We’re nearing the end of fall semester 2009. It has been an eventful semester, with more than typical lows and highs.
Many students have voiced frustration over the regrettable fee increases necessitated by state budget cuts to the University of California. Although fee increases for most graduate students were reduced from the first proposal, those approved by the Regents in November still place a considerable burden on many students, as well as the programs and research grants that support your studies. Carefully designed approaches for directing concerns about the withdrawal of state support are offered through Cal Advocacy. This is a UC-wide project to help our state legislators understand the consequences of de-funding public education.
I find the situation all the more poignant because Berkeley continues to measure at or near the top of elite universities in a number of recent rankings. It comes as no surprise that students passionately engaged in their studies and research are also passionately concerned about the University.
I wish you the best as you complete your coursework and exams for the semester, or continue your efforts in teaching or research. Don’t neglect to take a good break.
Andrew J. Szeri
Dean of the Graduate Division
Measure by Measure
- UC Berkeley is at or near the top in recent university rankings
Graduate Degrees
- The long line at filing time — soon to be a thing of the past
Graduate Funding Opportunities
- A wide menu of announcements with application deadlines
Calendar
University Health Services
- SHIP waiver deadline for spring/summer 2010
Graduate Assembly
- Nominations are open for the GA’s Faculty Mentor Award
- Join a campus committee
Safety
- UCPD is on Facebook
- Night Shuttle routes change, but it’s still a safe free ride home
Graduate Council Lectures
- Hitchcock Lecturer Leon Lederman has a “Conversation”
Exhibits
- Berkeley Art Museum — “Internet Art: Joe McKay’s Big Time”
- Hearst Museum of Anthropology — “Beer: 2500 BC – the present”
Texture
- Graduate Division is certified as a “green department”
The academic reputation of this campus continues to gleam among its counterparts in this country and around the globe, according to recent independent assessments.
The 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities, compiled by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, rates UC Berkeley number three in the world (after Harvard and Stanford, respectively). The ranking compared 1,200 higher education institutions worldwide, public and private. It used a variety of indicators of academic or research performance, including:
The first multi-indicator ranking of global universities, the ARWU has been conducted since 2003. Shanghai Jiao Tong University published the ranking in November.
Within the United States, the Berkeley campus was ranked the number-one public university for the tenth time in as many years in U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 guide to “America’s Best Colleges.” U.S. News & World Report also rated institutions on their graduate-level disciplines. In the Social Sciences and Humanities viewed by departmental reputation, Berkeley came away with new first place rankings for its departments of English, History, Psychology, and Sociology. The campus maintained its previous levels in the rankings of its programs in Engineering (third), Law (sixth), Business (seventh), and Education (seventh). For its undergraduate programs, among all 262 public and private institutions, Berkeley came in 21st, with its undergraduate programs in engineering and business ranked second and third, respectively. The U.S. News rankings, published in August, were calculated using seven measures: peer assessment; faculty resources; graduation and retention; student selectivity; financial resources; graduation-rate performance; and alumni giving rate.
In another annual guide with rankings, UC Berkeley came in first among 258 U.S. universities. The editors of Washington Monthly say their guide “asks not what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country.” Berkeley topped the scale in its “contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s) and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).” A pleased Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said, “It is as if the Washington Monthly editors were quoting directly from our mission.” Washington Monthly, which has published its rankings since 2005 and issued this year’s in September, describes itself as an independent voice, “listened to by insiders and willing to take on sacred cows — liberal and conservative.”
Institutions are also being ranked these days on an increasingly important aspect: their environmental records. UC Berkeley aced two different evaluations in that category this year. At the end of July, it was named one of only 15 colleges in the country to earn the top score for environmentally friendly policies in The Princeton Review’s “Green Ratings” of 697 colleges and universities. And a few weeks later, the Sierra Club’s national magazine Sierra gave Berkeley 96 out of 100 and a top-ten placement in its third annual “Cool Schools” ranking, judged on its performance in eight categories: energy, efficiency, food, academics, purchasing, waste management, transportation, and administration. (Inside the campus, the Graduate Division has become the first UC Berkeley academic unit to achieve gold-certified “green department” status. Read how under Texture, below.)
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This was the scene in the hall outside the Graduate Services: Degrees Office in May of 2008. This year, too, may look increasingly more like this as the days race toward December 18, the deadline for filing Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses.
