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Donald Kaplan, expert on plant shapes and forms, dies at 69
Donald Robert Kaplan, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of plant biology and an influential expert on the development of the diverse forms and shapes of plants, has died at the age of 69. Fellow botanists credit Kaplan's detailed studies and analyses of leaf development for setting the standard in the field of plant morphology.
(21 December)
Neil Henry to lead journalism school
Neil Henry, a longtime Washington Post reporter and Newsweek staff writer who joined the Graduate School of Journalism faculty in 1993, has been appointed to serve as dean of journalism, pending approval by UC President Robert Dynes and the Board of Regents.
(19 December)
Forum begins sustained conversation about ways to foster female staff's success at UC
During a recent lunch hour, female campus staffers filled Sibley Hall to chew on a meaty topic — obstacles to women's advancement at UC Berkeley. UCOP leaders facilitated the Dec. 7 forum as part of the Creating Change Initiative, a systemwide effort to develop a strategy to address the advancement of women at UC.
(19 December)
Economist examines costs of extreme cold weather
Fatalities in the continental United States tend to climb for several weeks after severe cold spells, ultimately numbering 360 per chilly day and 14,380 per year, according to a new study co-authored by a University of California, Berkeley, economist.Deaths linked to extreme cold account for 0.8 percent of the nation's annual death rate and outnumber those attributed to leukemia, murder and chronic liver disease combined, the study reports. Cold-related deaths also reduce the average life expectancy of Americans by at least a decade, it says.
(19 December)
New biochip could replace animal testing
The drug industry, the cosmetic industry and the chemical industry in general generate scads of new products each year, and each must be tested for human toxicity. Since animal testing of some products, like cosmetics, will soon be banned, a rapid and inexpensive way to test new chemicals for toxicity is needed. Enter the DataChip and MetaChip, two quarter-sized biochips developed by chemical engineers at UC Berkeley and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
(18 December)
Andrew Imbrie, music professor and renowned composer, dies at age 86
Andrew Walsh Imbrie, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of music and a renowned composer, died Wednesday, Dec. 5, at his Berkeley home following a long illness. He was 86.
(14 December)
Cal Teach celebrates $2.4 million grant to foster science and math teaching
Officials and students gathered at UC Berkeley Dec. 11 to celebrate a $2.4 million grant from the National Science & Math Initiative to the Cal Teach program, which promotes science and math teaching among Berkeley's science, math and engineering undergraduates.
(14 December)
UC Berkeley research is part of Discover magazine's Top 100 Science Stories of 2007
Two UC Berkeley research discoveries – one on a hyperlens with a unique way of altering light and the other on the body positioning of dinosaurs in the throes of death – were honored as two of this year's top 100 science stories by Discover Magazine.
(14 December)
Stem cell grant will spur research on rejuvenating muscle
Irina Conboy, a young assistant professor who hopes embryonic stem cells can rejuvenate aging muscles, is the recipient of a $2.25 million research grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
(14 December)
Scholars say Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" still rings true
Charles Dickens' Victorian morality tale, "A Christmas Carol," remains a strong influence on contemporary appreciation of the holiday season and, thanks to its many incarnations, has become "one of those stories you know before you remember reading it," says a University of California, Berkeley, English professor.
(13 December)
Journalism professor nominated for three Writers Guild awards
Lowell Bergman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, a producer/correspondent for the Public Broadcasting System's documentary series "Frontline," and a New York Times investigative reporter, has been nominated for three Writers Guild of America Awards.
(13 December)
Moss genome tells of origin of land plants
Sequencing of the genome of a dainty green moss is telling scientists how aquatic plants learned to survive on land.
(13 December)
Ugandans want peace more than revenge against warlords
War-fatigued Ugandans would rather live in peace than retaliate against leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that forcibly conscripted tens of thousands of women and children, according to a survey released this week by UC Berkeley, Tulane University and the International Center for Transitional Justice. The survey found, however, that many Ugandans still want the warlords held accountable for atrocities.
(13 December)
Judge delays ruling on student-athlete center suit
A ruling may not be issued until February on the three consolidated lawsuits over planned construction of UC Berkeley’s new student-athlete center, to be situated west of California Memorial Stadium. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller announced the delay late Monday; she had been expected to rule no later than January 11.
(12 December)
THEMIS probes view auroral substorms, bowshock explosions
As the five THEMIS probes approach an optimal lineup for studying magnetic substorms that tickle the Northern Lights, they already have revealed new information about how solar energy leaks into the Earth's magnetosphere and about explosions generated at the magnetosphere's bowshock.
(11 December)
Early warning system predicted shaking from Oct. 30 quake
An earthquake early warning system now being testing throughout the state correctly predicted ground shaking in San Francisco from October's 5.4 magnitude Alum Rock quake a few seconds before the ground started moving.
(10 December)
Taking a bullet for research
Geographer Michael Watts, an expert in "the oil complex" and its devastating impacts in the Niger Delta, learned a painful lesson on his most recent trip to the region: Things are even worse than he knew.
(06 December)
The most wonderful time of the year?
Is it drummer-boy time again? A trio of wise Haas School scholars weighs in on the commercial side of the holidays.
(06 December)
$5.2 million grant from Moore Foundation funds ambitious project to barcode an entire ecosystem
UC Berkeley researchers are leading an ambitious, first-of-its-kind effort to inventory all non-microbial life on the South Pacific island of Moorea. Supported by a new three-year, $5.2 million grant from the Moore Foundation, the Moorea Biocode Project will turn the island into a model ecosystem that promises to provide insight into the effects of climate change, invasive species, habitat destruction and other global challenges.
(06 December)
Recruitment effort is launched for three dean positions
The office of the vice provost for academic affairs and faculty welfare invites nominations and applications for three decanal positions currently open at Berkeley: dean of University Extension; dean of the College of Chemistry; and dean of the Division of Biological Sciences in the College of Letters and Science.
(06 December)
Laurels
Honors, awards, and other faculty and staff achievements of note.
(06 December)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(06 December)
VèVè Clark, cosmopolitan African diaspora scholar, dies at 62
VèVè Amasasa Clark, an associate professor of African American studies at UC Berkeley, and a literary scholar who coined the term "diaspora literacy," died Dec. 1 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley after being found at home in a coma. She was 62.
(06 December)
Tetlock wins "Ideas for Improving World Order" award
Philip Tetlock, a professor of organizational behavior at the Haas School of Business, has earned the 2008 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for ideas he set forth in a 2005 book that concluded political experts should be held accountable for their predictions.
(05 December)
"Big Box Living Wage Ordinance" would benefit low-wage Wal-Mart workers, minimally impact shoppers, says new study
Wal-Mart could increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour and greatly boost the well-being of its low-income workers with little financial impact on most shoppers, says a study released today by the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education.
(05 December)
East Bay announces its 'green corridor' ambitions
At Richmond's industrial waterfront, leaders of UC Berkeley, four East Bay cities, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab pledged to join forces to make their region a leader in green research and industry.
(04 December)
Nobelist Smoot launches new cosmology center
George Smoot, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, has put $500,000 of his prize money with $7.6 million in other gifts and support to jump-start a new cosmology center at UC Berkeley to explore cosmic questions of dark energy and dark matter.
(04 December)
Fall 2007 student enrollment data released
More than 34,900 students, including 9,000 new freshman, transfer and graduate students, are currently enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, according to final enrollment data released by campus officials today (Monday, Dec. 3).
(03 December)
Paleontologist Joseph Gregory has died at 93
Joseph T. Gregory, a professor emeritus of paleontology at UC Berkeley who was well known for his studies of fossil amphibians and reptiles as well as for his contributions to the history of vertebrate paleontology, died Nov. 18 in Houston, Texas, at age 93.
(29 November)
Ralph Rader, English professor and theorist on the novel, dies at age 77
Ralph W. Rader, a professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and a major theorist on the novel as a genre, died of heart failure on Nov.23 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. He was 77.He is recognized for his essays on James Boswell's "Life of Johnson" and James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist" and "Ulysses," as well as for a series of essays in which he developed an original and influential interpretation of the emergence and development of the English novel as a form.
(28 November)
Black, white, and shades of green
Exploring issues of race, land, and identity, geographer Carolyn Finney finds a place for herself in academia.
(28 November)
Might as well face it — we’re addicted to oil
The first step in cleaning up the environment is plugging in our cars, says Clintonista-turned-Brookings-scholar David Sandalow.
(28 November)
Lost 16th-century mass discovered by Berkeley music scholar
More than 400 years after Italian composer Alessandro Striggio wrote his extravagant 40-part Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno, it has been rediscovered by Berkeley music scholar Davitt Moroney, who identified the work and rescued it from obscurity.
(28 November)
A passion for pachyderms
Tang Center nurse Julie Barnett is on a crusade to save Asian elephants, a cause she came to several years ago after visiting a sanctuary for the abused mammals in northern Thailand.
(28 November)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(28 November)
Global warming sends salamanders packing
During two past episodes of global warming, salamanders moved back and forth between North America and Asia as they sought cooler climes. This long march for such a slow-moving creature has been reconstructed by UC Berkeley biologists from genetic and climatic data.
(27 November)
Fin whales' big gulp
When it comes to big gulps, baleen whales take the prize. Scientists have measured the volume of water engulfed when fin whales lunge after prey, and calculate it to be about the size of a bus.
(27 November)
New technique captures chemical reactions in a single living cell for the first time
A team of UC Berkeley bioengineers have developed a technique that for the first time enables the detection of chemical signals from biomolecules in a single living cell with unprecedented resolution. By coupling metallic nanoparticles with biomolecules, researchers can obtain information critical to cell-based drug discovery, early disease detection and biomedical diagnostics.
(19 November)
Digital project to boost Irish studies with "virtual Ireland" Web site
digital collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, and the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, aims to better connect Irish studies materials and to make them easily accessible 24/7 from anywhere with a quick click of the computer mouse.
(15 November)
Robert Hass wins 2007 National Book Award for his latest poetry
Robert Hass, a UC Berkeley professor of English and former U.S. poet laureate, is the 2007 winner of the National Book Award in poetry, for "Time and Materials." The prize was announced Nov. 14 in New York City.
(15 November)
It’s no page-turner, but . . .
The Disabled Students' Program's Assistive Technology Center matches students who are blind, visually impaired, physically limited, or learning-disabled with the software and hardware they need to make their careers at Berkeley less fraught and more successful.
(14 November)
No Republican debate at UC Berkeley
Fox News Network officials have informed UC Berkeley that changes to the U.S. Presidential primary and caucus schedule have forced the network to abandon plans for a possible Republican candidates' debate on campus this semester.
(14 November)
From their table to yours
Thanksgiving brings familiar fare, a menu of standards any American can name — turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. Thankfully, every family puts its own stamp on the meal: Some faithfully recreate a dish that’s been passed down the bloodline; others introduce new dishes into the mix, establishing traditions of their own. The Berkeleyan asked a number of people on campus to reminisce about their family’s trademark Turkey Day dishes. Along with their memories, several participants shared their recipes — some of which, perhaps, will become staples on your Thanksgiving sideboard.
(14 November)
Energy Biosciences Institute contract signed
With a final signature today (Nov. 14) from BP president Bob Malone, the Energy Biosciences Institute has become reality. The EBI partners - BP, the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - embark on a critical mission to explore the potential of biofuels to help forestall the effects of global warming.
(14 November)
Inside Innovation conference to showcase faculty research
UC Berkeley's business faculty will share their latest research, opinions and insights on driving innovation in business at the inaugural Inside Innovation 2007 conference on Saturday (Nov. 17) at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.The all-day conference celebrates the 50th anniversary of California Management Review, the Haas School's peer-reviewed, practitioner-oriented journal. The publication's special anniversary issue on "Leading through Innovation" focuses entirely on Haas School faculty research that explores innovation in business.
(13 November)
Chocolate drinks - probably fermented ones - popular long before previously thought, says anthropologist
Mesoamerican menus featured cacao beverages - probably fermented ones - at least as early as 1100 B.C., some 500 years earlier than previously documented anywhere, according to new research published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(13 November)
Avoid raising ungrateful kids
Reams of academic research abound across the country on how to raise happy children, but who has the time to read this myriad of findings, boil down the facts, and then turn them into practical parenting advice? UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center is taking on the job with its new Web site on how to foster joy and avoid brattish behavior in children.
(13 November)
At Academic Senate meeting, salary increases take center stage
UC Berkeley faculty will receive a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase and a market adjustment to the salary scales, to bring them closer to market rates.
(13 November)
Donald Kennedy on the control of scientific knowledge
In the first of three Clark Kerr Lectures, the editor-in-chief of Science,
former head of Stanford University, and FDA commissioner for President
Jimmy Carter traces the current state of university science to a Bush in
FDR’s White House.
(08 November)
Robert Hass: Eight years of activism, writing, and reflection
A finalist for poetry in next week's National Book Awards, Professor of English Robert Hass, in this issue's Q&A, ruminates on all manner of things. (Our favorite exchange involves snow, covered bridges, and Dick and Jane.) Two of his poems are also featured: "Ezra Pound's Proposition" and a contemporary ode in the manner of Horace that's 100 percent Hass.
(08 November)
Sun struck
Student concern about global warming is fueling broad research interest in harnessing 'the warm power of the sun.'
(08 November)
A cool, green place to be
Sierra, the 1.2-million circulation national magazine of the Sierra Club, has named the University of California system one of America’s Top 10 “coolest” schools for its efforts to stop global warming.
(08 November)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(08 November)
Record 5th planet found around nearby star
A record-breaking fifth planet has been discovered around 55 Cancri, a yellowish star only 41 light years from Earth. The discovery implies that the star has even more planets that are smaller than the gas giants found so far and possibly include a rocky, Earth-like planet.
(06 November)
Steps you can take to protect your home during wildfire season
The state of California is adopting new building and fire codes, effective January 2008, that will primarily affect new construction. But homeowners with existing homes to worry about can take independent action to safeguard their dwellings in the event of a wildfire — an eventuality that is, or ought to be, top-of-mind for those who own or live in housing vulnerable to such a catastrophe.
(31 October)
In Burma, repression — and rebellion — are linked to healthcare crisis
Human Rights Center researchers find the roots of the 'Saffron Revolution' in the despair, desperation, and disease that have come with decades of harsh military rule.
(31 October)
November is Open Enrollment month
Open Enrollment for UC’s health-and-welfare benefits plans runs from Nov. 1 through Nov. 27. This is an important Open Enrollment for UC faculty and staff because the university has restructured medical-plan options for 2008 to help preserve meaningful choices and quality benefits while limiting cost increases, ensuring that faculty and staff will continue to have access to quality health benefits at competitive prices in 2008.
(31 October)
Career Compass responds to feedback
The Career Compass team has been busy since the spring, holding open-information sessions that have reached more than 1,250 campus employees, as well as launching a new website, disseminating new performance-evaluation forms for the 2008 cycle, and publishing more than 330 separate job standards.
(31 October)
Bunnies, boring objects, and the guilt-free zone
Artist Squeak Carnwath decodes the symbols in and the process behind her inimitable paintings.
(31 October)
Laurels
Honors, awards, and other faculty and staff achievements of note.
(31 October)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(31 October)
Single nanotube makes world's smallest radio
Wielding a single carbon nanotube 10,000 times smaller than a human hair, UC Berkeley and LBNL physicists have constructed the smallest radio yet. With such a small receiver or transmitter, you could put a tracking collar on a bacterium.
(31 October)
New program to focus on sustainable products, solutions
With an initial $2 million gift announced today (Tuesday, Oct. 30), the University of California, Berkeley, will move forward to establish a new program aimed at providing students educational and research opportunities in the area of sustainable products and solutions.
(30 October)
African diaspora graduates in hot demand
Graduates of UC Berkeley’s decade-old African Diaspora Studies Program have begun a diaspora of their own, landing plum academic appointments across the country, from the University of Hawaii to Michigan’s Wayne State University and beyond. This Thursday (Nov. 1) some of them will return to their academic homeland at UC Berkeley to discuss their research and share their success stories
(30 October)
Social standing influences how far elephants travel for food, study finds
A study of African elephants led by UC Berkeley researchers finds that dominant elephants will trek significantly fewer miles in search of food during the dry season compared with their less dominant counterparts. The findings highlight the influence of social standing on elephant movement.
(29 October)
Letter from a soldier
A Navy instructor describes an 'otherworldly' experience: listening to podcasts of a UC Berkeley physics course while on patrol in Iraq.
(26 October)
Ten scientists named fellows of AAAS
Ten UC Berkeley faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the nation's premier scientific organization and publisher of the weekly journal Science. This brings the campus total to 205.
(26 October)
Students pursue program promoting science, math teaching
Science and math education in the United States may be viewed as flawed experiments lately, but some 200 University of California, Berkeley, students majoring in math, science and engineering may help fix that through a new program promoting teaching of these crucial subjects.
(25 October)
Ideas and reaction sought on report examining People's Park future
Comments sought on 9-month study to examine current and future state of People's Park.
(25 October)
A message from Chancellor Birgeneau on the Southern California wildfires
Chancellor Birgeneau extends UC Berkeley's sympathies and support to victims of the Southern California wildfires, and details campus support services available to students, staff and faculty.
(24 October)
Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation launched
Energy and environmental innovation is the focus of a new cross-disciplinary center housed at the University of California, Berkeley, that aims to promote viable global energy solutions.
(24 October)
Frederick E. Balderston, Haas School professor emeritus, dies at 84
Frederick E. Balderston, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, an authority on the savings and loan industry as well as on university administration, and an early experimenter with computer simulation of banking and marketing decisions, has died at the age of 84.
(24 October)
Burma’s ‘transformative moment’
The so-called "Saffron Revolution" may not be televised, but much of what's happening inside the locked-down nation is nonetheless finding its way to the outside world via the Internet. And that, says Southeast Asia scholar Darren Zook, could spell "the beginning of the end" of 45 years of military rule.
(24 October)
‘We had the vision, but not the opportunity’
The 10 programs approved for funding by BILD — the Berkeley Initiative for Leadership on Diversity — during the 2007-08 fiscal year represent the best diversity-promoting thinking of staff and administrators all across campus.
(24 October)
Gentleman and scholar, academic leader and diplomat
This week, Karl Pister will receive the Clark Kerr Award from the Academic Senate for a career (still going strong) of service, leadership, and advancing higher education for all.
(24 October)
Graduate Council Lectures showcase Freeman, Heilbron, and Dretske
The Graduate Division has announced the first Graduate Council Lectures for 2007-08, bringing distinguished scholars in economics, history, and philosophy to campus between now and mid-November.
(24 October)
Draft report on People’s Park study is open for comment
Public comments are being sought on a draft report on the current state and future of People’s Park, the result of a nine-month assessment of the UC-owned and long-controversial site.
(24 October)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(24 October)
"Livable Buildings Awards" salute comfort and conserve
To recognize commercial buildings that do much more than provide the space and tools for workers to toil away, UC Berkeley's Center for the Built Environment has issued its first-ever "Livable Buildings Awards."The center's kudos for building resource efficiency, architectural design and occupant satisfaction are unique in the building industry because they consider the building users' feelings about features such as lighting, acoustics and thermal comfort, said Edward Arens, the center's director and a UC Berkeley professor of architecture.
(23 October)
Memorial for late yeast expert Robert Mortimer
An Oct. 28 memorial service will honor Robert K. Mortimer, a yeast expert and UC Berkeley professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology who died Aug. 10 at the age of 79. Mortimer was key to making yeast an important organism for studying the action of genes and chromosomes, and investigated the yeast strains that give wine complexity.
(23 October)
Sleep loss linked to psychiatric disorders
In the first neural investigation into what happens to your emotions when you don't sleep, results from a UC Berkeley brain imaging study suggest that while a good night's rest can regulate your mood and help you cope with the next day's emotional challenges, sleep deprivation excessively boosts the part of the brain most closely connected to depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.
(22 October)
World Bank report co-authored by UC economists calls for more investment in agriculture
A renewed focus on agricultural development is critical to successfully reducing global poverty and hunger, according to a new World Bank report co-authored by UC Berkeley economists. The report was released Friday, Oct. 19, at the World Bank's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
(19 October)
Researchers caution against genetic ancestry testing
For many Americans, the potential to track one's DNA to a specific country, region or tribe with a take-home kit is highly alluring. But while the popularity of genetic ancestry testing is rising - particularly among African Americans - the technology is flawed and could spawn unwelcome societal consequences, according to researchers from several institutions nationwide, including UC Berkeley.
(18 October)
UC Berkeley student wins environmental leadership award
(17 October)
UC Berkeley: Virgil E. Schrock, thermal hydraulics expert who helped improve safety of nuclear reactors, dies at 81
Virgil Schrock, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of nuclear engineering and an internationally recognized expert in thermal hydraulics, died of cancer on Monday, Oct. 1. He was 81.
(17 October)
At Zellerbach, visions of the technological
Charlie Rose, Laura Tyson, and leaders in high tech chart a course on education, immigration, globalization, innovation, and the coming green revolution.
(17 October)
On track and going strong
"This is the greatest investment I've ever made," says George A. Miller about the program he founded to help low-income, first-generation community-college transfer students make the adjustment to life at Berkeley. "And I was in investment banking for 35 years."
(17 October)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(17 October)
Dedication of C.V. Starr East Asian Library on Oct. 20
Scholars and donors from around the world will gather at the University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday, Oct. 20, for private ceremonies to dedicate the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the first freestanding library in the United States constructed exclusively for an East Asian collection and one of the few such facilities in the world.
(16 October)
Homecoming: Slideshow of blue and gold festivities
(15 October)
Methane drizzle on Saturn's moon Titan
Near-infrared images from Hawaii's Keck Observatory and Chile's Very Large Telescope show for the first time a nearly global cloud cover at high elevations on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and a widespread and persistent morning drizzle of methane on the flanks of Titan's major continent, Xanadu.
(11 October)
Marketing professor explores the responses viewers reap from scary movies
Eduardo Andrade of the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business wondered why his wife loves scary movies that make him squirm. So, the assistant professor of marketing interested in consumer behavior teamed up with Joel B. Cohen, a professor of marketing and anthropology at of the University of Florida, to deconstruct what happens when people watch horror films.
(11 October)
Three campus career counselors’ nonlinear path to authorship
Career Center staffers — two current, one recently retired — hit the trifecta with new Princeton Review series advising undergrads how to make the most of their liberal-arts degrees.
(10 October)
Come home (and visit the kids)
It's Homecoming & Parents Weekend at Berkeley, Friday, Oct. 12 through Sunday, Oct. 14. The combined celebration gives alumni and the parents of current students an overview of all the things that make this campus special — from a stellar roster of faculty seminars and a skein of tours and open houses to all the activities surrounding Saturday's football game with Oregon State.
(10 October)
Mental-health priorities: increasing awareness, decreasing stigma
Mental Health Awareness Week takes place at Berkeley starting on Monday, Oct. 15. Lectures, a self-administered "mental-health check-in" survey, and a panoply of "address your stress" activities (free massages, anyone?) are among the key elements of this expanded program.
(10 October)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(10 October)
Rejection sets off alarms for folks with low self-esteem
Few can tolerate such romantic or professional rebuffs as "It's not you, it's me" and "We regret to inform you that your application was not successful." But while a healthy dose of self-esteem can absorb the shock of rejection, poor self-esteem can trigger the primal fight-or-flight response, according to a new UC Berkeley study.
(10 October)
$25 million gift to add new faculty at Haas School
At least five new faculty positions will be crated at the Haas School of Business with a $25 million gift from alumnus Gerson Bakar, a prominent San Francisco real estate developer. Announcement of the gift, the largest individual donation in Haas School history, was made today (Wednesday, Oct. 10) by the school's dean, Tom Campbell.
(10 October)
A town hall meeting with UC's president
The ‘power of 10’ keeps the University resilient in the face of ‘dark forces,’ Dynes tells faculty
(05 October)
Scholar activist bridges the distance between the barrio and the Ph.D. seminar room
As a teen he got a taste of back-breaking yard maintenance, as a day laborer in Malibu. Now his Ph.D. research focuses on immigrant gardeners in L.A.'s vast informal economy.
(05 October)
Bears' football fortunes prompt a trip down memory lane
Cal's ascent to #3 in the national football polls isn't unprecedented, but it is a long time coming back. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear — 1952, to be exact — when Bums were bums, politics was beanbag, and Bears were (briefly) near the top of the heap.
(03 October)
Subatomic particles and giant magnets
Like Stanley Hall itself, Berkeley's new NMR facility is already helping to shorten the distance between disciplines in the quantitative sciences.
(03 October)
A building with its own fan club
The Berkeleyan wandered through Stanley Hall one day last week, asking everyone we met how working in the new building was likely to make a difference in their work. Not a few said it already had...
(03 October)
Seven score and four years ago …
Historian Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettsysburg and the focus of Berkeley's "On the Same Page" program, looks back at how the nation's 16th president changed America for the better — and compares and contrasts Lincoln with today's leadership.
(03 October)
Thoroughly modern — and steps ahead of her time
There was once a time when the boundaries between ballet and modern dance seemed clear ... but that was before Twyla Tharp set the dance world on its ear. Cal Performances highlights her career with upcoming performances by the Joffrey, Miami City Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre, supported by a full campus program of lectures, conversations, and films.
(03 October)
Kevin Consey to step down as BAM/PFA director
Kevin Consey, who has led the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) since 1999, announced his retirement on Sept. 21, effective Jan. 2, 2008.
(03 October)
Campus launches YouTube channel
Further expanding public access to its intellectual riches through the most popular Web destinations, UC Berkeley announced today (Wednesday, Oct. 3) that it is making entire course lectures and special events available, free of charge, on YouTube.
(03 October)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(03 October)
Judge rules that Memorial Stadium oak grove protest is illegal
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller today issued a preliminary injunction, ruling that the protesters living in the oak trees west of UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium on the site of the proposed Student-Athlete High Performance Center must come down.
(01 October)
Neuroscientists connect neural activity and blood flow in new brain stimulation technique
UC Berkeley neuroscientists have for the first time measured the electrical activity of nerve cells and correlated it to changes in blood flow in response to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive method to stimulate neurons in the brain. Their findings, reported in the Sept. 28 issue of the journal Science, could substantially improve the effectiveness of brain stimulation as a therapeutic and research tool.
(27 September)
Three-year plan for professional-school fees fixed
The UC regents last week endorsed a three-year (2008-09 through 2010-11) plan of fees for students in professional-degree programs and approved professional-school fee increases for the 2008-09 academic year.
(26 September)
For service above and beyond . . .
Since Human Resources introduced the Spot Award Program last year, 836 employees have received $250 (less taxes) for special accomplishments, on the strength of nominations submitted by their supervisors.
(26 September)
Stanley Hall dedication heralds new era of bioscience innovation
When Stanley Hall is officially dedicated on Friday, Sept. 28, it will represent the promise of a new era in interdisciplinary bioscience research at UC Berkeley. The state-of-the-art facility will be a catalyst for innovations that may one day lead to new treatments or preventions for diseases, more environmentally friendly sources of energy and better ways to clean up pollutants.
(26 September)
Tracing a spidery family tree
Insect biologist Rosemary Gillespie’s research has taken her from Scotland to Hawaii to Berkeley. Here, at least, she doesn’t have to capture specimens with a tuning fork.
(26 September)
A life in theater, sans histrionics
For more than 35 years, Stan Kramer has worked entirely behind the scenes on campus theater and dance productions. So it’s no coincidence that when he retires next week as technical director for the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS), he will do so without much fanfare or hoopla.
(26 September)
Salary-increase pool for 2007-08 determined
The Berkeley campus will be implementing a salary-increase program for employees in positions covered by the Personnel Policies for Staff Members (PPSM). The fund pool for merit increases is 4 percent, effective Oct. 1, 2007.
(26 September)
Laurels
Honors, awards, and other faculty and staff achievements of note.
(26 September)
John Chemsak, entomological researcher, dies
John Chemsak, an entomological researcher and curator long associated with the Essig Museum of Entomology at Berkeley, died Aug. 26 at the age of 75.
(26 September)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(26 September)
Claire Kremen, UC Berkeley conservation biologist, wins MacArthur 'genius' fellowship
Claire Kremen, a UC Berkeley conservation biologist whose applied research advances the fields of ecology, biodiversity and agriculture, has been named a MacArthur Fellow, one of 24 nationwide "genius" award recipients announced Tuesday, Sept. 25, by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
(24 September)
NASA resurrects NuSTAR mission to image massive black holes
NuSTAR, a NASA mission canceled in 2006 a year before its planned launch, has been resurrected by the agency as it moves toward more small class explorer missions. UC Berkeley will collaborate with Caltech in building the black hole imager, and will serve as mission operations center.
(21 September)
Students to manage Socially Responsible Investment Fund
Managing a socially responsible investment fund is one of the new learning experiences the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business is offering its graduate students for the first time this fall.
(20 September)
Author, historian Garry Wills "On the Same Page" at Berkeley
"On the Same Page," a signature program of the University of California, Berkeley's College of Letters & Science in which all new students receive the same book to read and discuss, is highlighting its second year with the book "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America."
(20 September)
Pleasant odors perceived the same by different cultures
Are people's taste preferences totally dependent on culture, or are there universal likes and dislikes? A cross-cultural study by UC Berkeley and Israeli neurobiologists shows that the odors people perceive as pleasant or unpleasant are the same around the world. In fact, they've created a way to predict the degree of pleasantness of new chemicals.
(20 September)
Midanik appointed dean of School of Social Welfare
Professor Lorraine Midanik, an expert in alcohol issues, has been named dean of UC Berkeley's School of Social Welfare. Midanik, whose teaching and scholarly work focus on drug- and alcohol-related problems in the United States, had served as acting dean since July 2006.
(19 September)
L’affaire Chemerinsky: One to remember?
The shortest-lived controversy in recent UC history is over - isn't it? Two Boalt Hall professors share their opinions on the Drake/Chemerinsky brouhaha at UC Irvine.
(19 September)
A half-century of China scholarship at Berkeley
Born at the height of the Cold War, the Center for Chinese Studies remembers the days of Mao and Sputnik — and sees big things ahead.
(19 September)
Next assignment: Lincoln at Gettysburg
“On the Same Page,” a signature program of the College of Letters and Science, is highlighting its second year by exploring the most famous speech in American history with Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America.
