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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 prioritize 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 prize 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)
(
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. The latter 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)
Chain reaction
A pair of Berkeley researchers made headlines with their study of Wal-Mart’s bottom-line impacts.
(25 August)
Helter-shelter? Far from it...
The art and science of making student housing assignments.
(25 August)
Getting ultimate satisfaction
Heidi Binder, a program manager at UC Berkeley Extension, plays ultimate in world championship competitions.
(25 August)
Administrative changes coming as searches for vice chancellors begin
As the campus initiates searches to fill two new vice-chancellorial spots, it is also undertaking transition planning that will help implement changes in the structure of some of Berkeley’s administrative operations.
(25 August)
Lunch Poems Redux
The campus's popular Lunch poems series is primed to launch its ninth season.
(25 August)
Awards: Hellman Family Faculty Fund, CASE awards, Scott Saul, and more...
Recent faculty and staff awards
(25 August)
Linguistics professor George Lakoff dissects the "war on terror" and other conservative catchphrases
Following up on last year's dissection of how conservative language dominates politics, Berkeley professor of cognitive linguistics George Lakoff examines the considerable progress Democrats have made in getting their ideas across. In this interview, he dismantles such phrases as the "war on terror" and "liberal elite," and tells how to argue effectively with conservatives.
(25 August)
Lunch Poems 2004-2005 season about to start
The 2004-2005 Lunch Poems series at the University of California, Berkeley, kicks off its new season on Thursday, Sept. 2, with a reading by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. The free noontime program runs through May.
(25 August)
Students offered online discount to encourage responsible music downloading
Students at the University of California, Berkeley, will have discounted access to an online music service under a deal announced today (Tuesday, Aug. 24).Students will have unlimited access to RealNetworks' Rhapsody music library of more than 725,000 songs for $2 a month instead of the standard $9.95 a month. They will continue to pay 79 cents per song to download the music.
(24 August)
Lucky species queue up to have their genomes sequenced
Three UC Berkeley scientists are thrilled that their favorite species have been selected by DOE's Joint Genome Institute to have their genomes sequenced. During the next year, JGI will focus half its sequencing efforts on 23 projects, including moss, leech and parasite genomes proposed by Cal faculty.
(24 August)
Sister
joins sister at UC Berkeley as police continue search for their parents' murderer
A year after their parents were slain in a still-unsolved Sacramento shooting,
Trang Nguyen and her four siblings have accomplished tasks that would be trying
for
the most experienced adult. This fall Trang, a UC Berkeley junior, will pass
another milestone when her sister Nhung joins her at Cal, the third Nguyen child
to make it into a UC school.
(23 August)
Fall semester 2004 set to begin at UC Berkeley, where classes for most students start Aug. 30
Fall semester classes begin Monday, Aug. 30, at the University of California, Berkeley, for most of the estimated 32,650 students expected to enroll - including 3,713 freshmen, 1,725 new transfer students and 2,700 new graduate students.
(19 August)
Environmental award, expanded "green" programs this fall at UC Berkeley dining halls
Crossroads, the largest of four student dining commons at the University of California, Berkeley, recently became the first campus facility certified as a Bay Area Green Business by Alameda County officials.
(19 August)
New study suggests link between maternal diet and childhood leukemia risk
Women who eat more vegetables, fruit and foods containing protein before pregnancy may have a lower risk of having a child who develops leukemia, suggests a new UC Berkeley-led study. The study compared the diets of 276 women 12 months before pregnancy and found that higher intakes of vegetables, fruits and foods such as beef and fish corresponded to a lower risk of having a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer in the United States.
(19 August)
Business professor appointed to World Bank
The World Bank has appointed Paul J. Gertler, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the School of Public Health, as chief economist in its Human Development Network, effective Monday, Aug. 23.
(18 August)
When is a mouse like a test tube?
Injecting chemicals into the body invites all sorts of bad reactions, but UC Berkeley chemist Carolyn Bertozzi doesn't worry. She has chosen her chemicals carefully so that they don't react with any biological molecules, just one another. She has now shown that she can use living mice as reaction chambers for her unnatural chemicals, and in the process tag cells for possible use in medical diagnostics.
(18 August)
New climate change study predicts hotter summers, water shortage in California
Using the latest, most sensitive climate models to date, a team of 19 scientists, including a researcher from UC Berkeley, predicts that California will experience significantly hotter summers by 2100, with resulting impacts on human health and the availability of water that could upend the state's current water rights system.
(16 August)
Vibrations in crystal lattice plays big role in high temperature superconductors
High temperature superconductors are a mystery to physicists, who still don't understand how these ceramics conduct electricity without resistance at relatively warm temperatures. One explanation almost universally dismissed, however, is a contribution from the vibrating atoms of the crystal, which are responsible for conventional metallic superconductivity. A recent experiment shows clearly that crystal vibrations are important in high temperature superconductivity, and could lead researchers to new superconducting materials.
(16 August)
Nobel poet Czeslaw Milosz of Poland and Berkeley, one of the icons of the Solidarity movement, dies
Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, 93, one of the major poets of the 20th century, has died. At the Solidarity monument in Gdansk, there are three iconic figures: Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II and Milosz.
(15 August)
Cluster spacecraft catch crashing waves in Earth's magnetic bubble
The Northern Lights are fed by charged particles from the sun that sneak inside the Earth's protective magnetic bubble and spiral into the poles. While magnetic reconnection is one way for these energetic particles to get through the magnetic shield, a new and perhaps equally important mechanism has been discovered by a fleet of four orbiting spacecraft called Cluster.
(11 August)
Female fans have a rowdy ball at Cal Women's Football Huddle
What do you get when you combine 300 women, a dozen football coaches, and beer? The first annual Cal Women's Football Huddle, of course, complete with place kicking, hand-off demonstration, tight end stories, and a marriage proposal.
(10 August)
Website chronicles history of disability rights and independent living movement
Nearly 100 in-depth oral histories and a collection of unique archival materials documenting the disability rights and independent living movement are now available online through a new website hosted by the Bancroft Library’s Regional Oral History Office at UC Berkeley.
(10 August)
American Sociological Association's 99th annual conference to emphasize "public sociology"
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is opening the doors of its 2004 annual conference to the public for major addresses by internationally recognized authorities and activists on such topics as human rights, markets and power. This year's conference will be held in San Francisco.
(09 August)
At the Olympics, Cal swimmers become competitors, representing Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, Malaysia ...
At swimmers' training bases in Eastern Europe this summer, three UC Berkeley students, three alumni and an incoming freshman have been preparing together for the sports event of their lives – the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
(09 August)
Cal swimmer Miguel Molina to represent the Philippines in the Olympics
Miguel Molina, a 20-year-old UC Berkeley junior and a member of the Cal men's swim team, left Berkeley on Saturday for Athens, where he'll compete in the 2004 Olympic Games.
(09 August)
UC Berkeley Extension's Linda Hawn, creator of Fall Freshman Program, dies at 64
Linda Sharon Swingle Hawn, a longtime innovator in continuing education and a key leader at UC Berkeley Extension, died July 26, in Berkeley. She was 64.
(09 August)
Parasitic cowbirds thrive with less ruthless strategy than cuckoos
American cowbirds are parasites of the bird world. Like European cuckoos, they lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species and let someone else raise them. But a new study by UC Berkeley and Cambridge biologists shows that cowbirds thrive with a less ruthless strategy than cuckoos. Rather than killing rival nestmates, a cowbird chick uses them to make more noise and draw more parental attention and food, then eats the bulk of it.
(05 August)
UC Berkeley researchers lead reconstruction of Temple of Zeus in tribute to New Nemean Games
As runners from the around the world competed in Greece last weekend on an old clay track, the Temple of Zeus stood watch from the same place it did when athletes raced there 2,300 years ago. Restoring the temple has been a labor of love that has revealed ingenious and unexpected engineering techniques.
(04 August)
UC Berkeley offers freshman admission to 270 students previously diverted to community college for two years
Approximately 270 high school graduates who had planned to spend two years at a community college before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, as juniors, are about to receive some terrific news. Today (Tuesday, Aug. 3) many of them will open their e-mail to read congratulatory letters offering them admission to UC Berkeley as freshmen. The news is also being sent to them in the mail.
(03 August)
UC Berkeley study estimates Wal-Mart employment policies cost California taxpayers $86 million a year
Employment policies at Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, cost California taxpayers approximately $86 million a year in public assistance to company workers, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study released today. The study indicates that Wal-Mart workers in California rely on the state for about $32 million annually in health-related services, and $54 million a year in other assistance such as subsidized school lunches, food stamps and subsidized housing.
(02 August)
Novartis agreement became "lightning rod" for debate on future direction of public universities, finds external review
A new external review of a much-debated $25 million research-support
contract between the University of California, Berkeley, and agricultural biotechnology
company Syngenta, formerly Novartis, finds that the worst
fears – and the best hopes – surrounding the agreement failed to materialize.
(30 July)
UC Berkeley summit to help youth in public housing build healthy communities
About 75 adult administrators and youth from 15 federal housing projects across the United States are coming together at the University of California, Berkeley, Aug. 4-7 to learn skills to develop and deliver messages that promote healthy communities.
(30 July)
Grace Katagiri, manager of the Department of Economics Econometrics Laboratory, dies
Grace Katagiri, manager of the Department of Economics Econometrics Laboratory and of the Institute of Business and Economic Research’s new research facility, the Experimental Social Science Laboratory (XLab), died July 21 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
(29 July)
Study finds that the economy now matters little to prospective voters
The economy is fading as an issue in the forefront of American's minds as they decide between the two major party presidential candidates. And increasingly, potential voters are turning their attention to other issues, especially "family values."
(28 July)
New Music Library open
The University of California, Berkeley's new state-of-the-art Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library is open for business. More space, the latest technology, climate controls, heightened security and room for projected growth are among key features of the new home for what has been long rated the No. 1 academic music library in the United States.
(28 July)
A few words of advice for the incoming chancellor
To give the new chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, and his wife, Mary Catherine, a head start on settling in at UC Berkeley and its host city, we asked students, faculty, and staff if they had any advice for the new arrivals. Not surprisingly for the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, our respondents had strong opinions on everything from coffee to crosswalks.
(27 July)
What Birgeneau believes
During his tenure at the University of Toronto, Robert Birgeneau has written and spoken frequently, and often forcefully, on a range of topics he views as crucial not just to that campus, nor to the Canadian academic community, but to people everywhere who are interested and engaged in the progress of education and human values. Often his themes have focused on issues of topical concern to faculty, students, and staff at UC Berkeley. A sampling follows.
(27 July)
A warm welcome from Chancellor Berdahl
Outgoing Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl welcomes Robert Birgeneau to the Berkeley campus as its ninth chancellor, saying he is "confident that Bob will provide superb and distinguished leadership to Berkeley."
(27 July)
Robert J. Birgeneau appointed UC Berkeley chancellor
Robert J. Birgeneau, an internationally distinguished physicist and current president of the University of Toronto, was today appointed the ninth chancellor of UC Berkeley by the UC Board of Regents.
(27 July)
Time is right for hydrogen fuel in California, concludes new policy report
California is poised to become a global leader in clean energy with a sustainable "hydrogen economy," but only if there is strategic investment in renewable energy research and development, says a new report published by UC Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.
(26 July)
New UC Berkeley chancellor to be appointed on Tuesday, July 27
The University of California Board of Regents will meet on Tuesday, July 27 to
appoint a new UC Berkeley chancellor.
(23 July)
New deans appointed for College of Chemistry and IAS
A distinguished chemist with many years on the Berkeley faculty and a sociologist who is an expert in East Asian Studies have been named as new deans for the Berkeley campus by Chancellor Robert Berdahl.
(22 July)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the campus community
(22 July)
Haas School’s high-tech research facility tests social-science theories
XLab, a new research facility at the Haas School of Business, is helping to lead a scientific revolution by bringing controlled laboratory experiments to social-science fields that, until now, have not made much use of experimentation.
(22 July)
Dozens of Berkeley employees pursue their college dreams, hitting the books after punching the clock
The Berkeleyan spoke with three staffers who are juggling their work and their personal lives to make time for something equally important to them: a Berkeley education.
(22 July)
New Bear Pass to help campus employees leave their cars at home
In an unprecedented pilot program, more than 8,000 UC Berkeley employees will soon be offered an unlimited use AC Transit system pass that includes the trans-bay service for $240 a year - a major discount over what the general public pays.
(19 July)
UC Berkeley launches search for new CITRIS director
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl announced today (Friday, July 16) that the university will begin an immediate search for a new director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). Professor Ruzena Bajcsy has decided to step down as director of the institute Nov. 1.
(16 July)
Satellite experiment snaps photos of sprites, jets and elves
Some one thousand thunderstorms are crackling around the globe at any given time, and many if not most are sending lightning up into the ionosphere as well as down to Earth. A new experiment called ISUAL, launched in May aboard a Taiwanese satellite, is now returning photos of these puzzling upper atmosphere discharges, dubbed sprites, jets, elves and halos.
(16 July)
UC Berkeley research shows flies taste food like we do
UC Berkeley neuroscientist Kristin Scott and her colleagues showed that fruit flies have receptors devoted to sweet and bitter tastes just like humans in the first detailed genetic study of fly taste receptors.
(15 July)
Biochemist Hiroshi Nikaido honored for research on antibiotic-resistant bacteria
The pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb has chosen Dr. Hiroshi Nikaido to receive its annual "Freedom to Discover" award in infectious disease, in honor of the biochemist's groundbreaking contributions to understanding bacterial resistance to antibiotics and insights that led to the design of more effective antibiotics.
(15 July)
Xlab, a new high tech research facility, tests social science theories
UC Berkeley's new Xlab, a high tech research facility, is testing social science theories to help real world business problems. Until now, the social sciences have not made much use of such experimentation.
(13 July)
UC Berkeley professor emeritus William Kornhauser dies at age 79
William Kornhauser, a University of California, Berkeley, emeritus professor of sociology and author of a landmark book on mass society and extremism, died of a heart attack in his Berkeley home on July 3. He was 79.
(12 July)
The secret lives of faculty, part 2: Mountaineering, kite aerial photography and more
Physics professor Alex Zettl tells why he likes climbing into thin air, Architecture's
Cris Benton reveals how kites have taken him all over the world, Archaeology's
Ruth Tringham sings the praises of the San Francisco Symphony, East Asian Languages' Mack
Horton trumpets his love for jazz, and psychology professor Stephen E. Palmer
proudly introduces his equine family.
(08 July)
How worms' noses sense oxygen
Organisms must be able to sniff the oxygen level around them, whether it's worms who need to skirt areas of toxically high oxygen or the body's cells that must react to bring in more oxygen. But how do these organisms sense oxygen concentration? UC Berkeley and UCSF scientists have now discovered one such oxygen sensor in the nose of the nematode C. elegans.
(07 July)
UC Berkeley researcher wins award for work on human thermal comfort model
Researcher Zhang Hui has helped develop a sophisticated mathematical model to predict human thermal comfort that can be used to design energy-efficient temperature systems that make people more comfortable in vehicles, buildings and outdoor spaces.
(07 July)
Nanoparticles stiff from constant strain
Nanoparticles are such new and novel materials that scientists are still puzzled by their properties, which can differ radically from the properties of pieces of the same material a thousand times bigger. Now, UC Berkeley researchers have found that these submicroscopic particles of matter have not only strange optical and electronic properties, but their crystal structure is under constant strain, altering stiffness and perhaps other properties, such as elasticity and strength.
(06 July)
Ronni Gravitz, UC Berkeley retirement center program manager, dies
Ronni Gravitz, UC Berkeley Retirement Center program manager, died Sunday, June 20, from complications from breast cancer. She was 59. Just 10 days before her death she was presented with the Berkeley Citation, an award that honors those who have provided exemplary service to the University.
(30 June)
L&S, chemistry debut new online science magazine
ScienceMatters@Berkeley, a new online science magazine from the College of Letters & Science and the College of Chemistry, highlights emerging unity of the natural sciences.
(30 June)
The secret lives of faculty, part 1: Scuba diving, dressage, ballroom dancing, and more
Amazingly, many UC Berkeley professors find the time to pursue avocations far outside their academic fields. In this, the first of two installments, Boalt Hall Law professor Jesse Choper reveals his gambling habit, East Asian Studies' T.J. Pempel talks about scuba diving with Jerry Garcia, Education's Glynda Hull explains why horseback riding is like teaching; George Chang of Nutritional Science tells why he's "CopCar George"; L&S Undergraduate Dean Robert Holub dissects ballroom dancing's appeal; and Astronomy professor Chung-Pei Ma tells how she learned what 3/4 time meant when she was four.
(28 June)
Performance
artist plays bridge – the Golden Gate variety
When performance artist Jon Brumit came across a discarded 9-foot steel replica
of the Golden Gate Bridge, he knew instantly that this piece of trash was a treasure.
On Wednesday, June 30, Brumit and the bridge will present an aural and artistic
vision of commuting as part of the West Coast premiere of “Key of Z: Experimental
Instruments and the Music They Make” at the Pacific Film Archive.
(25 June)
A
fly's taste experience is much like ours
That fly buzzing around your sandwich is after the same taste sensation you are.
New research by neuroscientist Kristin Scott shows that flies taste the same
flavor notes as we do - at least sweet and bitter - though they taste with bristles
scattered all over their body.
(25 June)
Tien Center project reaches $42 million goal; construction set to begin on new East Asian library next year
Thanks to a recent $500,000 gift, the University of California, Berkeley has reached its $42 million fundraising goal to construct the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies/C.V. Starr East Asian Library. The donation from Lister Chang, a UC Berkeley alumnus, and his wife, Christina, follows the April 23 site dedication for what will be a state-of-the-art facility located next to Memorial Glade and facing Doe Library.
(24 June)
Charles Susskind, UC Berkeley professor emeritus and co-founder of campus bioengineering program, dies at 82
Charles Susskind, professor emeritus of electrical engineering and a co-founder of bioengineering studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has died at the age of 82. Susskind died June 15 at his home in Berkeley after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
(24 June)
Researchers detail Bay Area landslides with powerful new space-born imaging techniques
Researchers detail Bay Area landslides with powerful new space-born imaging techniques
(24 June)
Physician who helped stem the SARS epidemic now a prisoner of China's political time warp
Surgeon Jiang Yanyong's exposé of the SARS epidemic cover-up forced China's government to confront the disease, averting a public-health catastrophe. Now, the surgeon and his wife have disappeared, becoming apparent prisoners of the Chinese government.
(23 June)
Sproul Plaza facelift nears completion
Construction crews are nearing the finish line in their million-dollar overhaul of Upper Sproul Plaza, the vibrant heart of the UC Berkeley campus. Construction fences should come down by the end of June, when work on replacing the plaza's potholed surface, adding handrails and otherwise improving accessibility and safety is due to be completed
(22 June)
Main UC Berkeley website back online after early morning web server failure
The main website at UC Berkeley, which went down early Tuesday morning (June 22), was back online by 9:15 thanks to prompt action by the server team and a fortuitous turn of events.
(22 June)
New report finds potential doctor shortage in California's future
A new report finds that although the current supply of California physicians is adequate, there are persistent shortages of doctors in low-income and rural counties, particularly those with high Hispanic populations. Moreover, there are troubling signs of a future doctor shortage because many physicians are likely to retire over the next five to 10 years, the report says.
(22 June)
Chu hailed at UC Berkeley as "ideal match" for lab, campus
News of Steven Chu's appointment as the new director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was met with unequivocal excitement Thursday from many on the UC Berkeley campus, several of whom have personally worked with the Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
(17 June)
The rules of war: Emergency rule leaves us morally ill at ease
David D. Caron, a professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, answers the question, 'Are the current rules of war ill-suited to the war on terrorism?' in an op-ed piece reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle and run alongside an opposing view from Boalt Hall's John C. Yoo.
(15 June)
The rules of war: Sept. 11 has changed the rules
John C, Yoo, a professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, answers the question, 'Are the current rules of war ill-suited to the war on terrorism?' in an op-ed piece reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle and run alongside an opposing view from Boalt Hall's David Caron.
(15 June)
Summer workshop exploring neglected papyrus texts
A dozen students from around the world convened today (Monday, June 14) at the University of California, Berkeley's Center for the Tebtunis Papyri to learn new skills and take a concentrated look at some of the center's neglected Egyptian papyrus texts dating back to the third century B.C. "There's no way to say for sure exactly what they will find, but I think we'll have some exciting discoveries," said Todd Hickey, papyrologist and curator of the center that houses the largest papyri collection in the United States. The six-week seminar at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library is funded by the campus and takes place under the auspices of the American Society of Papyrologists as part of a plan to hold summer programs in papyrology at each of nine participating universities in the United States and one in Canada.
(14 June)
UC Berkeley names two new deans
A distinguished chemist with many years on the faculty and a sociologist who is an expert in East Asian studies have been named as new deans at the University of California, Berkeley, campus by Chancellor Robert Berdahl.
(14 June)
Supreme Court sidesteps Pledge of Allegiance issue, but the legal question will resurface predicts law school professor
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling rejecting a challenge to the use of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance sidestepped the constitutional question, which likely will resurface, said law school professor Jesse Choper.
(14 June)
Trouble alarms
jangle nerves, scramble technicians across campus
Trouble alarms have been sounding in buildings around campus since last Friday,
driving workers to distraction and scrambling phone technicians to try to stifle
the
beeps and root out their source.
(14 June)
Thinking the unthinkable: Political science professor Steven Weber imagines Iraq — and the world — after June 30
UC Berkeley professor of political science Steven Weber poses some hard questions:
what would happen if the U.S. were abruptly to leave Iraq? if Iraq were to fracture
into three states? if a major Saudi oil installation were attacked?
(14 June)
New survey of obese women finds many started dieting before age 14
Findings of a new survey should counter the myth that obese people have never made a serious effort to manage their weight, according to the UC Berkeley researcher who led the study. The survey found that nearly two-thirds of women with BMIs over 30 went on their first diet before age 14 and, as adults, were more likely to be heavier than obese women who started dieting after age 14.
(09 June)
UC system to remain open on Day of Mourning for Reagan
University of California offices and campuses will remain open on Friday, June 11, which has been declared a National Day of Mourning by President Bush and, in California, by Governor Schwarzenegger in memory of the late President Ronald Reagan.
(09 June)
UC Berkeley launches oral history project on Earl Warren's clerks
Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the University of California, Berkeley's Regional Oral History Office is documenting the experiences of former law clerks for Chief Justice Earl Warren, who headed the bench at the time of the ruling. Four of the 55 former clerks still living - there were 62 clerks in all - are on the faculty at the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). The oral history office plans this year to interview all of the clerks who are interested in participating in the project.
(08 June)
Ronald
Reagan launched political career using the Berkeley campus as a target
Ronald Reagan, who died this week, launched his political career with a vow "to clean up the mess at Berkeley." Reagan fired UC President Clark Kerr, dispatched the National Guard to campus, initiated what amounted to the beginning of student tuition fees, and tried to impose a political standard for appointing some faculty.
(08 June)
Haas dean Tom Campbell assesses Reagan's legacy for modern conservatives - and for President Bush
Tom Campbell, the former Republican congressman who is now dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, tells how the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan made conservatism acceptable again, why social conservatives ignore his policies as California governor, and how Reaganomics-era deficits differ critically from the Bush administration's.
(08 June)
Unofficial Summer Reading List looks at lighter side
Before they hit their textbooks in the fall, incoming freshmen at the University of California, Berkeley, are getting campus recommendations for summer reading that is funny - or just plain fun. The unofficial UC Berkeley Summer Reading List, an institution of sorts since 1988, is a collection of books that faculty and staff offer up to new students as enjoyable, enlightening reading. Selections this year come from the Presidential Chair Fellows and Mellon Library/Faculty Fellows for Undergraduate Research.
(07 June)
Supposed head-butting dinosaurs didn't
Dome-headed dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs are widely depicted as crashing head-to-head much like bighorn sheep today. Two paleontologists have now shown that the internal structure of the dome is not built to absorb such blows. Instead, the dome probably supported a colorful head ornament like a horn or comb.
(07 June)
Conferences focus on saving native languages
Chochenyo, the language of the Muwekma Ohlone people, has been silent since the 1930s, but a handful of tribal members working with mentors from the University of California, Berkeley's linguistics department are bringing it back to life. Tribal chair Rosemary Cambra and Monica Arellano, co-chair of the Muwekma Ohlone Language Committee, will share their success story at the "Breath of Life: Silent No More" conference at UC Berkeley as it opens this Saturday, June 5. They also will offer a Chochenyo welcome at a second conference on campus starting Thursday, June 10, and featuring language educators from around the world.
(04 June)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley community
(03 June)
Mark Danner: The transformation of the U.S. from a nation that did not torture to one that does
In a two-part article, Journalism professor Mark Danner says that since 9-11, from Bagram in Afghanistan to Guantanamo in Cuba to Abu Ghraib in Iraq, U.S. agents have systematically tortured prisoners. Danner says the Bush Administration's decision to employ "high pressure methods" to extract "actionable intelligence" from prisoners officially transformed the U.S. from a nation that did not torture to one that did.
(02 June)
SPEAR peers at supernova blast wave
Among the first results from the SPEAR far ultraviolet telescope launched last year is a revealing picture of the blast wave from a 10,000-year-old exploding star now known as the Vela supernova remnant. SPEAR is imaging these and other objects as it maps the "warm" gas - 10,000 to a million degrees Kelvin - in the Milky Way galaxy.
(02 June)
Was 17th century solar funk a rarity?
Ever since a dip in the sun's activity during the 17th century was linked with a long-term cold spell during the same period, astronomers have been looking for stellar analogs of this solar funk. UC Berkeley astronomers now throw cold water on that search.--
(01 June)
UC Berkeley teams with Taiwanese research institute to spur tech development
Taiwan's largest research organization, the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), is linking up with the University of California, Berkeley, to tap into the campus's innovative research environment and its connections with Silicon Valley.--
(01 June)
Nearly one-third of the calories in the US diet comprised of junk food, researcher finds
A UC Berkeley researcher finds that foods such as sweets, sodas and alcohol are providing nearly one-third of the calories in the US diet. The sobering analysis by Gladys Block, professor at the School of Public Health, shows how common nutrient-poor calories are in the foods we eat.
(01 June)
College of Engineering Commencement features a winning proposal
Who says engineers aren't romantic? On May 22, Mike Chen, Computer Science Ph.D. '04, popped the question via a Commencement poster to Jackey Wang, a Berkeley Engineering alumna. Fortunately for the big moment's witnesses in the Greek Theatre, she said yes.
(26 May)
Passports now available on campus
The Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) recently opened a passport office where applicants may obtain a new or renew an existing passport.
(26 May)
Students, faculty, parents rail against cuts to higher education at Berkeley event
A legislative hearing convened on campus in the wake of a higher education budget compact with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger elicited tales of anger and dismay from students, parents, faculty, taxpayers, and some legislators over the compact, the ongoing cuts to higher-education budgets statewide, and the implications of these perceived reversals on the future of California.
(24 May)
Professor receives National Science Foundation's top teaching award
Mechanical engineering professor Alice Agogino was among eight academics awarded NSF's highest honor for teaching and research excellence, the Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars.
(24 May)
Legislators to hold hearing on campus about effect of budget cuts
The California Assembly Committee on Higher Education will hold an informal public hearing May 21 at Berkeley's International House. Titled "Will the California Promise of Higher Education for Students Be Kept?," the event's participants include Assemblymembers Wilma Chan, Loni Hancock, Ellen Corbett, Mark Leno, Carol Liu, and Darrell Steinberg. Focusing primarily on the Berkeley experience, the hearing will feature many members of the campus community, including faculty, students, and staff.
(20 May)
BAS Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell appointed president of CSU Bakersfield
UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell has accepted an offer to serve as president of California State University, Bakersfield. Mitchell, 59, will officially begin working at Bakersfield on July 15.
(20 May)
UC Berkeley study documents taxpayer costs to help working poor
Two million California families in which one or more family members works rely on publicly funded safety net programs - at a cost to taxpayers of $10 billion a year, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study being released today (Thursday, May 20).The report, "The Hidden Public Costs of Low-Wage Jobs in California," by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, analyzed the participation in 2002 of working families in the 10 largest statewide safety net programs, including Medi-Cal, CalWorks, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps and housing vouchers.
(20 May)
To elicit disgust in her experimental subjects, psychologist taps "Fear Factor"
If you want to truly disgust someone, what better way than to force them to watch NBC-TV's "Fear Factor," a reality show that revels in forcing contestants to consume things never meant to be eaten. So reasoned psychologist Michelle Shiota, who just received permission from NBC to use clips from the show in an experiment to see how people control their emotional reactions.
(20 May)
In
California, a misguided battle over race
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education details the logic behind the University of California's "comprehensive review" admissions process, by which all applicants are evaluated not only on test scores and grades, but also on leadership, motivation, and achievement.
(19 May)
Reginald Zelnik, prominent UC Berkeley professor of Russian history, dies at age 68
Professor Reginald Zelnik, a distinguished scholar in Russian and Soviet history at the University of California, Berkeley, who courageously defended students during the tumultuous Free Speech Movement and mentored countless young Russian history scholars, died on Monday (May 17) at age 68. He was killed when a delivery truck accidentally backed into him as he was walking on campus.
(18 May)
Commencement 2004 offers grads an only-at-Berkeley celebration
Wednesday’s Commencement Convocation at the Greek Theatre melded tradition, innovation, homilies, profundities, earnestness, flippancy, poetry, protest, and celebration into something both instantly recognizable as a conventional graduation event and distinctly Berkeley.
(14 May)
Commencement 2004: Full Coverage
Convocation coverage includes stories on Berkeley's top graduating students, a convocation slide show, webcasts and articles on the key speakers.
(14 May)
University
Medal Finalist: After changing her major and her mind, Deann Del Rio takes on modern medicine
More freshmen begin UC Berkeley aspiring to work in medicine than in any other field, but quite a few subsequently change their minds once they discover how difficult the pre-med path is. University Medal finalist Deann Del Rio, however, decided to become pre-med only in her last year of college and after a very circuitous path. A fiercely independent thinker, Del Rio won't be accompanying her Berkeley classmates to Harvard Medical School, either: she intends to become a midwife.
(13 May)
University
Medal Finalist: Would-be physician Maria Garcia gives back to the Latin-American community
When University Medal finalist Maria-Esteli Garcia advises fellow students to "go with the flow and be open to different experiences" as they consider career paths, she knows what she's talking about. A chance discovery during a summer 2001 research project opened the Latin-American Studies major's eyes to what she wanted to do: become a doctor who specializes in public health.
(13 May)
Commencement speaker Ted Koppel on journalism, Iraq and Berkeley
In an interview with Media Relations, ABC News "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel, the keynote speaker at the 2004 Commencement Convocation, talks about his journalism career, the conflict in Iraq and what he’ll tell graduates at the ceremony.
(12 May)
Ernest Greenwood, professor emeritus of social welfare, dies at 93
Ernest Greenwood, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of social welfare whose work in research methodology has influenced generations of social scientists, died Tuesday, May 4. Greenwood died of lung cancer at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif. He was 93.
(12 May)
University
Medal Finalist: David Young relies on faith and family to bring his vision to life
UC Berkeley senior David Young has made the university's motto, "Fiat Lux" ("Let there be light"), a guiding philosophy in his life, with quite visible results. This MCB major has performed graduate-level neurobiology research that may some day bring vision to the seeing-impaired, founded a software company whose products include a football game playable by blind people, and written plays for church camps to teach children about the Bible. For these and other accomplishments, he was chosen as one of five finalists for the University Medal, the highest honor given to a graduating senior.
(12 May)
Dramatic decline of native Sierra Nevada frog linked to introduced trout
Anglers love fishing the cold, high-Sierra lakes for golden and rainbow trout, but few realize that above about 6,000 feet, most of these lakes historically had no fish. In high-elevation lakes with planted trout, the fish have basically extirpated a native frog, the mountain yellow-legged frog, according to a new study. The good news is, eliminating the trout from these lakes leads to a quick rebound in the frog populations.
(12 May)
Americans evaluating presidential candidates based largely on situation in Iraq, say UC Berkeley researchers
A new survey from the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center says Americans are so affected by the situation in Iraq that their evaluation of Bush and Kerry is based largely on what the candidates have to say about that issue.
(11 May)
UC Provost M.R.C. Greenwood says stronger science education critical for U.S. competitiveness
M.R.C. Greenwood, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs for the UC System, spoke May 10 at a biotech conference hosted by the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research about about the critical role played by research universities. She praised interdisciplinary work and warned assembled researchers, investors, and businesspeople of a the coming drought of qualified scientists and engineers.
(11 May)
Unanimous faculty vote calls for resistance to Patriot Act 'infringement' of rights
In an unusual unanimous vote, the Berkeley Division of the UC Academic Senate has approved a resolution challenging the federal Patriot Act and its application on campus. The faculty called on Chancellor Berdahl and his successor to "take every legally protected step to challenge and resist" any law-enforcement actions under that act that violate civil rights or civil liberties.
(10 May)
University
Medal Finalist: From Istanbul to Berkeley, Perin Gurel is on the lookout for new challenges
Berkeley may be her third university home and English her second language, but
University Medal finalist Perin Gurel has made this campus hers
in
four
short
semesters.
The
double
major
in English and American Studies believes that "when you're in America, you
should study America" — but she intends to extend that motto by teaching
in as many foreign countries as possible.
(10 May)
University
Medal Finalist: Leadership depends on dialogue, says ex-ASUC president Jesse Gabriel
One of five finalists for UC Berkeley's 2004 University Medal, Jesse Gabriel can usually be found in the thick of things. The political science major, who served as president of the ASUC during the 2002-03 school year, a time of heated campus activism over escalating Mideast violence, successfully improved communication between Muslim and Jewish student groups.
(10 May)
Journalist Ted Koppel to speak at UC Berkeley's 2004 Commencement Convocation
Ted Koppel, anchor and managing editor of ABC News "Nightline," will deliver the keynote address at the University of California, Berkeley's 2004 Commencement Convocation on Thursday, May 13, at 4pm at the Greek Theatre. The ceremony, which is not open to the public, honors the estimated 10,000 students who have become eligible during the school year for undergraduate and graduate degrees at UC Berkeley.
(07 May)
John Rowe, authority on Peruvian archaeology, dies at 85.
John Howland Rowe, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of anthropology and an authority on Peruvian archaeology, died May 1 in a Berkeley nursing home due to complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 85.
(07 May)
Four UC Berkeley faculty honored this week by White House
Four faculty researchers received awards this week from the White House. Geneticist Abby Dernburg, physicist Dan Stamper-Kurn and computer scientist Ion Stoica were recognized for their early career success, while biomedical engineer Lisa Pruitt was honored for mentoring underrepresented students in engineering.
(07 May)
A billion new consumers: Future challenges to the planet's sustainability
With the rapid development of countries around the world, more than a billion new consumers will place ever-greater stress on the Earth's natural resources, said Norman Myers, a man who has been called the Paul Revere of the environmental movement.
(06 May)
Sediments in many Central Valley streams contain toxic levels of pyrethroid pesticides
Pyrethroid pesticides such as permethrin, sprayed around the home and increasingly on many crops, have been replacing the more restricted organophosphate pesticides, but are they more benign? A new study of stream sediments throughout California's Central Valley shows that many contain toxic levels of pyrethroids sufficient to kill indicator organisms such as amphipods and midge larvae.
(06 May)
New program offers secure parking for bicycle commuters
The campus’s Parking & Transportation department has installed secure, indoor bicycle parking facilities at five locations throughout campus.
(05 May)
Graduate-student teaching takes center stage
The contributions of graduate student instructors and the faculty who mentor their development as teachers are being amply celebrated this month, in two award ceremonies sponsored by the Graduate Division’s GSI Teaching and Resource Center.
(05 May)
The dangers of media lite
Maureen Orth, a longtime writer for Vanity Fair magazine (and a 1964 Berkeley graduate), spoke to an audience at the Graduate School of Journalism on April 28 during a promotional tour for her new book, The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex.
(05 May)
Berdahl rallies Sacramento support in daylong visit
With Governor Schwarzenegger’s revised state budget for next year due to be issued this month, Chancellor Robert Berdahl spent a day last week in Sacramento, meeting with key legislators and members of the governor’s staff to advocate for UC Berkeley and higher education as the state’s purse strings continue to tighten.
(05 May)
Graduate dorm named for a woman of many firsts
In a triumph of history over prosaic functionality, the campus recently unveiled the new name of a 120-bed residential complex for graduate students. What had been known as the College-Durant apartments, easily found at the intersection of College and Durant Avenues in Berkeley, a block south of the campus, will henceforth be called the Ida Louise Jackson Graduate House.
(05 May)
Solid fuel cell technology takes first at UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition
An economically viable fuel cell technology that will save long-haul freight truckers thousands of dollars in diesel fuel every year has won the $25,000 grand prize at the sixth annual University of California, Berkeley, Business Plan Competition at the Haas School of Business.
(03 May)
AAAS announces 2004 fellows, who include seven UC Berkeley professors
Seven professors at the University of California, Berkeley, are among the 178 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their leadership in scholarship, business, the arts and public affairs.
(03 May)
UC Berkeley: Psychologist Leo Postman dies at 85
Leo Joseph Postman, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a dominant figure in the study of human memory, died on April 22 of heart failure at his home in Marblehead, Mass. He was 85.
(03 May)
Inequality and social empathy: An interview with Robert Reich
Robert Reich, one of the most prominent critics of wealth disparity in the United States, talks about how rising inequality and dwindling social empathy are breaking down the social contract, and what we can do about it. Reich, a distinguished visiting professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy this semester, will deliver a public lecture on the topic on Tuesday, May 4.
(03 May)
UC Berkeley anthropology professor working on organs trafficking
A University of California, Berkeley, medical anthropologist is helping authorities in Brazil, Israel and South Africa investigate a shocking new "slave triangle" in which the poor are being taken to distant cities by criminal syndicates and coerced into selling their organs for illegal transplants. "For the first time in investigations of trafficking, doctors are being arrested and hospitals cited,." said Nancy Scheper-Hughes, director of Organs Watch, a UC Berkeley-based documentation and research organization. "These arrests have traffickers very nervous."
(30 April)
Technique plucks rapidly evolving genes from a pathogen's genome
Infectious pathogens like malaria and tuberculosis are able to outwit the human immune system by constantly changing their outer coats. These quick-change artists do this by continually mutating the genes for the antigen proteins that cloak their exteriors. Researchers now have a new tool to pinpoint these rapidly evolving genes - a technique that quickly finds them within an organism's full genome.
(29 April)
Olympic medalist Jonny Moseley is back in training — as a student
Jonny Moseley may have his own video game, a Saturday Night Live gig and an Olympic gold medal, but in some ways he's just you're typical UC Berkeley student. He hasn't yet picked a major, and he's wondering what he'll do for the next 50 years of his life.
(28 April)
UC Berkeley professor proposes potential solution to California's skyrocketing gasoline prices to legislators
A proposal that a UC Berkeley economics professor says could unlock California's gas market and lower its gasoline prices was presented today to the legislature.
(28 April)
Winner of UC Berkeley's University Medal, top honor for a graduate, urges new students to make campus "feel like home"
Margaret Ann-Chia Chow, winner of the 2004 University Medal, the campus's top
honor for a graduating senior with outstanding accomplishments, took time not
just to study but to enjoy life during her years at UC Berkeley. "Make this
campus yours" is her mantra for new students.
(27 April)
Five UC Berkeley professors to be honored today
Five faculty members at the University of California, Berkeley, will join the campus's elite ranks of teaching excellence today (Tuesday, April 27) when they are presented with the 2004 Distinguished Teaching Award.
(27 April)
In Mexico, steep social and environmental costs from flood of U.S. corn imports
A river of cheap American corn began flooding into Mexico after NAFTA took effect in 1994, and it has wreaked havoc on Mexico's land, writes UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan. Small farmers are being forced off their land, selling out to larger farmers who adopt environmentally damaging practices in order to compete.
(26 April)
UC Berkeley receives $1 million gift for planned Chang-Lin Tien Center
The University of California, Berkeley, recently received a $1 million gift from Silicon Valley businessman Saul Yeung for the new Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies.
(26 April)
Campus libraries seek a more perfect union
A new task-force reports that there are more sectors to the Berkeley library system than meet the eye.
(21 April)
Good news, bad news … and a lot of laughs
In a lively talk marked by erudition and comic timing, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, a visiting professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, addressed a Wheeler Hall audience of more than 700 last week.
(21 April)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(21 April)
Mantis shrimp may have swiftest kick in the animal kingdom
Animals snap and kick and pummel to subdue their prey, but who delivers the fastest punch? With the help of a high-speed camera, UC Berkeley researchers have found a creature -- the mantis shrimp -- that breaks all previous records. Plus, it uses a novel saddle-shaped spring to achieve such speed.
(21 April)
Expert predicts global climate change on Jupiter as giant planet's spots disappear
Jupiter's cyclonic storms have been vanishing, setting the stage for a major global climate shift on the giant planet within the next decade, predicts a UC Berkeley expert in fluid dynamics. Not to fear, though. Jupiter's most famous storm, the Great Red Spot, will remain intact for the time being.
(21 April)
UC Berkeley: 4 faculty among new National Academy of Science Members
Four UC Berkeley faculty were elected on April 20 to the National Academy of Sciences, bringing the total number of faculty in the prestigious organization to 132.
(20 April)
New e-mail threat invades campus in-boxes
A new worm or virus disguised as return-to-sender e-mail is making the rounds on campus, clogging in-boxes and putting system administrators on alert as they try to thwart it.
(20 April)
UC Berkeley release fall 2004 freshman admission information
According to figures released today (Tuesday, April 20) by UC Berkeley officials, 8,887 high school students from across the state were offered admission, and they comprise an extraordinarily talented group. These students meet or exceed the previous fall's admitted class in SAT scores, grade point averages and honors courses taken. And many of them exhibit vast talents beyond the classroom. But for campus officials, this time of great excitement is tempered by their disappointment with data on underrepresented students offered admission to UC Berkeley...
(20 April)
From tears to togas: Campus honors outgoing Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl and his wife, Peg Berdahl
The official occasion was Charter Day, the 136th anniversary of the university's founding, but the ceremony's true purpose was more poignant: to bid farewell to Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl and his wife, Peg. In June, Berdahl will step down from the office he has held since March 1997. Despite tributes from faculty, students, and staff that preceded the bestowing of Berkeley Citations on both Berdahls, the chancellor offered a tough look at his own accomplishments.
(16 April)
Three UC Berkeley professors win Guggenheims
Three professors in the University of California, Berkeley's College of Letters & Science are among the 185 winners of the 2004 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship. They are Neil Fligstein of sociology, Lorna Hutson of English, and Niklaus Largier of German.
(16 April)
Keck Telescope images yield movie of Titan's hydrocarbon haze
New instruments mounted on the Keck Telescope in Hawaii have allowed astronomers to take pictures of the hydrocarbon haze on Saturn's moon Titan, providing a preview movie of what the Huygens probe will see as it plummets through Titan's atmosphere next January.
(15 April)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(15 April)
UC Berkeley releases visionary land use plan; draft proposal would guide campus development through 2020
The University of California, Berkeley, today (Thursday, April 15) released its draft Long Range Development Plan and environmental impact report, vital documents that could direct the development of the campus for the next 15 years. Formally called the draft UC Berkeley 2020 Long Range Development Plan and Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies Environmental Impact Report, this bound set of documents consists of a land use plan followed by an environmental analysis of that plan and of the Tien Center, the first project proposed under the plan.
(15 April)
Best practices make, if not perfect, pretty darn close
The draft 2020 LRDP looks closely at the environmental impacts of proposed campus development over the next 15 years. Such concerns have translated into action at Berkeley in the form of programs large and small over the years, serving to improve and preserve the campus environment.
(14 April)
Making Cal’s case in Sacramento
As Sacramento finalizes a new state budget, the Berkeley campus is spearheading a comprehensive effort to make its voice heard in the halls of government.
(14 April)
All-too-human resources
Last July, in a major move intended to revolutionize the campus’s hiring practices, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) introduced eRecruit, an online employment system that promised to automate, systematize, and accelerate the cumbersome old ways. But has that promise been fulfilled?
(14 April)
Conference, exhibits probe science and personality of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb
Brilliant and bohemian, J. Robert Oppenheimer built UC Berkeley's theoretical physics group to the best in the nation. Yet his ascent to become director of the Manhattan Project, and subsequent fall as the target of communist hunters, made him one of the 20th century's most tragic figures. A conference and library exhibits this month explore Oppenheimer's science, his life and his personality.
(13 April)
Memo: Cal Day Highlights
UC Berkeley: Hour by hour Highlights for Cal Day 2004, Saturday, April 17.
(13 April)
Investment in renewable energy better for jobs as well as environment
A new assessment of the economic effects of building up this country's renewable energy sector reinforces the results of previous studies: that investing in renewable energy sources creates more jobs than an equivalent investment in the fossil fuel sector that dominate the energy industry today.
(13 April)
Faculty salary challenge is growing at UC, regents told
Faculty salaries, one of the keys to recruiting and retaining a world-class faculty, are in serious trouble at the University of California, according to a recent presentation to the UC Board of Regents.
(13 April)
Professor Janet Yellen Appointed President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Professor Janet L. Yellen has been appointed president & chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, according to George M. Scalise, chairman of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Board of Directors.
(12 April)
Vitamin C reduces level of disease biomarker, finds UC Berkeley-led study
A new study led by UC Berkeley researchers is giving yet another boost to vitamin C's healthy reputation. They found that people who took 500 milligrams of vitamin C supplements per day saw a 24 percent drop in levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation in the body. The study is published in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
(12 April)
Experiment harnesses state-of-the-art sequencing technology to detect life on Mars
Now that evidence has been found for water on Mars, could that mean there once
was life? A UC Berkeley chemist and QB3 researcher has teamed with JPL and Scripps
scientists to build an instrument they say could test definitively for the presence
of life on the Red Planet. Using some of the same technology as found in today's
DNA sequencers, the instrument could fly aboard NASA's Mars mission in 2009.
