyone this
fall. Richard Clarke, Molly Ivins, Seymour Hersh, Sebastião
Salgado, David Sedaris, Billy Collins, Yo-Yo Ma re among the highlights.
(30 August)
New Chancellor Birgeneau arriving at Berkeley in mid-September
UC Berkeley Chancellor-designate Robert Birgeneau is now scheduled to assume the chancellorship from Robert Berdahl on Sept. 22, and will arrive on campus Sept. 13 to begin getting acquainted and start attending key meetings.
(30 August)
If I'd known then what I know now: Lessons from the Class of 2004
The Class of 2004 departed Berkeley with more than just their diplomas — in their four (or more) years here they learned a few important things about how to navigate a large, competitive institution. Back in May, the NewsCenter asked a random group of grads to share some of their hard-won lessons with new Berkeley students.
(25 August)