(19 September)
What’s modern planning theory got to do with my day hike?
In his latest book, The Country in the City, geography professor Richard Walker calls the Bay Area ‘the leading edge of modern environmentalism.’ Much of what it stands for today, he adds, ‘came right out of Berkeley.’
(19 September)
Campus to honor those it has lost
On Tuesday, Oct. 2, the Berkeley campus will gather for its sixth annual memorial service to honor those of its own who have died during the past year.
(19 September)
Put down that iPod and listen up!
In the wake of several recent robberies on and near the campus, UC police urge late-night scholars to keep their eyes and ears open, and to take advantage of shuttle and escort services.
(19 September)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(19 September)
Young innovator in cancer research chosen for NIH award
A young UC Berkeley researcher with ambitious plans to identify tissue-specific cancer drugs has been chosen to receive a National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award, one of 29 to be announced Sept. 19.
(18 September)
New grants to help researchers improve nuclear detection, domestic security
A pair of grants from the Academic Research Initiative, a partnership between the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, will help UC Berkeley researchers improve domestic security by developing better methods of detecting nuclear material.
(14 September)
Donors, chairs and Cal: Launching lasting friendships
Larry and Diane Bock, who last year endowed the Larry and Diane Bock Endowed Chair in Nanotechnology, exemplify how endowing a chair "is much more than making a monetary gift," says Scott Biddy, vice chancellor for University Relations. “Donors often form lasting, meaningful relationships with the campus and our faculty."
(13 September)
Ancient whale fall found from Año Nuevo Island
When a whale dies and falls to the bottom in the deep ocean, it attracts a weird community of mollusks, crabs and worms that feed on its oil-rich bones. A 15 million-year-old fossilized whale discovered on Año Nuevo Island is the first fossil whale fall discovered in California, and one of the youngest and most complete fossil whale falls ever found.
(13 September)
New economic, social benefits report highlights campus impacts
A new economic impact and social benefits report documents the University of California, Berkeley's contributions to the economy and quality of life for residents of the San Francisco Bay Area and highlights the wide-ranging, local to global impacts of campus research.
(13 September)
Sustainability 101
Berkeley's reputation rests on the twin pillars of access and excellence. Its future depends on a paradigm shift in the way it balances public and private funding.
(12 September)
Birgeneau: ‘A quantitative and qualitative change for us’
In this fall’s Berkeleyan interview, the chancellor speaks about the great promise of the Hewlett matching gift, touching on other campus priorities as the academic year gets under way.
(12 September)
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It's My Job
In this new semi-regular feature, the Berkeleyan showcases a staff member whose work is essential to the smooth functioning of the campus (or one of its many departments and units).
(12 September)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(12 September)
Physicists pin down atomic spin for spintronics
UC Berkeley physicists have successfully measured the atomic spin of an isolated atom, one of the necessary steps on the road to quantum computers and spintronic devices.
(12 September)
Uptick in late-night robberies highlights need for students to be alert, campus police warn
A spate of armed robberies around the UC Berkeley campus, including one Monday night (Sept. 10) in which a victim was struck by BBs, should be a warning to students to walk at night only in well-lit areas and in groups, according to UC police.
(11 September)
Hewlett Foundation gift of $113 million is largest private gift in campus history
UC Berkeley today received the largest private gift in its history, $113 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This gift represents a turning point in the financing of public higher education, providing endowment support that will help to close the funding gap between the nation's preeminent public university and its elite private peers, according to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau.
(10 September)
Forestry field camp at 90
As the term 'forest wars' suggests, our woodlands have long been fiercely contested terrain. For nine decades UC Berkeley students of all stripes — from would-be timber operators to aspiring environmental activists — have been learning the complex science of forestry, from the ground up, at a summer field camp in the northeastern Sierras.
(06 September)
Astronomers eager to add to Sky in Google Earth
Since Sky in Google Earth debuted two weeks ago to let the public explore the heavens from their computers, two UC Berkeley astronomers have jumped at the chance to populate Google's sky with the most recently discovered heavenly objects, including new exoplanets, gamma-ray bursts and supernovas.
(06 September)
Professor known for his inspirational teaching has died
orman Jacobson, a University of California, Berkeley, political science professor whose outstanding skills as a teacher drew national recognition and inspired many students to delve into political theory and political action, died on Tuesday (Sept. 4). He was 84.
(05 September)
Lunch Poems kickoff features faculty and staff
The campus’s popular Lunch Poems series launches its 12th season on Thursday, Sept. 6, with a multiple-reader lineup of faculty and staff. After that, the series settles into its usual monthly focus on single poets.
(05 September)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(05 September)
Whales evolved biosonar to chase squid into the deep
Sperm whales, dolphins and other "toothed" whales today chase squid so deep in the ocean that they have to rely on biosonar instead of their eyes to find them. Two UC Berkeley paleontologists have come up with a likely evolutionary scenario to explain how these whales developed their echolocating "biosonar" over the past 40 million years.
(05 September)
Coming attractions for fall 2007 find inspiration in East Asia
Conferences and a bloom of events inspired by the dedication of the new C.V. Starr East Asian Library and Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies highlight the fall calendar at UC Berkeley. Scholars, dance and opera enthusiasts are in for a rare treat
(04 September)
UC Berkeley's settlement offer on Memorial Stadium project
UC Berkeley submitted a settlement offer to the City of Berkeley Tuesday regarding the city's lawsuit challenging the campus's planned construction of a Student-Athlete High Performance Center just west of California Memorial Stadium.
(04 September)
John Gofman, anti-nuclear activist & lipid researcher, has died
John William Gofman, a professor who first discovered the role of LDL and HDL in heart disease and went on to document and publicize the health dangers of low-level radiation, died Aug. 15 of heart failure at his home in San Francisco. He was 88.
(04 September)
NIEHS awards $4.7 million to help detect human exposure to environmental contaminants
UC Berkeley researchers have received a $4.7 million grant to develop cutting edge methods for detecting diseases in humans exposed to environmental contaminants, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences announced today (Tuesday, Sept. 4).
(04 September)
Black workers face low wages, advancement obstacles, report says
A new report by UC Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education finds that more than half of black workers in the United States have jobs that don't pay well, provide retirement and health benefits, or offer avenues for advancement.
(04 September)
UC Berkeley says public safety comes first; police cite nearly 100 arrests at site of tree protest since December
The university's obligation to protect public safety outside California Memorial Stadium was at the heart of the case made by UC Berkeley on Thursday to an Alameda County Superior Court judge. Citing more than 155 violations and 98 arrests or citations of protesters outside the stadium since December, 2006, UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison outlined in detail the need for erecting a temporary fence at the site in advance of Saturday's season-opening football game.
(30 August)
Alexander C. Scordelis, renowned structural engineer, dies at 83
Alexander C. Scordelis, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of structural engineering and among the world's most influential experts on long-span bridges and pre-stressed concrete, has died at the age of 83.
(29 August)
Governor signs 2007-08 state budget
On Aug. 24, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a 2007-08 state budget that includes funding for student enrollments, faculty and staff compensation, academic-preparation programs, and key research initiatives at the University of California.
(29 August)
As the Bears head onto the field . . .
As the Cal football team prepares to meet Tennessee this Saturday at Memorial Stadium, the campus is readying for a court date over the planned Student-Athlete High Performance Center, the first phase in a multi-year southeast-campus plan that includes seismic retrofitting of the 84-year-old stadium. But while the Bears are eager to avenge last year’s opening-day loss to the Volunteers, a legal battle is something campus leaders would prefer to avoid.
(29 August)
Harassment, predatory behavior spell trouble at River High
Doing sociological fieldwork, C.J. Pascoe infiltrated the macho, homophobic world of adolescent boys.
