We're due for a big quake - scientists think one happens along the Hayward Fault roughly every 150 years. But Roland Bürgmann, a UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science and a member of the UC Berkeley Seismology Lab, says that while there’s nothing we can do to prevent or predict big quakes, we understand the fault — and the risk — better than ever before.
October 19, 2018
October 18, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
A half-decade ago, UC Berkeley neuroscientists discovered that training for law school admission exams boosted brain connections that sharpen reasoning skills. Today, they’ve taken a major step closer to understanding how practicing the LSAT makes students smarter. They’re watching their eyes.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
The American Cancer Society will bestow its highest honor, the Medal of Honor, on Jennifer Doudna and four others — including former Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. The medal is awarded to distinguished individuals who have made valuable contributions in the fight against cancer through basic research, clinical research and cancer control.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
An ancient group of microbes that contains some of the smallest life forms on Earth also has the smallest CRISPR gene-editing machinery discovered to date. The made by a group including Berkeley graduate student Lucas Harrington and Professor Jennifer Doudna of the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology.
Worldquant
"Michael Manga always wanted to be a scientist. The Canadian native was just six when he started attending Macoun Field Club events at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa. By high school, he was spending Friday afternoons with the club and publishing scientific articles. “At the time, I was way too naive and ignorant, really, to know how important that was,” says Manga, who has a BS in geophysics from McGill University and a Ph.D.
October 17, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Three UC Berkeley faculty members were elected this week to the National Academy of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in health and medicine. Among them are John Kuriyan, a professor of molecular and cell biology and of chemistry; and Barbara Meyer, a professor of molecular and cell biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator;
October 16, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Priya Moorjani, who received her Ph.D. from Stanford, is joining the faculty as an assistant professor of political science and public policy.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
In the 1940s and 50s, actors in major American films spoke with a kind of faux British accent as a way to sound “upper class.” But this way of talking left out nearly all actual American voices, says Tom McEnaney, a UC Berkeley professor who teaches a class called “Sounding American.” While the class talks about the generational differences of sound, they also discuss how today’s filmmakers are pushing back against the racial norms concealed in what we might say sounds American.
October 15, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
With a snap of the traditional big scissors, Chancellor Carol Christ formally opened Berkeley Way West, UC Berkeley’s newest academic building. The eight-story building will house the Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Education, and School of Public Health.
October 10, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
As Hurricane Michael moves toward what will likely be a deadly interaction with the panhandle of Florida, one of the primary questions facing those who will be impacted is just how the storm will manifest itself. William Boos, an associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Berkeley, is one of many researchers hoping to better understand storm systems to predict future damage.
October 9, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Comparative literature professor Tom McEnaney, who teaches a class called “Sounding American,” says the U.S. has a long history of men criticizing the way women speak. Sound technologies, starting with the gramophone and phonograph, he says, were developed for men’s voices — and distort women’s.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Priya Moorjani, who received her Ph.D. from Harvard, is joining the faculty as an assistant professor of genetics, genomics, and development.
Robert Sanders, Media Relations
Assistant professor Ke Xu of chemistry and Denis Titov of molecular and cell biology — were among 89 recipients of “high-risk, high-reward” grants announced last week by the National Institutes of Health. The awards, which support “unusually innovative research from early career investigators” who have never received an NIH grant before, come with $1.5 million in direct funds for five years.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
The MacArthur Foundation yesterday unveiled the 25 newest stars in its constellation of “genius” award winners, among them mathematician Allan Sly, a mathematics professor at Princeton who earned his Ph.D. in statistics at Berkeley in 2009 and served on the statistics faculty at Berkeley from 2011-2016.
October 8, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
This Wednesday (Oct. 10), from 3-4 p.m., Chancellor Carol Christ will take to Reddit, the website and discussion forum, to conduct an AMA (if you’re out of the loop, it stands for “Ask Me Anything”) interview with the Berkeley community.
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
In a new episode of the Peabody Award-winning TV series “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” