Barbara Boxer pays a call

On Monday, Oct. 6, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) toured the Stanley Hall home of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), later applauding the campus for taking a lead in green-energy research as part of a wider effort to “free our country from foreign oil.”

Her visit was arranged to familiarize the senator with promising federally funded research at Berkeley of interest to her policy agenda in the areas of renewable energy and climate change.

Above, Boxer hears from QB3 Berkeley Director Graham Fleming (second from left). Joining in the conversation are (from left) Jeff Pelton, manager of the Central California NMR facility (where scientists recently tested the biofuel potential of switchgrass), QB3 Associate Director Susan Marqusee, and Energy Biosciences Institute Director Chris Somerville. (Peg Skorpinski photo)