(29 August)
Opinion
Esther Gulli, executive administrative officer for the vice chancellor for student affairs, on the devastation still evident in New Orleans two years post-Katrina.
(29 August)
Laurels
Honors, appointments, and other faculty and staff achievements of note.
(29 August)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(29 August)
Flies prefer fizzy drinks
Fruit flies like a splash of soda water in their drinks, according to UC Berkeley neuroscientist Kristin Scott and her colleagues. They discovered that the insect has specialized taste cells for carbonated water, probably to encourage them to binge on food with microorganisms like yeast and bacteria that give off carbon dioxide.
(29 August)
Campus provides updates on Memorial Stadium Project and Student-Athlete High Performance Center
With the football season about to begin, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer and Vice Chancellor-Administration Nathan Brostrom provide updates on developments surrounding the Memorial Stadium project and the new Student-Athlete High Performance Center.
(29 August)
New interdisciplinary 'Global Poverty & Practice' minor is launched
UC Berkeley's Blum Center for Developing Economies has announced the creation of a new undergraduate program that, beginning this fall, will seek to motivate and prepare students to become active in alleviating poverty worldwide. The "Global Poverty & Practice" minor will be housed in the International and Area Studies Teaching Program.
(27 August)
Meeting with the media
At his annual press conference, Chancellor Birgeneau briefs reporters on the biggest campus stories of the year ahead.
(23 August)
Fall 2007 semester kicks off
More than 34,500 students are expected to enroll for UC Berkeley's fall 2007 semester. Among other developments, the campus will see new faces in several top leadership positions and the unveiling of new facilities, including Stanley Hall, a state-of-the-art home for bioengineering and nanotechnology.
(23 August)
Former street tough takes miraculous route to UC Berkeley
Next week, Derick Brown starts his junior year at UC Berkeley, arriving as a transfer student from City College of San Francisco. While the campus is less than 15 miles from the Western Addition neighborhood where he grew up, it may as well be the moon, as far as many of his former cohorts are concerned. "Growing up, Berkeley was just off limits. African Americans where I come from, we just can't get in," he said. "But I took a chance and enrolled in community college, then things started happening, and look at me now. I'm floating on a cloud."
(23 August)
Keck, Hubble provide new view of Uranus' rings
Astronomers discovered 30 years ago that Uranus, like Saturn, has a set of rings comprised of rocks, pebbles and dust, and Voyager 2 snapped the first and best pictures of the rings in 1986. With more powerful ground based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are now primed to learn even more about the rings as they swing edge-on to Earth, a perspective that Earth gets only once in 42 years.
(23 August)
It's My Job
In this new semi-regular feature, the Berkeleyan showcases a staff member whose work is essential to the smooth functioning of the campus (or one of its many departments and units).
(22 August)
Chancellor’s Fund lends a helping hand — or hundreds of them — to campus neighbors
Seeking to bolster the efforts of local, community-based organizations to improve the quality of life for Berkeley residents, the Berkeley campus has awarded grants totaling $207,500 to a baker’s dozen projects ranging from mentoring and mental-health services to habitat restoration and landscape rehabilitation.
(22 August)
Grad students pitch in to make NRC rankings reflect their experience
Participation of Berkeley’s doctoral candidates in the National Research Council's survey of their graduate experience has been exemplary, according to Graduate Dean Andrew Szeri and the team facilitating the campus response.
(22 August)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(22 August)
"On the Same Page" program features opera about Lincoln's assassination
A free campus performance Thursday (Aug. 23) of a wrenching but humorous opera about President Abraham Lincoln's assassination highlights this semester's "On the Same Page" program hosted by the College of Letters & Science.
(22 August)
Study finds early difficulty for community college students
A new report by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) finds that six in 10 students who enter the California community college system as freshmen with high school diplomas and aspirations to transfer to four-year institutions drop out or lower their academic sights after just one semester. The report recommends increasing support for these students.
(20 August)
Compound in broccoli has immune-boosting properties, finds new study
A compound found in broccoli and related vegetables may help boost the immune system, according to a new UC Berkeley-led study. Researchers found that mice fed mice a solution of the compound, 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM), had increased blood levels of cytokines, proteins which help regulate the cells of the immune system, and were better able to clear reoviruses from their intestines.
(20 August)
Savanna habitat drives birds to cooperative breeding
Birds of a feather stick together, but for African starlings, this is true primarily in savannas, where cooperation improves survival in the unpredictable habitat, according to researchers from UC Berkeley and Cornell. Cooperative breeding, where helpers forego breeding to gather food for the offspring of others in the group, seems to be a successful survival strategy in the highly variable rainfall of the savanna.
(16 August)
Scientists honored by technology magazines for scientific and technological innovation
Chemical engineer Rachel Segalman, synthetic biologist J. Christopher Anderson and Tapan Parikh, who is bringing high-tech to the developing world, are among Technology Review's top innovators over the age of 35, while chemist Alex Pines was named one of R&D Magazine's top 100 innovators of the year.
(15 August)
Students to learn new Internet piracy rules
As part of their fall semester 2007 orientation, thousands of students moving into UC Berkeley residence halls, starting this weekend, will learn that if they use campus computer networks to download copyrighted music, they'll find themselves surfing without a Net. Under UC Berkeley's new "Learn before you Burn" campaign, residence hall denizens caught illegally downloading music will automatically lose their in-room Internet connection for one week or longer.
(15 August)
Graduate students find no match in evening cell phone use spike and crash data
It's conventional wisdom that talking on cell phones while driving is risky business, but two University of California, Berkeley, graduate student economists report that a spike in cell phone use in recent years and on weekday evenings is not matched by an increase in fatal or non-fatal car crashes from 2002-2005.
(13 August)
Latin American perspectives on Iraq
Leading intellectuals from Mexico and South America offer commentary, in English and Spanish, on U.S. military involvement in Iraq.
(10 August)
Researchers explore increasing foreign investment in U.S. bonds, mortgage securities
Unprecedented investment in U.S. securities such as government bonds and mortgage-backed securities by China and other foreign countries reflects a growing globalization of real estate finance and generally benefits all sides - including U.S. home buyers enjoying lower interest rates - say researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
(10 August)
UC Berkeley: Seismologists confirm mine collapse caused temblor
A 3.9 magnitude temblor recorded at the time of a mine collapse in southern Utah on Aug. 6 was not caused by an earthquake, but more likely was the result of the collapse itself, according to an analysis by UC Berkeley seismologists.
(09 August)
R. Brady Williamson, pioneer in fire safety engineering science, dies at 73
Robert Brady Williamson, a pioneer in fire safety engineering science education and a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, died of melanoma on Wednesday, Aug. 1. He was 73.
(09 August)
Frog-killing fungus could be greater threat, finds new genetic analysis
A new study led by UC Berkeley researchers suggests that a frog-killing fungus may be harder to fight because of the pathogen's ability to spread over long distances and possibly persist in the environment as a consequence of sexual reproduction. The fungus has already decimated populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs in the Sierra Nevada.
(06 August)
Chancellor leads effort to back federal math education bill
University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau, who has led an effort by leaders of some of the nation's premiere colleges and universities to back a federal bill that would strengthen K-12 math and science education, applauded today the recent passage of the bill and expressed his optimism that it will be signed into law.
(03 August)
E-voting systems vulnerable to viruses and other security attacks, new report finds
A "Top-to-Bottom Review" of California's electronic voting systems has revealed flaws that leave the machines vulnerable to security attacks. The review was commissioned by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and conducted by researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Davis.
(02 August)
Details announced of new vehicle-fuel standard
UC energy experts release their much-anticipated blueprint for fighting global warming by reducing the amount of carbon emitted when transportation fuels are used in California. This "low carbon fuel standard," designed to stimulate improvements in transportation-fuel technologies, is expected to become the foundation for similar initiatives in other states, as well as nationally and internationally.