Next year could be quite different. The reason? E-filing. By popular request from several quarters and a variety of other reasons, it has just become possible to file the written product of all that work for your degree electronically. In just instants on the bureaucratic clock — about a year and a half in human time — the decision to replace paper with e-filing blazed through the path of hoops and hurdles and became enacted policy in early November.
In practical terms, that’s too late in the semester for many students who’ve been assiduously laboring toward the culmination of their academic work to switch gears and file the new way. If you’re ready to go that way, you can now file electronically. But, per the official decision, you may still file this semester with your dissertation or thesis on paper, following the traditional guidelines.
In spring 2010, however, it’s a digital ballgame, and filing electronically becomes mandatory.
While some may miss the crisp, authoritative look, feel, and heft of slabs of archival bond paper, few students or Degrees Office staff members will miss the sometimes lengthy face-to-face process during the anxiety-producing overcrowded countdown to the end of the term. Especially when the alternative is likely to be you controlling far more of the process from your own computer, having consultation with staff by email, and submitting the resulting perfect document online, with the proverbial click of a key.
You’ll still need to make at least one trip to the Degrees Office on the third floor of Sproul Hall for the last step in filing for your degree, which is turning in your signed approval page, surveys, and release form. Followed with the time-honored ritual presentation of a tasty celebratory morsel (which, if you haven’t heard of the custom, is reported here.)
But if the process works as foreseen, the line, if any, should be short, and the contact with staff — generally considerate and compassionate folk even under the pressure-filled old system — should be smooth and painless.
Meanwhile, your carefully-assembled words, clauses, phrases, sections, diagrams, formulas, indices, and footnotes will be transmitted to the University Library (and ProQuest, a third-party electronic publishing company), where they will occupy almost no physical space and yet will be far more easily accessed, not merely by readers within the library — the sole method under the old model — but, via the Internet, by researchers anywhere in the world.
Like so many newborns resting in the nursery after the arduous birth process, these are the dissertations and theses filed so far in fall 2009. Once the semester’s filing deadline is here, they’ll be off to the library to become part of the sum total of human knowledge. Guarding them until then is Grad Division student affairs officer Laurie Roach, who has been accepting dissertations from students since 1988. (Photos: Dick Cortén)
Even more on e-filing, with its ecological implications (probably saving a half-million sheets of paper per year!) in a NewsCenter Web feature.
TopListed chronologically by deadline date.
Resources provided by the Graduate Services: Fellowships office
The Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program has been established by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at DoD laboratories. More information is available online. All applicants are required to submit applications online by 5:00 p.m. EST, December 15, 2009. All supporting materials must also be received by December 15, 2009. Notifications of awards are expected to be made in March 2010.
The Smithsonian Institution encourages access to its collections, staff specialties, and reference resources by visiting scholars, scientists, and students. The Institution offers in-residence appointments for research and study using its facilities, and the advice and guidance of its staff members in fields that are actively pursued by the museums and research organizations of the Institution. At present these fields include: animal behavior, ecology, and environmental science, including an emphasis on the tropics; anthropology, including archaeology; astrophysics and astronomy; earth sciences and paleobiology; evolutionary and systematic biology; history of science and technology; history of art, especially American, contemporary, African, and Asian art, twentieth-century; American crafts, and decorative arts; social and cultural history of the United States; and folklife.
Postdoctoral fellowships are offered to scholars who have held the degree or equivalent for less than seven years. Senior fellowships are offered to scholars who have held the degree or equivalent for seven years or more. Predoctoral fellowships are offered to doctoral candidates who have completed preliminary course work and examinations.
Graduate student fellowships are offered to students formally enrolled in a graduate program of study, who have completed at least one semester, and not yet have been advanced to candidacy if in a Ph.D. Program.
Postmark Deadline for submission is January 15, 2010. Additional information and application forms are available online.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846. It is an educational and research institute with an associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines. Most of its facilities are located in Washington, D.C., but its 19 museums, zoo, and nine research centers include sites in New York City, Virginia, Panama, and elsewhere. It has over 136 million items in its collections. The Smithsonian’s current director is Georgia native G. Wayne Clough (left), who earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley (1969, in civil engineering).
The Institute of International Studies (IIS) will provide funding for bimonthly meetings of at least ten graduate students from different disciplines to come together to discuss commonalities in their work. A group may invite one outside speaker to their meetings per semester, travel to be funded by IIS. Proposals will be considered at the discretion of the IIS director. Information about funding amounts and the application process is available online. The application deadline is January 19, 2010. The IS conducts several major research programs, and provides support to Berkeley faculty and fellowships to Berkeley graduate students. Ongoing research colloquia bring together faculty, advanced graduate students, and visiting scholars for discussions. Its public outreach programs include lectures, forums, conferences, and the Conversations with History interview series hosted by Harry Kreisler.
The Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship funds students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents to gain competence in modern foreign languages. Students in programs that combine modern language training with 1) area or international studies, or 2) research and training in the international aspects of professional and other fields of study are eligible to apply. FLAS Fellowships are available for the study of languages in eight world areas (Africa, East Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe). Applications for the Academic Year FLAS Fellowship and the Summer FLAS Fellowship are due Monday, January 25, 2010. Applications and other materials are available online (at links immediately below).
Recent graduates and graduate students have the opportunity to intern in Germany through RISE Professional. Program participants are matched with a German company, where they gain insight into the professional applications of science and engineering, obtain practical skills, and experience a new culture. RISE Professional features a scholarship to cover living expenses, a lump-sum payment for travel costs, and a three-day meeting in Bonn. The application process is explained online. Applications for RISE Professional will be accepted until January 31, 2010. The list of summer 2010 internship opportunities is available online or you can request further information by email. These research internships are made available through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Applications are now being accepted for the Willis W. and Ethel M. Clark Foundation Investment in Community Graduate Fellowship for 2010-2011. Up to $10,000 per academic year is awarded to students currently enrolled full time in a graduate program who have demonstrated a commitment to community service. Applicants must be directly connected to the Monterey Peninsula and intend to return to or remain connected through work and/or residence and community service. The Clark Foundation was incorporated in 1953 and has provided community service for more than half a century. Its founders were pioneers in the field of educational testing and research who started the California Test Bureau (now known as CTB/McGraw-Hill) in 1926. The fellowship may be renewed annually, but subsequent awards may be smaller than the initial award. Applications are due January 31, 2010. More information is available online.
The mission of this fellowship is to advance the status of women. Its endowment fund offers fellowships for women enrolled in a graduate school within the boundary of Founder Region (as UC Berkeley is) and who are in the last year of their doctoral program. These grants-in-aid assist women in the completion of their doctoral degrees. Competition is open to any outstanding graduate woman who is a citizen of a nation with membership in Soroptimist International and who is working toward a doctoral degree, preferably in the last year of study but permissibly during the last two years, provided she has advanced to candidacy. Fellowship application forms are available online. Applications must be postmarked not later than February 1, 2010.
“Founder Region” is so named because the Alameda County Soroptimist Club, the nucleus of what grew to be Soroptimist International, met and was chartered in Oakland in 1921. There are now 65 clubs in this original region alone, and more all over the world (3,000 in 120 countries and territories). The “founding president” of that first club (and therefore of the entire Soroptimist organization) was Violet Richardson Ward, who enrolled at Cal in 1911, graduated with a degree in physical culture (later called physical education), earned a master’s here in 1916, taught at Berkeley and other local colleges briefly, then was hired by the Berkeley School District and taught there for 41 years. The 80 members who chartered that new club in 1921 and elected Ward also chose the group’s name, Soroptimist, a word coined from the Latin soro (women) and optima (best), and they also came up with the motto that’s still in use: “Best for women.”The goal of the Switzer Environmental Fellowship Program is to support highly talented graduate students whose studies are directed toward improving environmental quality and who demonstrate leadership in their field. The fellowship provides a one-year cash award of $15,000 for graduate study as well as networking and leadership support to awardees. The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation specifically seeks active, enthusiastic individuals who have the ability, determination, and integrity to become environmental leaders in the 21st century.
Applicants for a Switzer Environmental Fellowship must:
More information and applications are available online.The application deadline is February 1, 2010.
The Switzer Fellowships were created by a Cal alumnus, Bob Switzer, who came here on a Scaife Foundation scholarship to study chemistry, aiming at a career in medicine. While working in a railyard, Switzer suffered a head injury that sent him into a coma for months. His recovery required him to stay in a darkened room. To pass the time, he and his brother Joe, both amateur magicians, experimented with fluorescent minerals to enhance magic tricks. They invented the worlds’ first fluorescent paint. As they devised a variety of uses — including making money — for what Bob called Day-Glo colors, they founded a company. Over the years, the high-visibility colors have appeared on warplanes, tennis and golf balls, traffic signs and cones, safety clothing, detergent boxes, and more. A lifelong environmentalist who also happened to be an executive in a regulated industry, Bob Switzer became concerned about a growing dearth of scientific expertise, so when the company sold in 1985, he used some of the proceeds to start the Switzer Foundation in order to help graduate students interested in solving environmental problems and to encourage them to become future environmental leaders.
