Blog

person hiking snowy mountain

May 22, 2009

More honors for Chemistry’s high-climbing Arlene Blum

Biochemist and mountaineer Arlene Blum Ph.D. ’71, who won the $100,000 Purpose Prize late last year for mobilizing society to protect its members by reducing toxic chemicals, has received still more honors in 2009, and the year isn’t even half over.
Paula Argenteri

May 22, 2009

Two grad students are honored by the Chancellor for civic engagement

At the annual Chancellor’s Awards for Public Service ceremony, which took place April 24, two Ph.D. candidates were singled out for their extensive community work. Paula Agentieri of the School of Education’s social and cultural studies program was honored for her 14 semester of serving as the lead GSI and co-cordinator for Education 190, the core class for education minors, during which she has taught more than 1,000 students and has trained more than 70 undergraduate teaching assistants to teach and facilitate a class democratically and to serve the local community.
NAS

May 22, 2009

The NAS picks six from Berkeley in its crop of new members

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of America’s most prestigious societies of scholars engaged in science and engineering research, at the end of April announced its election of 72 members, six of whom are Berkeley researchers.
Sarlo and FMA Winners from 2009

May 22, 2009

Heaping honors on the highly helpful

The Graduate Division, which oversees graduate education at Berkeley, and the Graduate Assembly, the grad students’ government, are making up for lost time. For decades, the campus did little to reward the vital role many faculty members play as mentors to their students. Countering that non-trend, the two groups have joined forces for the third year in a row, presenting their own faculty honors in a combined ceremony.

May 17, 2009

Adventure Man

In a field where the progress of research and career are usually sequential, orderly, and predictable, Rich Muller is a wild card, rocketing wherever the first tantalizing inkling of a puzzle takes him until he has the explanation pinned down satisfactorily. Then he abruptly goes elsewhere, as if cued by the Monty Python catchphrase (first used to introduce a sketch about a man with three buttocks) — “And now for something completely different.”
Nanosong

May 6, 2009

Nanosong

Everything you need to know about the wonders of nanotechnology, as a musical, with puppets.

April 28, 2009

Learning to teach, with a little help

The GSI Center: from baby steps to national example Great at what they do: the 2006 crop of Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award recipients, at the presentation ceremony in Alumni House. Peg Skorpinski photo. BEING A GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTOR is not only a good way to offset the…
Larissa Kelly and Alex Trebek

March 18, 2009

Seven Days in May: Grad student Larissa Kelly asks the right questions and becomes the #3 winner in Jeopardy! history

The drama that actually took place in a much more compressed interval back in February of this year played out over seven separate days in the latter part of May. That its star, Larissa Kelly, was no longer in California, or even the United States, didn’t matter. It was literally academic. (Kelly was, like the serious Ph.D. candidate she is, pursuing her dissertation research, which took her to Mexico.)
Post-Stem-Cell-Ban Era Begins

March 12, 2009

Post-stem-cell-ban era begins at Berkeley

MCB professor Ellen Robey (Berkeley Ph.D. '86), two of her postdocs, and a grad student are in Nature's coverage of their lab as the post-stem-cell ban era begins.

March 11, 2009

A grad-student artist documents the ageless and preserves the temporary

Miguel Arzabe Art Practice M.F.A. candidate Miguel Arzabe is a West Oakland urbanite who loves the outdoors.  He documents his wilderness hikes on video and in abstract paintings, and has also brought the experience back through a medium many of us have tried and, over the years,…

February 10, 2009

Fire in Space: A Berkeley Lab Group is Focused on How to Prevent Disasters

Reno native and triathlete Sara McAllister has a lot going for her these days. The newly minted Berkeley mechanical engineering Ph.D. and current post-doc not only successfully participated in some 16 triathlons--including a grueling half-Iron Man Aquabike race, she also recently appeared on the History Channel series “The Universe,” ...
Dominique Kerouedan

February 10, 2009

Between Africa, Asia and the European Union: My work in International Public Health

It’s very hot outside, the sun is burning, and the light is violent at noon. I walk alongside my sister on an earthy red path through sugar cane fields, on our way home from school. We are thirsty; the sugar cane is refreshing and delicious. This is Africa. This is Bouaké in the early 1960s when it still is in the middle of nowhere, a big village in the bush.
Steven Chu

February 5, 2009

Dr. Chu goes to Washington

His full name is Steven Chu. That he’s not a very formal guy is clear from the headline from the news released by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which he currently heads — “Obama Picks Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu for Energy Secretary.”
Servan-Schreiber

January 8, 2009

In his own words: Edouard Servan-Schreiber, Ph.D., Computer Science

“After graduating from Carnegie Mellon with my B.S. in mathematics and computer science, I worked in consulting, traveled in Asia, did my military service in France, before wishing to return to academic endeavors. After considering carefully my options, Berkeley stood out for its exceptional "value proposition," as the business world likes to say — stunning academics and fabulous quality of life.