(02 August)
Faculty Nightstand: For Erin Murphy, summer offers the time to immerse in long reads
Erin Murphy, assistant professor of law, calls herself "a pretty voracious reader." Summer's relaxed schedule only exacerbates her bookworm tendencies. This summer, she's discovered a new favorite and managed to delve outside of the fictive realm.
(02 August)
Researchers recommend tougher post-election audits
Two UC Berkeley researchers are among the four authors of a report released today (Wednesday, Aug. 1) that recommends more targeted and rigorous audits of paper records produced by electronic voting machines.
(01 August)
Ichthyologist, animal behaviorist George Barlow has died
Preeminent U.S. ichthyologist George W. Barlow, who studied parenting behavior and aggression in fish and was a well-known expert on cichlid fishes, died July 14 at the age of 78.
(30 July)
A big stink to come at UC Botanical Garden
When UC Botanical Garden's rare corpse flower blooms this week, the flower will both attract and repel visitors with its large and visually arresting but odiferously revolting blossom.
(30 July)
Researchers report northern Uganda PTSD, preference for violence findings
In an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's Human Rights Center and Tulane University's Payson Center for International Development report high rates of symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression in residents of conflict-ridden northern Uganda. They also find that those with such symptoms favor violent -- rather than peaceful -- means to resolve their country's conflict.
(27 July)
UC Berkeley geography professor wounded in Nigeria
Geography professor Michael Watts, who studies violence in the oil fields of Nigeria, was injured July 25 in the center of the country's oil-rich Niger delta by a group of gun-wielding men who attacked a newspaper office.
(25 July)
Transportation researchers to test Toyota plug-in hybrid vehicles
UC Berkeley transportation researchers have been given a $750,000 grant to conduct, along with project partner groups, the first real-world testing of an automaker-produced, plug-in hybrid electric passenger vehicle (PHEV). The campus's Institute of Transportation Studies announced the award July 25.
(25 July)
Eminent biochemist Daniel Koshland has died
Daniel E. Koshland Jr., an eminent biochemist and energetic guardian of UC Berkeley's research preeminence, died on July 23 following a massive stroke. A former editor of the journal Science, Koshland was 87.
(24 July)
Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund awards announced today
The Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund awards for 2007-08 are being given to 13 projects that demonstrate how local, community-based organizations and UC Berkeley are working together to improve the quality of life for Berkeley residents. Chancellor Birgeneau established this annual grant program in 2006.
(24 July)
Jon Gjerde named permanent social sciences dean
History professor Jon Gjerde, who has served as an interim dean in the College of Letters and Science for the past year, has been appointed permanent dean of the college's division of social sciences.
(19 July)
S. Shankar Sastry named new dean of engineering
S. Shankar Sastry, NEC Distinguished Professor and former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, has been appointed the campus's new dean of the College of Engineering. His appointment was approved July 19 by the UC Board of Regents and is retroactive to July 1.
(19 July)
Gibor Basri selected new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion
Gibor Basri, a highly esteemed University of California, Berkeley, astrophysics professor with an extensive background working on diversity and outreach issues, has been selected as the campus's new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion.
(19 July)
A profile of Gibor Basri
UC Berkeley's new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion plans to take a "holistic view" of the campus — its faculty, students, and staff — to help ensure that it's serving and tapping the talents of California's diverse populations.
(19 July)
Rise of dinosaurs not so rapid after all
The ancestors of dinosaurs seemed to disappear before the dinosaurs took over the Earth, suggesting to many that dinosaurs were so successful that they rapidly outcompeted their ancestors and drove them extinct. New fossil finds in New Mexico, however, show that this was not true -- dinosaurs and their ancestors lived side by side for 15-20 million years in the Late Triassic before the dinosaur precursors vanished.
(19 July)
Researchers at UC Berkeley and LBNL share $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize for discovering universe acceleration
Researchers at the UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have been awarded the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for their role in the seminal discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
(17 July)
Researchers witness natural selection at work in dramatic comeback of male butterflies
When an invasive bacteria ravaged the male embryos of the Blue Moon butterfly, it left populations that were nearly entirely female. But in an extraordinary example of natural selection at work, the males made a comeback, going from 1 percent of the population to 39 percent in the span of one year, or 10 generations. Researchers at UC Berkeley and elsewhere witnessed this evolutionary event and credited it to the rise of a suppressor gene that stopped the male-killing bacteria in its tracks.
(12 July)
UC Berkeley, 'the people's university,' featured on Chinese TV
People throughout mainland China got a glimpse of the Berkeley campus — and its public mission — in an interview with Chancellor Robert Birgeneau broadcast recently on a popular prime-time talk show.
(11 July)
Making the connections
Putting undergrads and faculty together is easy: just schedule a required lecture course in a 700-seat hall. But finding ways for them to work in smaller groups, on topics of mutual interest, takes dedication - something that College of Letters and Science staffers Terry Strathman and Alix Schwartz display in abundance.
(11 July)
Haas researcher identifies book-cooking tipoffs
Growth companies that are suffering deteriorating operating performance are the most likely firms to manipulate their financial numbers, according to a new, comprehensive analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents by an accounting professor at the Haas School of Business.
(11 July)
Laurels
Honors, awards, and other faculty and staff achievements of note.
(11 July)
Obituary
Anthony (Tony) Brennan, assistant director of the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways Program (PATH), died of leukemia on May 31, at the age of 71.
(11 July)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(11 July)
Study predicts positive net economic impacts of key health reform plans
A UC Berkeley study released today (Wednesday, July 11), says that two of the main health care reform proposals under consideration in California are likely to have a positive net impact on the state's economy.
(11 July)
Professor emeritus Peter Lyman dies at age 66
Peter Lyman, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information and a former university librarian, whose legacy includes pioneering research on online information, ethnographic analyses of online social relationships and communities, and helping bring university libraries into the digital era, died Monday (July 2) at his Berkeley home. He was 66 and had battled brain cancer.
(05 July)
Anemone genome gives new view of multi-celled ancestors
The genome of the sea anemone is nearly as complex as the human genome, according to UC Berkeley researchers who have completed the first analysis of the animal's genes. Because of this similarity, it is providing major insights into the common ancestor of not only humans and sea anemones, but of nearly all multi-celled animals.
(05 July)
Burma junta faulted for rampant diseases
As Congress debates extending political and economic sanctions against Burma's military regime, a new report from UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University documents how decades of repressive rule, civil war and poor governance in the Southeast Asian country have contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases there.
(28 June)
Ken Goldberg named new director of Center for New Media
Ken Goldberg, a UC Berkeley professor of engineering and an artist, has been named the new director of the UC Berkeley Center for New Media, effective July 1. The center, established in 2004, is dedicated to exploring the impacts of digital media on people and society.
(28 June)
Wellesley administrator, a Berkeley alumnus, to lead campus fundraising operations
David Blinder, vice president for resources and public affairs at Wellesley College, has been named the new chief development officer for UC Berkeley. Blinder, who holds master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Berkeley, will return to his alma mater as associate vice chancellor for University Relations, starting Aug. 13.
(27 June)
DOE awards LBNL, UC Berkeley and partners $125 million for biofuels research
Berkeley and the Bay Area cemented their position as the nation's center of alternative "green" energy research with the announcement June 26 by the Department of Energy of a $125 million, five-year grant to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, and four other partners to develop better biofuels.
(26 June)
The state of the campus is good, says chancellor
In a wide-ranging give-and-take session with campus staff on June 23, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau fielded queries on pay, pensions, health care, diversity, the environment, and more.