(12 April)
Obituary: Thomas C. Smith, professor emeritus dies at 87
Thomas C. Smith, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of history who was considered the most distinguished historian of early modern and modern Japan in the West in the last half century, died in his sleep on April 3 in Danville, Calif. He was 87.
(08 April)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(08 April)
Let the New Nemean Games begin!
(08 April)
Opening the ‘gateway’ to talented grad students
Talented candidates from around the world now have an improved shot at a Berkeley education with the advent of the Gateway Fellowship Program, a creative partnership between the university, the Graduate Division, and International House.
(08 April)
A status report on graduate education at Berkeley
In an interview with the Berkeleyan, Dean of the Graduate Division Mary Ann Mason elaborates on the state of graduate education at Berkeley, touching on subjects ranging from the campus’s potential “image problem” in light of the budget crisis to the various incentives and disincentives that graduate applicants must weigh in choosing to come here.
(08 April)
Researchers find no safe place to sit in California tick-infested forest
People trekking through some forests in California may look to a log or tree for a well-deserved break, but new UC Berkeley research throws a red flag over that behavior if the area is endemic for ticks. The study finds that sitting on logs, gathering wood or leaning against a tree increases the risk of acquiring ticks, some of which may harbor the Lyme disease bacterium.
(08 April)
Emma Goldman documentary draws on Berkeley archives
A TV documentary on anarchist and radical feminist Emma Goldman, being broadcast by PBS next Monday, makes heavy use of interviews and documents from the Emma Goldman Papers Project at UC Berkeley.
(07 April)
UC Berkeley open house April 17: Cal Day
Cal Day, the University of California, Berkeley's annual open house, is Saturday, April 17, when an anticipated 35,000 visitors will flock to free performances, lectures, tours, athletic competitions, hands-on exhibits and a multitude of other events displaying the cultural and intellectual diversity of the campus.
(07 April)
Child care: Crying out for a compassionate approach from the Bush Administration
Child care legislation pending in Congress could make a remarkable difference in the lives of the working poor and their children, writes Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley. Given President Bush's opposition, passage of the bill is by no means certain.
(06 April)
UC Berkeley news comes to you
Can't always make it to the NewsCenter every day for a fresh dose of campus news? With a new syndication service, you can now get UC Berkeley headlines on your computer or website as soon as they're online.
(06 April)
UC Berkeley students give up their Spring Breaks, but get a lot back
More than 80 students chose to spend their week off, from March 22 to March 26, on an Alternative Break. Instead of sleeping in, socializing, or working on their tans, these students went on one of six Alternative Breaks sponsored by the Cal Corps Public Service Center: working with Bay Area people with disabilities; the homeless population of San Diego; conventional and organic farms in the Bay Area; Sacramento teens on issues of depression, sexual health, and substance abuse; environmental organizations in Tijuana, Mexico; and Mexico-California border groups on immigration, sweatshop, and humanitarian-relief issues.
(06 April)
UC Summer Session fees going up
The University of California is raising summer fees as a step in dealing with the budget deficit for the 2004-05 academic year. At Berkeley, an additional fee of $150 for undergraduates and $220 for graduate students will be assessed for all UC students attending the 2004 Summer Sessions.
(05 April)
Leaving it all at the finish line: The remarkable life of Brian Maxwell
During his short life, Brian Maxwell left an indelible mark on Cal, on the world of sports nutrition, and on the lives of a large number of grateful friends. Campus leaders, Cal track alums, and 49er Steve Young were among those who remembered Maxwell at a April 2 campus memorial service.
(02 April)
Dow Votaw dies at 83
Dow Votaw, a former dean and professor emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business who was known for his groundbreaking work on corporations and social responsibility, died Monday (March 29) at the age of 83.
(01 April)
Radio astronomers lift "fog" on Milky Way's dark heart
The massive black hole at the core of the Milky Way emits intense radiation as matter falls inward, but its true size is obscured by a fog of ionized gas between Earth and the center, 26,000 light years away. Now, using the Very Long Baseline Array, radio astronomers led by Geoffrey Bower of UC Berkeley have peered through this fog to get an accurate estimate of the size of the object surrounding the black hole.
(01 April)
Two Faculty Research Lectures set for April
Since the founding of the campus’s Faculty Research Lectureship in 1912, the Berkeley Academic Senate each year celebrates research excellence by honoring several faculty members whose work they hold in high esteem. This month, the two 2004 winners will share their findings and insights with campus audiences.
(31 March)
Cal Day gambolers can wager with statistics prof
What’s the chance that the same person will win the lottery twice? Is there a dependable way to beat the house in Vegas? These questions fall into the domain of statistics and probability, a subject that statistics professor Deborah Nolan acknowledges most people write off as boring.
(31 March)
C. West Churchman dies
Charles West Churchman, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business who was a pioneer in management science and ethics, died Sunday (March 21) in a Bolinas nursing home at the age of 90. He died of complications from Parkinson's disease.
(31 March)
The 2004-05 budget: A work in process
Since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued his state budget proposals on Jan. 9, the UC community has been grappling with how to respond and, should the budget be approved as proposed, how to cope. The activity around the UC budget is intense — the UC Regents wrestling with their charge to make fiscal decisions and set student fees, UC and campus administrators struggling to preserve quality on an ever-shortening shoestring, staff and faculty stretching dollars at work and at home, and students and their families scrambling to cover the cost of looming fee increases.
(31 March)
Mathematicians, computer scientists play key role in analysis of lab rat genome
The genome sequence of the common lab rat, Rattus norvegicus, was announced this week, but the importance of the feat lies in the analysis and comparison with both the human and mouse genomes. Here, mathematicians and computer scientists have become critical. QB3 researcher and mathematician Lior Pachter lead a team that aligned and compared the three genomes, and discovered some interesting evolutionary relationships.
(31 March)
Researchers say US military accidentally introduced tree pathogen to Italian estate during WWII
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and in Italy, say they have unlocked the mystery of how a destructive tree pathogen could have spread to the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano, an exclusive estate south of Rome which has been sealed off from the public for centuries. They were able to trace the origins of the pathogen back to eastern North America, where U.S. troops departed for Europe during World War II.
(30 March)
Ancient Greek athletic games to be revived at UC Berkeley archaeological site
Just weeks before the 2004 Summer Olympic Games begin in Athens, ancient footraces that gave birth to the Olympics will be revived in a tiny Greek town 80 miles away — the result of more than 30 years of research by UC Berkeley. That heritage was honored Tuesday with a visit from the newly kindled Olympic torch.
(30 March)
James Hyatt, UC Berkeley's chief financial officer, departs for Virginia Tech
James Hyatt, UC Berkeley's chief financial officer, has resigned and taken a new position as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Virginia Tech.
(30 March)
Point of View: What Cal students did on spring break
Forget sun and sand — these eight UC Berkeley students went shopping for pageant attire, meditated at a monastery, hurled themselves over high bars, soaked up family, and more.
(29 March)
New CARMA radio telescope array will combine UC Berkeley, Caltech arrays
Bigger is better when it comes to telescopes. A millimeter-wavelength radio telescope array combining two smaller arrays - one run by Caltech in the Owens Valley and the other run by UC Berkeley at Hat Creek - will rise soon at Cedar Flat near Bishop, California, to study gas and dust beyond the solar system.
(29 March)
Emotional balance for working journalists is goal
Whether covering a school massacre, multi-car pileup, or the trial of an accused pedophile, reporters are expected to file their stories on deadline and quickly gear up for the next one. But when working on "stories of trauma, loss, suffering, they do not walk away clean," says William Drummond, a University of California, Berkeley, journalism professor and veteran newsman. "As an industry, the news media offer little, if any, preparation or comfort to its workers who face this kind of emotional meat grinder." Realizing that student journalists today are taught the skills and techniques necessary to practice their craft, but not how to handle the inevitable stresses, frustrations and fears that come with it, he is teaching a new class at the Graduate School of Journalism on emotional balance for working journalists.
(29 March)
Campus offers trove of resources that explore issues in Pledge of Allegiance case before Supreme Court
On March 24, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, commonly known as the Pledge of Allegiance case. The issues surrounding the case have been debated extensively at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and elsewhere on campus, with a moot court hearing argued by plaintiff Michael Newdow and discussions by Jesse Choper, Boalt Hall professor and constitutional law expert.
(24 March)
Cal mourns passing of Brian Maxwell, former coach, runner, PowerBar founder, and philanthropist
UC Berkeley is mourning the sudden death last week of Brian Maxwell, the former Cal track star and coach who, along with his wife, founded the PowerBar company. Maxwell, who had just turned 51, suffered a heart attack near his home in Ross, California on March 19.
(22 March)
UC Berkeley, SETI Institute ready to build first phase of Allen Telescope Array
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has donated $13.5 million to build the first phase of what will become the largest radio telescope array in the world. The initial phase of the Allen Telescope Array, consisting of 32 radio dishes of a planned 350, should be ready by the end of 2004 to start observations of nearby galaxies and to listen around the clock for intelligent signals from space.
(22 March)
Former EPA chief Carol Browner accuses Bush Administration of gutting agency
Former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner says the Bush administration is gutting the agency she led for eight years. "It is not simply a question of benign neglect - rather, it is actual destruction," Browner said.
(19 March)
UC Berkeley awarded accreditation for animal care program
The organization that examines and accredits animal care and use programs around the world has given the University of California, Berkeley's program another thumbs up.
(19 March)
U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix faults Bush administration for lack of "critical thinking" in Iraq
Speaking on the anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq, originally declared as a pre-emptive strike against a madman ready to deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the man first charged with finding those weapons said that the U.S. government has "the same mind frame as the witch hunters of the past" — looking for evidence to support a foregone conclusion. U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix spoke at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall last night (March 17) in the most anticipated event of the Media At War conference currently under way on campus.
(18 March)
Postmortem: Iraq war media coverage dazzled but it also obscured
As seekers of truth and guardians of open debate, how do reporters deal with the compromising force of wartime patriotism? A panel that was part of the Media at War Conference at UC Berkeley examined the wartime pressure on journalists to abandon the everyday practice of showing all sides and many perspectives.
(18 March)
Upper Sproul Plaza closure, limited news truck parking available
Upper Sproul Plaza will temporarily close beginning March 22.
(18 March)
Research questions current fire management strategies in California shrublands
Findings from a new study led by Max Moritz, UC Berkeley wildland fire specialist, indicate that treatments of extensive portions of the landscape in California's shrublands will not have the fire hazard reduction impact people are expecting. The current practice of creating a mixture of young and old vegetation is not money well spent, said Moritz, and more attention should be focused on creating defensible space around people's homes and communities.
(18 March)
What's
not cooking in Berkeley?
With raw food on the menu at the Berkeley Art Museum’s
Café Muse, adventurous diners are once again frequenting
a near-campus restaurant perched squarely on the culinary cutting
edge.
(17 March)
Section
Club to host intercampus open house
The Inter-Campus Open House, a collegial gathering of faculty
spouses from northern California’s three UC campuses and Stanford,
is being hosted by Berkeley’s own University Section Club, which
has planned a day — Wednesday, April 14 — of faculty talks and
campus tours showcasing what it calls “The Cutting Edge at UC
Berkeley.”