Utrecht University in the Netherlands offers short-stay fellowship grants to Ph.D. students from its North American partners, which include the University of California. During a three-month stay in Utrecht, students become familiar with UU and the wide range of research possibilities it offers to foreign Ph.D. students. The fellowship’s purpose is to tighten links and strengthen cooperation between research groups at UU and its North American partners. The application deadline for the second round of these fellowships is February 1, 2010. Additional information and applications will be made available here soon.
This prestigious fellowship was established in 1991 by the Lee Kuan Yew Endowment Fund. Applications are invited from candidates who have obtained their degrees in the last few years and who have excellent academic records and research potential. The application and further details are available online.
The application deadline is February 10, 2010.
Point Foundation is the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students of merit. Individuals enrolled in either an undergraduate or graduate program, beginning or continuing in the fall of 2010, are eligible to apply. Point provides support through multiyear scholarships, leadership training, mentoring and hope to LGBT students who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Applicants should visit Point’s website to review current Point Scholars’ biographies and assess the type of scholars that are generally selected. Applicants do not need straight A’s to apply, yet Point is looking for individuals who have proven leadership skills, excellent scholastic achievements, and want to make a difference in the world. All applicants are evaluated on the totality of their situation including academic accomplishments, financial need, leadership within extra-curricular and career-related activities, personal circumstances and goals for the future. Applications for the 2010-2011 school year are available online. The application deadline is February 12, 2010.
For more information, visit the Point website. If you have questions, contact the Point Foundation by email.
The Udall Foundation awards two one-year Environmental Public Policy and Conflict Resolution Dissertation Fellowships of up to $24,000 to doctoral candidates whose research concerns U.S. environmental public policy and/or U.S. environmental conflict resolution and who are entering their final year of writing the dissertation. Fellows must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals or U.S. permanent residents, and their dissertation research must be relevant to U.S. environmental policy. Program details, additional information, profiles of previous fellows, and applications are available online. If you have questions, please contact Dr. Jane Curlin by email. The application deadline is February 24, 2010.
Congress created the Morris K. Udall Foundation as an independent federal agency in 1992. In honoring the late Congressman’s legacy of public service, the foundation awards scholarships, fellowships, and internships for studies related to the environment and Native American policy.
The Alpha California Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa will grant a limited number of graduate fellowships to UC Berkeley Phi Beta Kappa members who will be currently enrolled as doctoral students during the 2009-2010 academic year. Application form are available by email. Completed applications are due, with supporting materials, in M14 Wheeler Hall (the College Writing Program suite of offices on the lower mezzanine) no later than 3 p.m. on March 17, 2010.
Each year, the Dan David Prize, a joint international enterprise endowed by the Dan David Foundation, awards 20 scholarships (10 to students from all over the world and 10 to students from Tel Aviv University, where the foundation is headquartered). The scholarship amount is $15,000. Advanced doctoral and postdoctoral students of excellent achievement and promise studying topics related to the fields chosen for this year are invited to apply for scholarships for 2010. The fields are broken into three time dimensions. For the Past category, the field is March Toward Democracy; for the Present category, Literature – Renditon of the 20th Century; and for the Future category, Computers and Telecommunications. The application deadline for the scholarships is March 31, 2010. More information is available online.
Dan David is a Romanian-born businessman and philanthropist. He immigrated to Israel in 1960 and the next year, with a $200,000 loan from a cousin, secured the franchise for Photo Me automated photo booths in a number of countries, and eventually took over the company. He is now the sole owner of PhoMat, the company that manufactures the photo booth machines, and in 2000 he created the Dan David Fund and Foundation with a $100 million endowment to recognize outstanding contributions in science, technology, culture, and social welfare, and to assist young scholar-researchers. (One of last year’s winners of the Dan David Prize is UC Berkeley physicist Paul Richards, who earned his Ph.D. here in 1960.) If you are a researcher with above average-qualifications, at the beginning of your academic career, and completed your doctorate during the last four years, consider applying for a Humboldt Research Fellowship. This fellowship for postdoctoral researchers allows you to carry out a long-term research project (six to 24 months) you have selected yourself in cooperation with an academic host at a research institution in Germany. Scientists and scholars of all nationalities and disciplines may apply to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation directly at any time. The foundation grants approximately 600 Humboldt Research Fellowships for postdoctoral researchers and experienced researchers annually. Deadline: Open. This is a continuous application opportunity. Applications are considered in the order received. More information is available on the Humboldt Foundation website.