(26 June)
Drug resistance argues against mutation theory of cancer
Most cancer researchers are convinced that cancer results from a handful of genetic mutations that kick a cell into uncontrolled growth. UC Berkeley genetics researcher Peter Duesberg disagrees, and finds support for his "chromosomal" theory of cancer in the development of drug resistance by many cancers.
(26 June)
YouTube clip features Berkeley's musical serenade to Stephen Hawking
In March, world-renowned physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking came to the Berkeley campus for a series of events and was serenaded in a musical tribute shown in this YouTube clip.
(22 June)
Student-athlete facility to get its day in court Sept. 19
The judge presiding over legal challenges to Berkeley's planned Student-Athlete High Performance Center — the first phase in a multi-year southeast-campus plan that includes seismic retrofitting of Memorial Stadium — has set trial for Sept. 19, responding to the university's growing sense of urgency and giving Cal fans hope that the project schedule can get back on track.
(21 June)
Damning report on Uganda war crimes
A report released today (Friday, June 15) by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center and Tulane University provides the first hard data on forced conscription into the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group accused of kidnapping tens of thousands of women and children to serve as soldiers, servants or sex slaves in northern Uganda. The report documents rising violence in the 20-year-long conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan government forces, which have been negotiating a ceasefire. Data was collected from rehabilitation centers in the war-torn, eastern African republic.
(15 June)
Chancellor Birgeneau denounces move to boycott Israeli universities
In a statement, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau has expressed his outrage over the efforts by some members of Britain's University and College Union to promulgate a boycott against Israeli academics and academic institutions.
(14 June)
Strong evidence that Mars once had an ocean
UC Berkeley geophysicists are providing strong evidence that Mars once had an ocean. Naysayers have argued that what appear to be ancient coastlines are too warped to be true seashores. The reseachers claim, however, that this anomaly resulted from the tilt of Mars' spin axis 2 to 3 billion years ago, possible because the weight of surface water made the planet tip like a weighted top.
(13 June)
Cancer death rates remain high decades after exposure to arsenic, new study finds
A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley and in Chile has found that death rates from lung and bladder cancer remained high decades after residents in northern Chile were exposed to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water. That a population's cancer mortality rates from an environmental health hazard remained high so long after exposure is unprecedented, the authors say.
(12 June)
LifeCycle Journal: Seven Cal Team cyclists and a roadie reflect on the ride's highs, lows, and enduring memories
After riding into L.A. on AIDS LifeCycle's Day 7, eight Cal Team members reflect on the meaning of the ride.
(12 June)
Chemist Gabor Somorjai to receive Priestley Medal
The American Chemical Society will bestow its highest honor, the Priestley Medal, on Gabor A. Somorjai, University Professor and professor of chemistry at the UC Berkeley, for his "extraordinarily creative and original contributions to surface science and catalysis."
(12 June)
New book outlines discrimination against moms
Three decades after women began breaking into male-dominated professions, their numbers in top academic and corporate echelons remain flat, according to Mary Ann Mason, UC Berkeley's graduate dean. Largely to blame are family demands and "maternal discrimination," according to "Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation can Balance Family and Careers," a new book Mason has co-authored with her daughter, Eve Mason Ekman.
(12 June)
Geochemist Harold Helgeson has died at 75
Harold C. Helgeson, who rose from gold and diamond prospecting to become the world's foremost geochemist and the father of theories about where to look for ore and oil, died May 28 at the age of 75.
(11 June)
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LifeCycle Journal: Two perspectives on ride's Dress Red Day
A Cal grad student and an adjunct lecturer describe a low-mileage day marked by campiness and fun.
(08 June)
LifeCycle Journal: Catching the spirit of the event
UC Berkeley staffer Devin Wicks reports from Santa Maria on early-morning preparations for ride-out on Day 4, taking riders up the infamous Evil Twins and across the half-way mark to L.A.
(07 June)
Leonard Nathan, distinguished poet, dies at 82
Leonard Nathan, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of rhetoric and prolific American poet, critic and master of the short lyric, died peacefully on June 3. He was 82. The author of 17 volumes of poetry, Nathan was a fixture for 50 years in literary circles both on and off the UC Berkeley campus.
(07 June)
Martin Meyerson, former CED dean and acting chancellor, dies at age of 84
Martin Meyerson, who is credited with defusing some of the Free Speech Movement tensions at the University of California, Berkeley, while serving as acting chancellor in 1965, died Saturday (June 2). He was 84. The native of New York City also was an authority on urban development and was dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED) from 1963 to 1965.
(06 June)
LifeCycle journal: Missing out on 72.3 miles of fun
Incoming freshman Claire Veening describes the disappointments of Day 3 (King City to Paso Robles) on her first AIDS LifeCycle ride.
(06 June)
Agonized pose tells of dinosaur death throes
Like investigators out of CSI or Cold Case, UC Berkeley and Montana paleontologists find clues to a dinosaur's demise in its peculiar death pose. They argue that the open-mouthed, head-back posture of many dinosaur fossils tells of an agonized death from brain damage and suffocation.
(06 June)
Career Compass website is launched; HR rolling out new staff job structure
Human Resources has launched a new website, careercompass.berkeley.edu, to publish information about Career Compass, a set of three linked initiatives focusing on creating new job standards, improving performance management, and providing greater career development opportunities for staff.
(06 June)
Punching a clock into the golden years
The UC Berkeley Retirement Center's Retiree Work Opportunities (RWO) program — an innovative solution to address the campus's short-term, temporary staffing needs — was among 10 nonprofit and public-sector organizations honored last week with a BreakThrough Award at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
(06 June)
'The university is a subversive force' (and other wisdom from the podium)
Good graduation pictures, in capturing joy and a sense of accomplishment, resemble one another strongly. Good graduation speeches, if carefully written, strike their own singular chords. Here, examples of both, from the Berkeley commencement season just concluded.
(06 June)
Activism, service, and engagement recognized at first annual Chancellor's Public Service Awards ceremony
The first annual Chancellor's Public Service Awards were presented at a University House ceremony on May 14. The awards, as the chancellor noted in a message to attendees, "recognize the commitment of faculty, staff, and students … whose individual or combined efforts enhance the quality of life of our community, whether here in the Bay Area or around the globe."
(06 June)
Campus managers honored for leadership
The 19th annual BSA Excellence in Management awards, presented by the Berkeley Staff Assembly, were conferred on 44 Berkeley managers at a May 10 event at International House.
(06 June)
Seventeen junior faculty receive Hellman Family funding
The Hellman Family Faculty Fund, established in 1995, supports the research of promising assistant professors who show capacity for great distinction in their research. Seventeen awards have been announced for 2007 and are listed below.
(06 June)
Awards
Recent faculty and staff awards.
(06 June)
News Briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community.
(06 June)
William K. Pritchett, emeritus professor of Greek, dies at age 98
William Kendrick Pritchett, emeritus professor of Greek at the University of California, Berkeley, died on Tuesday, May 29, at his Berkeley home a day after taking a bad fall. He was 98. Pritchett, who joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1948, was one of the most highly regarded authorities in the fields of Greek topography, military science and practice, and the intricacies of the Athenian calendar and time-reckoning systems.
(05 June)
LifeCycle Journal: Part endurance event, part circus, part therapy
Cal grad Ben Spoer reports on the challenges of sleeping in a tent city of 2,300, the circus atmosphere that help riders persist after the mileage count tops 75, and the shared sense of loss on AIDS LifeCycle 6.
(05 June)
Riding to stop AIDS
Cal senior Hailey Gilmore reports from the road following Day 1 of the week-long AIDS LifeCycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
(04 June)
An artist honors U.S. fatalities in Iraq
Included in this year's Venice Biennale is a memorial to American troops who have died in the Iraq War, by UC Berkeley art-p