(17 March)
Sproul Plaza renovation project to begin during spring break
A million-dollar upgrade to Sproul Plaza, the gateway to the Berkeley campus, will get underway next Monday, the first day of spring break.
(17 March)
Photography prize launched in memory of Matt Lyon
When former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Matt Lyon died in February 2002 at the age of 45, many at Berkeley were surprised to learn of the breadth of his talents outside the campus setting. Those who knew him as a strategic communicator, speechwriter, and political strategist also learned that he was an accomplished author, artist, architect, and photographer as well. Recognizing those artistic passions, Lyon’s family and friends have endowed in his memory the Matthew M. Lyon Prize in Photography, a $1,000 award for a Berkeley undergraduate, recognizing excellence in fine art, documentary, or any other form of photography.
(17 March)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(17 March)
Making the most of their commute
With its relatively flat terrain and dedicated bike lanes, Berkeley is a good place to cycle — which is why the Berkeleyan had little trouble identifying many faculty who commute to work on two wheels.
(17 March)
Microbe's trick provides a template for willowy crystals
Some microbes make little bar magnets to aid in navigation, while others sequester metals into minuscule crystals, but UC Berkeley and University of Wisconsin scientists were surprised to find a microbe that extrudes hairlike polymer crystals. These bizarre iron hydroxide nanostructures are made by microbes brought up from a flooded abandoned iron mine in Wisconsin.
(16 March)
Composer Jorge Liderman of UC Berkeley receives recording boost from academy
The American Academy of Arts and Letters has awarded Jorge Liderman, a composer and professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley, a $15,000 award to be used for new recordings.
(16 March)
Cal Day
April 17 is Cal Day, UC Berkeley's Annual Open House
(15 March)
Reporters, commentators visit Berkeley to conduct in-depth postmortem of Iraq war media coverage
The U.S. invasion of Iraq was without a doubt the most widely and closely reported war in military history. How did living and eating under fire with U.S. troops influence reporters? Did journalists ask enough hard questions about the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq? And most importantly, were their stories accurate? These questions and others are the central topics of UC Berkeley's conference "The Media At War: The U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq," which begins tomorrow (March 16) and runs through Thursday.
(15 March)
Campus receives state water pollution award
UC Berkeley was recently awarded a Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Achievement by the California Water Environment Association (CWEA) for its water pollution prevention efforts over the past several years.
(12 March)
Making molecular electronics by doping molecules one atom at a time
In the semiconductor industry, silicon is doped with various atoms to get materials with precisely tuned electronic properties. Now a team of UC Berkeley and LBNL physicists has scaled this down to the molecular scale, where they can dope a single buckyball with one atom at a time. Such precise control will be needed as semiconductor circuits shrink to where molecules are the circuit elements.
(11 March)
Fauna man in a flora world
Having ‘retired,’ briefly, from two deanships and a 40-year campus career, zoologist Paul Licht has a new assignment — this time among the 34 acres of native plants that inhabit the UC Botanical Garden
(10 March)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(10 March)
Fauna man in a flora world
Having ‘retired,’ briefly, from two deanships and a 40-year campus career, zoologist Paul Licht has a new assignment — this time among the 34 acres of native plants that inhabit the UC Botanical Garden
(10 March)
"Media at War" conference
Journalists and expert commentators from around the world will converge at the University of California, Berkeley, from March 16 -18 to assess "The Media at War: The U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. "This public evaluation of media coverage of the war will draw together veteran war reporters and photographers from major U.S. news organizations, diplomatic correspondents, media executives, European and Middle Eastern journalists, and Human Rights Watch officials charged with monitoring the continuing events in Iraq.
(10 March)
Americans spend more energy and time watching TV than on exercise, finds new study.
A new analysis of how Americans expend their energy finds that, as a population, more time and energy is spent on sedentary activities such as watching TV or driving a car than on exercise. The study comes at a time when federal health officials are reporting that poor diet and physical inactivity are quickly gaining on smoking as a cause of preventable deaths in the country.
(10 March)
United Nations and UC Berkeley to host conference on bridging global industrial divide
A three-day conference will inaugurate a new and unique collaboration between the United Nations and the University of California, Berkeley's Management of Technology program that aims to bring technological solutions to social and economic problems in developing economies. This kickoff event, "Bridging the Divide - Technology, Innovation, and Learning in Developing Economies," will take place at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business from April 1-3.
(09 March)
Researchers receive $900,000 grant to study use of psychostimulants to treat ADHD
UC Berkeley researchers have received a $900,000 federal grant over the next three years to study the use of psychostimulant medications to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). From 1990 to 2001, the number of people diagnosed with ADHD grew fivefold from 900,000 to 4.5 million. The researchers will analyze the economic issues and policy decisions surrounding the wide regional variation in the use of psychostimulants , predominantly Ritalin or its longer-acting formulations.
(09 March)
Development team selected for proposed downtown hotel and conference center near UC Berkeley
Following a competition that lasted several months, the University of California, Berkeley, has selected a firm to develop a hotel and conference center adjacent to the university.
(09 March)
Berkeley graduate students to receive Fulbright funding
The University of California, Berkeley and FedEx Corp. have agreed to jointly fund special Fulbright research abroad fellowships for advanced graduate students.
(05 March)
Retired UC Berkeley history professor William J. Bouwsma dies at age 80
William J. Bouwsma, a retired University of California, Berkeley, history professor and preeminent scholar of early modern European culture, died on March 2. He was 80. A funeral service will take place at 2 p.m. this Saturday, March 6.
(05 March)
Democracy begins at home, chides billionaire philanthropist George Soros
Might does not make right, and therefore the United States has made a tremendous
mistake in using its military supremacy to force democracy on Iraq. That was
the blunt critique of the Bush Administration that billionaire financier and
munificent philanthropist George Soros delivered to a packed audience at UC Berkeley
last
night. Soros was at Zellerbach Hall to receive the Chancellor's Distinguished
Honor Award and to reveal why he thinks President Bush should be unseated at
the invitation of the Graduate School of Journalism's Goldman Forum on the
Press and Foreign Affairs.
(04 March)
New Ethiopian fossils are from 6-million-year-old hominid living just after split from chimpanzees
Six fossil teeth found in the dry Afar depression of Ethiopia cement the position of a 6-million-year-old hominid, Ardipithecus kadabba, as the first human ancestor to arise after the human line split from the line leading to chimpanzees. The teeth are not like the long, sharp canine teeth chimps use as weapons, but retain some chimpanzee characteristics, telling paleoanthropologists that the chimp-sized creature was indeed one of our ancestors.
(04 March)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UCB campus community
(04 March)
‘Principles of Community’ up for your consideration
Campus input is being sought on values statement via online survey.
(04 March)
Making size matter less
Berkeley profs take new approaches to personalizing large-enrollment courses
(03 March)
Fabilli-Hoffer judges honor five essayists
Political science graduate student Casey Domingues wrote the first-place essay in this year’s Lili Fabilli and Eric Hoffer essay contest, the only competition administered by the Committee on Prizes that is open to faculty and staff as well as students. Three other students and a staff person took home the remaining prizes for their ruminations on the open-ended topic for the 2004 competition: “What Were They Thinking?”
(03 March)
UC Berkeley Researchers Developing Robotic Exoskeleton that can Enhance Human Strength and Endurance
UC Berkeley engineers have developed a robotic exoskeleton that can literally lighten people's loads. In recent experiments, a human "pilot" was able to move about a room carrying the 100-pound exoskeleton and a 70-pound backpack while feeling as if he were lugging a mere 5 pounds. The project, called the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX), will be showcased March 9-11 at the DARPA Technical Symposium in Anaheim, Calif.
(03 March)
Short films by students defy limitations of budget and training
The Pacific Film Archive's Film & Video Makers at Cal series begins March 4 with an evening of short films by undergraduates. Although students were given little or no training in using a video camera or editing software, several of the films are surprisingly sophisticated.
(03 March)
A marriage, gay or straight, is first a civil union
In the brouhaha over the "sanctity" of marriage, many are ignoring how the separation of church and state defines this institution, writes public policy professor David Kirp in an opinion piece.
(02 March)
College of Letters & Science launches new series with author and former NPR classical music host Martin Goldsmith
The inaugural lecture for a free, public series from the University of California, Berkeley's College of Letters & Science will feature Martin Goldsmith, an author and the former host of a classical music public radio program. Goldsmith will join Ralph Hexter, UC Berkeley dean of arts and humanities and professor of classics and comparative literature, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18, at the Durham Studio Theater on campus to discuss Goldsmith's 2002 book, "The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany."
(01 March)
Constitutional amendment is a bad idea, writes Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo
Yoo, a former Bush Administration legal counsel, argues in this Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that same-sex marriage should be a matter for the states to decide.
(01 March)
Former law dean Herma Hill Kay examines same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage promises to be one of the defining — and dividing — issues of 2004. Herma Hill Kay, the former dean of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and a pioneer in shaping family law and anti-discrimination law (most notably as the co-author of California's 1970 no-fault divorce act), discusses the historical context of marriage as a legal contract and where same-sex marriage might fall in that continuum.
(27 February)
Paleontology museum launches new Web site on evolution
"Understanding Evolution" is a new Web site debuting this month to provide a one-stop-shop for the nation's science teachers. Developed by the UC Museum of Paleontology, it's got everything from a comprehensive course on the theory of evolution, called Evolution 101, to classroom lesson plans and tips on addressing objections by those who reject evolution.
(26 February)
Astronomers find nearest and youngest star with a dusty debris disk. But are there planets?
Astronomers have been scanning nearby stars for decades in search of those with visible dust disks, which are an indication of the presence of comets and asteroids that could possibly coalesce into planets. Now astronomers at UC Berkeley and the University of Hawaii have found the nearest and youngest star with a dust disk, a red dwarf only 33 light years away.
(26 February)
Laser guide star teams with adaptive optics to shed light on massive star formation
Last year, UC's Lick Observatory became the first & only telescope to routinely provide a laser guide star for use with an adaptive optics system, opening the entire sky to twinkle-free viewing. A team of UC Berkeley astronomers now reports the first major results from the system - sharp observations of the formative stages of stars slightly larger than the sun, showing that they form in accretion disks just like solar-type stars.
(26 February)
Lightning storm disrupts campus power, computing systems
A lightning storm Wednesday night (2/25) disrupted power to many campus services, including forcing a shutdown of the main campus data center at Evans Hall. Power was restored shortly after midnight, and core computing systems were back online by 2:30 a.m., but some sporadic outages continued into business hours Thursday morning.
(26 February)
PACE explores accountability policy impacts on educators
California's educators appreciate state efforts to improve student achievement and low-performing schools, but feel frustrated by a lack of support and teaching resources for addressing achievement gaps, according to a new report and joint policy brief. Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a policy research center at the University of California, Berkeley, UC Davis and Stanford University, is presenting its findings about the impacts of public school accountability policies today (Thursday, Feb. 26) at a news conference today in Sacramento.
(26 February)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(25 February)
Reducing fire hazards in the East Bay hills
To reduce fire hazards in the hills, the Berkeley campus is pursuing an ambitious long-term program to encourage native species on its 225 acres at the top of Claremont Canyon, below Grizzly Peak Blvd. on either side of Claremont Ave.
(25 February)
Clark Kerr remembered
At the close of the first volume of his memoirs, The Gold and the Blue, the late Clark Kerr stated, without equivocation, “As goes education, so goes the future of the state of California.” That conviction resonated in the testimonials to Kerr’s lifetime of contributions to the University of California in particular, and higher education in general, that punctuated last Friday’s campus memorial to him.
(25 February)
Design at Ground Zero
Peter Walker, former chair of Berkeley’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, has snagged the biggest fish his profession could float: the World Trade Center memorial. Now he has to reel it in.