The Humboldt Foundation is named for German naturalist and explorer Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (1769 1859). Humboldt was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean, particularly South America and Africa, were once joined. His five-volume 1845 work, Kosmos, attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. He is memorialized in the names of animal and plant species, geographic features (such as California’s Humboldt Bay and Nevada’s Humboldt Sink), place names (among them Humboldt County in California, Nevada, and Iowa), and a variety of universities, schools, and lectureships. Of him, Cuban scholar Jose de la Luz y Caballero said "Columbus gave Europe a New World; Humboldt made it known in its physical, material, intellectual, and moral aspects." The Humboldt Foundation’s original endowment, created by friends and colleagues to continue Humboldt’s own support of young scholars, was lost in the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, and again as a result of World War II, but the German government later re-endowed the institution so it could make awards to young scientists and distinguished senior scientists from abroad. Left: Alexander von Humboldt (Painting by Joseph Stieler).
Fall’s end — A ritual takes place every year at this time in Sproul Plaza and the Campanile Esplanade. It’s basically a haircut for the rows of sycamore-hybrid plane trees that line both expanses. The kind of pruning they get is called pollarding, which produces somewhat bulbous branch ends that look phantasmagorical while the trees are bare, then bristle in spring with new shoots from which leaves burst and complete the canopy that’s there most of the year.
(Photo: Dick Cortén)
December 11 (Friday)
Last day of instruction
December 11 through 13 (Friday through Sunday) and 17 through 20 (Thursday through Sunday)
Performance — Mark Morris Dance Group: “The Hard Nut”
Zellerbach Hall. Times are available online.
Promoted as the holidays’ most delectable sugarplum, Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut, returns to Zellerbach Hall. Mark Morris updates E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic fairy tale, the basis for The Nutcracker ballet by setting it in the swingin’ 70s, with dancing Barbie dolls, go-go boots, G.I. Joe soldiers, leaping snowflakes, and gender-bending casting, plus 93 costume changes, over 60 set pieces, all set to Tchaikovsky’s glorious score. Maestro Robert Cole will conduct the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s complete Nutcracker ballet score. Morris’s choreography, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is “formally dazzling and uproariously funny.” Tickets are available through the Cal Performances ticket office at Zellerbach Hall; at (510) 642-9988 to charge by phone; online; and at the door. Tickets for UCB students are half-priced. Also, $10 rush tickets may become available. Two ways to find out if rush tickets are available (three hours prior to a performance only): call 510-642-9988, press 2 for the rush hotline, or check the Cal Performances Facebook page.
December 12 through 19 (Saturday through Saturday)
Final examinations
December 18 (Friday)
Last day to file master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertations for fall 2009; deadline to submit Ph.D. Application for Candidacy for spring 2010. More information available online.
December 19 (Saturday)
Fall semester ends
If you waived enrollment in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) in fall 2009, your waiver is effective for the entire 2009-2010 academic year.
January 7 is the deadline to waive enrollment in SHIP for spring/summer 2010.
If you want SHIP coverage – no action is necessary. Starting fall 2009, SHIP includes 90% coverage for ambulance service with no maximum, increased physical therapy benefits of $1,500 and new benefits for transgender students.
If you want to waive enrollment in SHIP – and did not waive for the fall 2009 semester, submit an online waiver application NOW, before you leave campus for the winter break. Waiver applications must be submitted each year you are a student at Cal.
Take care of your waiver form by January 7, 2010, and the SHIP fee won’t appear on your E-Bill. Avoid confusion on your bill and problems with financial aid by submitting your waiver on time.
If you submit a waiver after January 7, you’ll be charged a $50 late waiver service fee on your E-Bill.
Absolutely no waivers will be accepted after February 1, 2009. If you haven’t submitted a waiver application by then, UHS will assume you’re in – you’ll be enrolled in SHIP and responsible for the entire SHIP fee ($698 for domestic undergraduates and $966 for graduates and international undergraduates).
If you previously waived SHIP and wish to enroll for Spring/Summer 2010, submit a completed waiver reversal form online.
Want more info? Go online or call (510) 642-5700.
