Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

UC Berkeley innovators featured in Pathways to Invention film

May 2, 2024

Are inventors born or made? Berkeley engineers explore that question in the award-winning documentary “Pathways to Invention,” set to premiere in May on PBS stations nationwide. The 60-minute special follows eight “modern inventors of diverse backgrounds and their journeys as they develop life-changing innovations.”

Among those profiled are Berkeley...

A great leap forward for MPS scholars’ careers

April 23, 2024
Standing on Asilomar State Beach just west of Monterey, Marius Castro talked with dozens of his fellow UC Berkeley students for hours under the moonlight. The moment felt special to Castro, like he was in a movie. In actuality, he was attending the first annual MPS Scholars retreat.

“Everybody I met had such good vibes,” said Castro, a third-year student double majoring in applied mathematics and computer science. “I probably...

Yuno Iwasaki selected as 2024 Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellow

April 19, 2024

Yuno Iwasaki has been awarded a 2024 Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellowship and will pursue a Ph.D. in physics at UC Berkeley. As a Fellow, Yuno will receive up to $90,000 to support her graduate education.

The Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellowship is a program for "outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants from all over the country and world who are pursuing graduate school here in the United States." The 2024 class is comprised of 30 honorees, out of a competitive pool of more than 2300 applicants, and Yuno is one of two UC Berkeley students included in this...

Q&A: Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Sympathizer,’ reflects on libraries, UC Berkeley, and the class that ‘radicalized’ him

April 12, 2024

Viet Thanh Nguyen emerged from UC Berkeley with more than a diploma.

In fact, he earned three (but who’s counting?) — dual bachelor’s degrees in English and ethnic studies in 1992, and a doctorate in English in ’97.

But his education wasn’t confined by the walls of a classroom.

Nguyen became steeped in activism, leaving Berkeley with “four misdemeanors, three diplomas, two arrests, and an abiding belief in solidarity, liberation, and the power of the people and the power of art,” he recalls in his memoir, 2023’s A Man of Two Faces.

"Stories can migrate into another landscape": Author & lecturer Fae Myenne Ng speaks about her book, Orphan Bachelors

April 9, 2024
Fae Myenne Ng, lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies, speaks about her memoir Orphan Bachelors. Your book Orphan Bachelors was recently named a finalist for a 2023 California Book Award for non-fiction. Congratulations! What does this nomination mean to you?

I am honored to stand with books that celebrate the complexities of our state: opportunity, preservation, and memory. And who wouldn’t want to stand next to our extraordinary Anna May Wong?

What inspired you to...