(25 February)
A constant focus on prevention, protection, and promotion
Though it is no longer the only accredited school of public health west of the Mississippi, which it became shortly after its founding in 1943, Berkeley’s School of Public Health can regard its six decades of achievement with a real sense of pride.
(25 February)
Bond measure on March 2 ballot would help renovate Giannini Hall
(25 February)
Student Point of View: Legalizing same-sex marriage
In San Francisco, just across the Bay Bridge from Berkeley, 3,253 same-sex marriages have been performed by City Hall since February 12. These marriages are currently not recognized by the State of California and are being challenged in the courts. Here's what a random sampling of students around campus have to say about same-sex marriage.
(24 February)
Two UC Berkeley engineering professors elected to National Academy of Engineering
Two University of California, Berkeley, scientists have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, bringing to 87 the number of academy members on the UC Berkeley faculty.
(23 February)
What's in a word? Plenty, if the word is 'marriage'
The gay marriage issue is not just about same-sex couples, writes Berkeley professor George Lakoff. It is about which values will dominate in our society.
(20 February)
Scientists move closer to identifying world's oldest asexual organism
Mycorrhizal fungi, whose thread-like masses produce the fruiting mushrooms we all know and love, may well be the oldest organisms that reproduce asexually. It's been hard to tell, however, because the cells of these nearly half-a-billion-year-old fungi contain hundreds of nuclei that were thought to be genetically different. UC Berkeley microbiologists have now shown that this is not true, leading the way to a definitive test of whether or not mycorrhizal fungi reproduce asexually.
(19 February)
Bye-bye, "Berzerkeley": Surveys provide a peek at the real UC Berkeley students
Stereotypes about UC Berkeley students abound: for many, it's as if time stopped for the university in 1964, back at the peak of the Free Speech Movement. In order to know what Berkeley students are really like, you ask them — and that's what the Office of Student Research did with more than 10,000 undergraduates and 2,600 entering freshmen. Their answers provide a priceless peek into the collective hopes and fears, goals and pet peeves of UC Berkeley students — and explode a few myths in the process.
(19 February)
Sproul
Plaza renovation underway
UC Berkeley's historic Sproul Plaza to close temporarily as major renovation begins
(18 February)
Kabul by Submarine
Journalism School professor Jon Else writes of his visit to Kabul, Afghanistan where he witnessed a "war-weary capital lurching through its heady and dangerous first weeks of becoming an Islamic constitutional democracy, trying to embrace the Prophet Muhammad on one side and Thomas Jefferson on the other."
(18 February)
News briefs
shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community.
(18 February)
The world of Shirley Wong
By day, mild-mannered Shirley Muramoto-Wong works as an administrative assistant in Public Affairs. In her off-campus life, she’s an accomplished koto player who has recorded with such local luminaries as mandolinist David Grisman and bluegrass vocalist Laurie Lewis.
(18 February)
Facing up to new technology
The human face has 80 muscles that work in tandem to create a seemingly infinite array of expressions that dramatically change the way we look from moment to moment. While humans have a relatively easy time matching our contorting faces to names, computers are notoriously bad at it. If software could automatically and accurately identify people’s faces, though, myriad applications might emerge — from intelligent surveillance systems to software that would help us navigate massive collections of photographs.
(18 February)
Photo fakery ‘at its worst’ riles Ken Light
Ken Light always comes on strong in class against the digital alteration of photographs. Too strong, some have said after hearing his views on journalistic ethics. But for the Graduate School of Journalism teaching fellow, the dangers of the practice seem all the more potent —and personal — after a photo he took of John Kerry in 1971 began circulating on the Internet in doctored form.
(18 February)
Warren Court’s 50th the focus of Boalt Hall conference
The legacy of the Warren Court both in American law and in foreign legal systems will be commemorated at an international conference, “Earl Warren and the Warren Court: A 50-Year Retrospect,” featuring prominent historians, legal scholars, and political scientists from the United States and abroad. Conference dates are Friday, Feb. 27, and Saturday, Feb. 28, in 140 Boalt Hall.
(18 February)
Engineers create lab-on-a-chip using fluorescent dye to detect toxins
Engineers at UC Berkeley have taken a common piece of tabletop lab equipment used to detect toxic substances and biochemical agents and mini-sized it to a device that fits on a tiny computer chip. The achievement could lead to cheap, portable devices that investigators could use in the field.
(12 February)
Aggressive advocate for Berkeley’s benefit
The campus’s critical relationships with legislators and policy makers are the purview of Kathleen Moazed, Berkeley’s new director of government and community affairs in the Office of Public Affairs.
(11 February)
DeCal helps students teach one another
To the delight of its staff and faculty fans, the DeCal program, with invigorated oversight, continues to flourish.
(11 February)
Haas School trio explores globalization, high tech
Foreign outsourcing can boost the profit margins for high-tech firms but it also contributes to the growing earnings disparities between blue- and white-collar workers in California, says a new book by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. In "Globalization and a High-Tech Economy: California, the U.S. and Beyond," the authors analyze the impacts of the globalization of high technology on job opportunities, wage distribution, community resources, regional growth patterns, the prospects for new business development, and the very structure of these businesses.
(11 February)
Reconstructing Sproul Plaza
Sproul Plaza, the main gateway to the central campus, will be revitalized beginning this spring. Some disruption to the traffic patterns familiar to faculty, staff, students, and visitors is anticipated, though it will be mitigated to the extent possible.
(11 February)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(11 February)
If Malcolm met Martin . . .
Drama based on a fictional meeting between Malcolm X and Dr. King — followed by student oratory — is among the campus events honoring Black History Month.
(11 February)
Aggressive advocate for Berkeley’s benefit
The campus’s critical relationships with legislators and policy makers are the purview of Kathleen Moazed, Berkeley’s new director of government and community affairs in the Office of Public Affairs.
(11 February)
2004 UC summer programs for children
A list of UCB summer programs for kids compiled by the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Dependent Care
(11 February)
Student greet Boalt Hall's new dean with standing ovation and great expectations
Incoming Boalt Hall of Law School Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. met with law students in an informal town hall meeting that began and ended with standing ovations. Change was the theme: Edley discussed his plans to launch a major fund-raising campaign, restore neglected programs to new national prominence, and to broaden the faculty's research portfolio by adding more faculty.
(10 February)
Fulbright compromise reached
The Fulbright fellowship applications of 30 Berkeley graduate students will be considered in a separate, special review, despite a dispute over deadlines stemming from a missed Federal Express pickup, the chair of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board said on Tuesday. Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl called the compromise "more than satisfactory."
(10 February)
Bighorn sheep threatened by climate change, finds new study
Summary: UC Berkeley-led research has found a link between population declines in California's desert bighorn sheep and the effects of climate change. Bighorn sheep has been a species of concern among conservationists since they were first protected by state legislation in 1873. The researchers say the remaining sheep populations could face extinction if global warming forecasts for the next 60 years come true.
(10 February)
Dick Cheney at Davos: The Man in the Bubble
At the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, world leaders mingled and exchanged views. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived, spoke -- and vanished. To Journalism School Dean Orville Schell, Davos provided a disturbing picture of how isolated our president and vice president have become.
(10 February)
Schwarzenegger's budget does not address state's biggest problems, says business professor Ken Rosen
During California's gubernatorial recall campaign, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business professor Ken Rosen decided to look beneath the political mud-slinging and examine why the state budget was gushing red ink. Rosen's September 2003 report, "Anatomy of the California Fiscal Crisis: Facts and Figures Do Matter," examined the origins of the state's fiscal crisis, identified problems with its revenue system, and suggested areas for reform. Here, Rosen gives an update on whether the issues identified in his study are being addressed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal.
(09 February)
Fullbright board reportedly will revisit denial of Berkeley applications
The New York Times reported Friday (Feb. 6) that Steven J. Uhlfelder, chairman of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, plans convene a teleconference of the board’s executive committee next week to look into the controversy surrounding 30 UC Berkeley students whose Fulbright fellowship applications were denied by the U.S. Department of Education over a disputed mailing deadline.
(06 February)
Robert McNamara, Errol Morris return to Berkeley to share lessons learned from "Fog of War"
Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and filmmaker Errol Morris, both UC Berkeley alumni, discuss the scope of the Oscar-nominated documentary they made together, "Fog of War." Journalism professor Mark Danner, in the role of moderator, tries to get McNamara to apply his hard-won lessons from the Vietnam War to Iraq — not quite in vain.
(05 February)
UC Berkeley student photographing fraternity life wins Dorothea Lange award
Graduate student Andrew Moisey is this year's winner of the Dorothea Lange Fellowship, after submitting black-and-white photos giving a glimpse of the often secret world of fraternities.
(05 February)
Eat smart, get fit
The Tang Center offers an alternative to low-carb diets.
(04 February)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(04 February)
Sharing a Vietnamese classic with the West
Historian Peter Zinoman and linguist Cam Nguyet Nguyen were not thinking about mainstream recognition when they set out to translate a novel by an internationally obscure Vietnamese writer, Vu Trong Phung.
(04 February)
Campus inkslingers reveal trade secrets
Steve Tollefson, a lecturer in College Writing Programs (CWP), helped launch the Berkeley Writers at Work series in 1997 as a means for everyone on campus who writes — students, faculty, and staff — to discuss and demystify the creative process.
(04 February)
BSA rolls out staff mentorship program
The Berkeley Staff Assembly (BSA) is introducing a staff mentorship program that will enable less-experienced professional and support staff to learn from more-seasoned colleagues.
(04 February)
Education Abroad Program works to assure student safety
Safety abroad may not be top-of-mind for student travelers, but UC keeps a careful eye on the international situation and has support in place for students in a strange land.
(04 February)
UC Berkeley stunned by decision to deny students opportunity for prestigious Fulbright dissertation fellowships
The U.S. Department of Education says that all 30 of the UC Berkeley graduate students who applied for a Fulbright doctoral research abroad fellowship will not be considered because of what the department contends was a missed application deadline.
(04 February)
Cal students head overseas in record numbers
Despite wars, terrorist threats and anti-American sentiment, Berkeley students are eager for travel and international adventures. UC’s Education Abroad Program, which is reporting record numbers of applications to study abroad, helps keep them safe.
(04 February)
Children are the losers in polarized debate over 'No Child Left Behind' program
UC Berkeley professor of education Bruce Fuller says the 'No Child Left
Behind' program
has redeemable features and should be reformed rather than transformed into a
political punching bag.
(04 February)
UC Administrative staff to vote on union representation
Over the next several weeks, the Public Employee Relations Board will hold an election to determine whether the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) should become the exclusive representative for many University professional staff in administrative positions.
(02 February)
Seismic renovation work beginning at Hertz Hall
Seismic renovation of Hertz Hall, along with important accessibility upgrades and deferred maintenance work on the Music Department building, will begin Feb. 3.
(02 February)
Focusing on footage: Bears' kicker Tyler Fredrickson turns his lens on the team
Tyler Fredrickson knows about pressure. Having kicked the Bears to victory in two close games, against Virginia Tech and USC, he's making a documentary about student athletes and pressure. It's a unique way to combine his film-studies training with his insider's access to a Division I football team -- and satisfy the requirements of his master's in education at the same time.
(02 February)
Pink slime yields first set of genomes sequenced from environmental sample
Only one percent of all microbes can be cultured for sequencing of their DNA, so scientists have been trying a more direct approach – sequencing a community of microbes plucked out of the environment. UC Berkeley researchers, along with colleagues from the Joint Genome Institute, now report the first success. They've sequenced the genomes of a whole community of organisms from a pink scum on the floor of an abandoned mine and Superfund site.