Each year the Graduate Assembly honors faculty members who have shown an outstanding commitment to mentoring, developing, and supporting graduate student researchers with the Faculty Mentor Award (FMA). Nominations will be accepted until Friday, February 19, 2010. If you feel your mentor has invested in you, extraordinarily, and you think your mentor should be recognized, then visit the GA website for more information on eligibility and the nomination process. Please direct any inquiries by email to Philippe Marchand.
Most important university decisions are made by campus-wide committees. Being on a committee provides you with an opportunity to interact with faculty, administrators, and other students on issues dealing with education, research, funding, and more. Graduate representatives serve on committees of the Academic Senate, of the UC system, and the Berkeley campus administration. Interested? Details about responsibilities, time commitment, and more are available on the GA website.
You may have seen this poster on bulletin boards. It promotes grad
student participation in decision-making through service on a wide variety
of campus committees.
(Photo: Dick Cortén)
Adding social networking to the ways it can converse with the community and vice versa, the UC Berkeley Police Department now has a Facebook page.
Establishing a presence in that realm is a direct response to comments and suggestions from the student community. Students wanted to get to know UCPD officers as individuals, have timely campus safety information delivered to them, and have a way to participate more actively in their own safety. Given the amount of time many people spend on Facebook, this could be a very handy alternative to making a phone call, writing an email, or visiting the department’s front desk in the basement of Sproul Hall.
Night Shuttle routes have changed somewhat, but it’s still a free ride that gets you home safely after dark
The UCPD and the Parking & Transportation Department together provide the campus community with a set of Night Safety Services after dark, from dusk until six a.m.. We will help you get safely to your residence after a late night on campus. Even if you're as far away as Hopkins/Sacramento or Ashby/Claremont, there's a safe way for us to get you home. Call 642-9255 and ask the dispatcher how.
More information about the UCPD night safety service is available online.
The bottom line? Don't Walk Alone. Call 510-642-9255after dark.
“Conversations With History” host Harry Kreisler interviewed Nobel Laureate Leon M.
Lederman in October when he was in Berkeley to deliver his Hitchcock Lectures. Their exchange is now available online — see above, or use this link. Tracing his intellectual journey, Professor Lederman discusses the qualities of a scientist, the early years of particle physics, the evolution of his own research interests, the discovery of the muon neutrino, the importance of that discovery and its implications for cosmology. He recalls the dynamism and excitement of his years in particle physics and the experience of winning the Nobel Prize. Drawing on his recent work, Lederman also offers a critique of secondary school science education and calls for a transformation of the curriculum.
Lederman’s Hitchcock Lectures (“A Scientist Addresses Science Education” and “A Sense of Wonder”) are currently available in audio, downloadable in MP3 format. Many more lectures, old and new, are available on the Graduate Council Lectures website, which recently expanded its offerings dramatically, as described here.
Internet art: Joe McKay's Big Time
Through February 28, 2010 everyday
Big Time is an Internet artwork and downloadable iPhone app that uses GPS to measure your precise distance from the prime meridian and tell you what time it is—for you. The time may be different for someone across town. The tongue-in-cheek Big Time critiques the techno-positivism that emanates from Silicon Valley, where micro-payments, targeted marketing, myThisorThat, and iEverything reduce the world to a series of bite-sized “personalized” experiences.
Beer: Global brewing traditions, 2500 BC - the present
Through September 30, 2010 every Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday | 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Drawing from a collection of over a thousand beer-related items, this exhibit of about 130 items focuses on the material aspects of beer production and consumption: objects for brewing, storing, transporting, serving, and drinking. This rich display reveals the striking unities and diversities of human cultures as they come together to celebrate the fruit of the grain.
Photo: Kira Stoll
In November, the Graduate Division became UC Berkeley’s first academic unit to be certified as a gold-level “green department.” Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer (striped tie, center left) presented the honor to Graduate Dean Andrew Szeri (dotted tie, center right) and the Graduate Division’s “Green Team,” (on the left) Kim Starr-Reid and Tim Lafond, Andrea Sohn (center), and (on the right) Jane Fink and Kirsten Kirkpatrick. The designation came about because the Graduate Division enacted initiatives that include:
The certification lasts through October 2010.
eGrad is produced by Graduate Communications & Events, distributed by email, & archived online. Graduate students, alumni, faculty, and staff are invited to send timely news and announcements of interest to or utility of graduate students and the graduate community.
Please submit items to Dick Cortén, editor, at gradpub@berkeley.edu.