(02 February)
UC Berkeley Extension decision to end English Language Program explained by Dean James Sherwood
Beginning May 7, 2004, University of California Berkeley Extension will no longer offer an English Language Program. Extension Dean James Sherwood responds to questions about why the program is being discontinued.
(29 January)
In defense of outreach: ‘Could they know and not care?’
Among the many challenges to the University of California system embedded in Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget for 2004-05 is a devastating cut to UC’s
K-12 outreach programs.
(28 January)
Outreach is essential to the research enterprise
From the perspective of the sciences, and the faculty who teach them, there are both personal and practical reasons for not only supporting K-12 outreach as a concept, but participating in it wholeheartedly.
(28 January)
Farewell to a marvelous idea?
If the governor’s proposal to cut all state funding for UC outreach programs is approved, one of the affected programs will be ArtsBridge, which connects UC students in the arts with K-12 public-school teachers who want to provide their students with hands-on arts instruction.
(28 January)
U.N. at a ‘critical juncture,’ says Aguilar Zinser
The former Mexican ambassador to the United Nations became an eloquent ambassador for the U.N. in his speech last Thursday to a capacity audience in Morrison Library.
(28 January)
The campus’s next-door neighbor, Stiles Hall, turns 120
Compared to its expansive neighbor across Bancroft Way, Stiles Hall is decidedly modest in size. Even though its scrappy staff of seven gets by on an annual operating budget of half a million dollars, the nonprofit community service agency has made notable contributions to Berkeley during its 120 years.
(28 January)
Can leadership be cultivated?
Now entering its fifth year, the Leadership Development Program (LDP) brings together staff who have leadership responsibilities (ranging from project management to oversight of a unit or department) to work with high-level campus sponsors, consultants, and mentors.
(28 January)
UC Berkeley architecture professor's new building system may offer solutions to quake-ravaged Iran
University of California, Berkeley architecture professor Gary Black says he has a safe, simple and affordable solution to rebuilding the quake-ravaged city of Bam, Iran, where 41,000 people died after a 6.7 magnitude temblor earlier this year. His answer: a construction system of straw bales and prefabricated steel bars encased in thin membranes of concrete, or the Spar and Membrane System (SMS). The system, he said in an interview, is an ideal fit for low-rise buildings in seismically unsettled California, Iran and other regions that share similar geological conditions.
(28 January)
Elves make protein crystallography easier
Scientists are finding a computer program called Elves to be a nearly magical solution to the tedious and time-consuming task of determining the 3-D shape of proteins - a major focus of cutting-edge proteomics today - from X-ray diffraction data.
(26 January)
'Mad cow' episode offers glimpse of how we raise cattle – and it's not a pretty picture
UC Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan takes a look at the industrial farming of cattle, and he's disgusted by practices that border on the cannibalistic.
(26 January)
Advisory committee named in chancellor search
University of California President Robert Dynes has named a 17-member committee of university regents, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community representatives to advise him in the search for the next chancellor of UC Berkeley, replacing Robert Berdahl, who will step down from his post in June.
(21 January)
Report
from New Hampshire: Students on the campaign trail
During the coming week, the NewsCenter will feature coverage of the Jan. 27 New
Hampshire presidential primary written by three Berkeley students working for
the campaigns of Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich.
(21 January)
Forum on faculty equity and diversity set for Feb. 5
The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate will sponsor a forum on faculty equity and diversity from 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 5, in Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center.
(21 January)
Social work in the real world
Supervised field-work placements, supported by discussion seminars, are hallmarks of the graduate curriculum at Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare (SSW). The school’s 60-year-old master’s program, with its close marriage of academic training and direct experience, is consistently rated among the nation’s best; US News & World Report recently ranked it third out of 156 programs nationwide, and first in research productivity.
(21 January)
Improving undergraduate research skills
Launched through a $138,000 pilot grant, the Mellon Faculty Institute for Undergraduate Research enabled 13 Berkeley faculty members to incorporate research activities and assignments into their undergraduate courses, to teach students how to use the university library’s ever-growing print and digital resource collection.
(21 January)
Internet voting system set for upcoming elections not secure, computer experts say
A federally funded online absentee voting system scheduled to debut in less than two weeks has security vulnerabilities that could jeopardize voter privacy and allow votes to be altered, according to a report prepared by four prominent researchers - including one from UC Berkeley - invited to analyze the system. All experts in cyber-security, they say the risks associated with Internet voting cannot be eliminated and urge that the system be shut down.
(21 January)
(art)ists@library: staffers’ work on view
Throughout the 2003-04 academic year, the Morrison Library is hosting a rotating exhibit of artwork created by campus library staff.
(21 January)
Haas MFE goes to China
The University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business has signed a five-year, multi-million dollar agreement with Nankai University in China to deliver graduate level finance courses to executive MBA students in the country's burgeoning financial center of Shenzhen, starting in September.
(21 January)
Team physician Dr. Chad Roghair discusses health risk posed by bacterial meningitis
Following the Jan. 19 death of Cal women's basketball player Alisa Lewis from what is believed to be bacterial meningitis, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs George Strait sat down to discuss the health risk posed by the disease with Dr. Chad Roghair.
(20 January)
A message from Chancellor Berdahl on the state budget
Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl writes to members of the campus community about the painful cuts facing the University of California in the 2004-05 state budget.
(20 January)
Composer and pianist Nin-Culmell, an emeritus music professor, dies at age 95
Joaquin Nin-Culmell, an internationally known concert pianist and composer and an emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley, has died at the age of 95. He died on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at a Berkeley nursing home.
(20 January)
Campus bids adieu to UCLink as new e-mail system takes over
The UCLink era ended with barely a whimper over the weekend as Information Systems & Technology switched users over to CalMail, the campus's new e-mail system.
(20 January)
Part 2 of 2: Berkeley experts weigh whether the Supreme Court will curtail election congressional gerrymandering — and if it should
The Supreme Court is deliberating over Vieth v. Jubelirer, which alleges that
Pennsylvania Republicans unfairly maneuvered Democrats out of congressional seats
using age-old gerrymandering tactics. Boalt Hall professor and constitutional
law expert Jesse Choper discusses why the Supreme Court decided to hear the
case now and how likely it is the court will crack down on political redistricting.
(20 January)
Noted photography curator and UC Berkeley 'First Lady' Therese Heyman dies at 74
Therese Thau Heyman, an influential curator of photography who as the wife of a UC Berkeley, chancellor played host to world leaders, died in Berkeley Friday, Jan. 16, following a long illness. She was 74.
(20 January)
Bacterial meningitis believed to be cause of UC Berkeley women's basketball player's death
Alisa Marie Lewis, a 20-year-old University of California, Berkeley women's basketball player died this morning (Jan. 19) apparently of bacterial meningitis.
(19 January)
Therese Heyman dies at age 74
Former UC Berkeley "first lady" and noted photography curator dies after long illness.
(16 January)
AnnaLee Saxenian appointed dean of SIMS
AnnaLee Saxenian, whose research on Silicon Valley has shaped the way policymakers and scholars around the world think about regional economic development, will become dean of the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS) on Feb 1.Saxenian, a UC Berkeley professor of city and regional planning since 1989 and a professor at SIMS, has spent the past two decades studying the organization of production in California's Silicon Valley and other technology regions.
(15 January)
New study finds evolutionary diversification in Hawaiian spiders
A new study published in the Jan. 16 issue of Science shows how a spiny-legged spider that landed on the Hawaiian Islands 5 million years ago led to subsequent generations of spiders that diversified to fill in available niches. The paper, authored by UC Berkeley biologist Rosemary Gillespie, challenges the assumption that the formation of communities in the extraordinarily remote Hawaiian archipelago is different from the way communities are assembled on a large continent.
(15 January)
Berkeley experts weigh whether the Supreme Court will curtail election gerrymandering — and if it should
Gerrymandering, the redrawing of congressional districts to ensure that elections favor a particular political or ethnic group, has been around almost as long as the Constitution itself. Yet racial gerrymandering has been illegal for decades, and with the Vieth v. Jubelirer case in progress now, the Supreme Court is finally taking a look at political redistricting. Will the Court smack the hands of both parties and tell them to play more fairly? To get a sense of what's at stake, the NewsCenter interviewed UC Berkeley professor and redistricting expert Bruce Cain.
(15 January)
News briefs
Shorter items of interest to the UC Berkeley campus community
(14 January)
Gunther Barth, retired UC Berkeley professor, American history scholar and mentor to countless students, dies at age 78
Gunther Barth, an emeritus professor of history who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for more than three decades and mentored countless students, died Wednesday, Jan. 7. He was 78.
(12 January)
Robert Reich teaching at UC Berkeley
Robert Reich, former U.S. labor secretary in the Clinton administration, is a distinguished visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy for the spring semester. He will teach a course on wealth and poverty, give public lectures and work on a new book about leadership and change.
(12 January)
New grant funds UC Berkeley "early college academy"
The University of California, Berkeley, is launching a California Early College Academy to better prepare educationally disadvantaged students for higher education, thanks to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The academy is expected to open in fall 2005. The new school, its location yet to be determined, will serve about 420 students in grades 6-12. The youngsters, about 60 in each grade, primarily will come from neighboring communities throughout Alameda County, where UC Berkeley is located.
(12 January)
Campus voicemail may be sporadic this weekend
Having dodged an e-mail bullet, campus communicators now are facing a weekend of spotty voicemail service as a result of a system upgrade being implemented by Communication and Network Services.
(09 January)
Membrane-coated beads make sensitive assay for protein drug candidates
Drug companies make and test hundreds of thousands of chemicals before finding a drug that works. When the drug they're looking for is a protein that blocks a receptor on the outside of a cell, the test for receptor binding can be expensive and time consuming. A UC Berkeley chemist has now come up with an assay that could make drug screening easier and cheaper.
(09 January)
Quakes along central San Andreas Fault peak every three-years
Seismologists at UC Berkeley have discovered a previously unnoticed cycle of quakes on the central San Andreas Fault between Santa Cruz and Parkfield. Medium to large quakes on that segment occur more frequently every three years, at the same time that smaller microquakes are becoming more frequent.
(09 January)
UCLink conversion postponed; do-it-yourself migration added
Responding to departmental requests for more time, IS&T is postponing plans for a mass migration of UCLink accounts to the campus's new CalMail e-mail system. The bulk conversion of UCLink accounts has been pushed back to Saturday, Jan. 17, and users in the interim will be able to opt for voluntary self-migration of their accounts to CalMail.
(08 January)
UCLink accounts being moved to CalMail system this weekend
UCLink users will wake up next week to find themselves in CalMail land, following the planned weekend migration of UCLink e-mail accounts to the new CalMail system.
(07 January)
Mountain hut design contest draws avalanche of entries
Designs for a prototype wilderness base camp in the Sierra flooded in from around the world to a competition co-sponsored by UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, and are now on exhibit at Wurster Hall.
(07 January)
Key gene found in production of egg & sperm
Meiosis is the process of creating sperm and eggs, and thus makes sexual reproduction possible. Yet meiosis is still poorly understood. A new finding by UC Berkeley scientists sheds much-needed light on the steps that initiate meiosis and coordinate the chain of events that follow
(06 January)
Researchers create first ever integrated silicon circuit with nanotube transistors
In an important milestone in the field of nanoelectronics, researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford University have created the first working, integrated silicon circuit that successfully incorporates carbon nanotubes in its design. Researchers say the development brings them a significant step closer to using carbon nanotubes for memory chips that can hold orders of magnitude more data than current silicon chips or for sensors sensitive enough to detect traces of explosive and biochemical sensors at the molecular level.
(05 January)
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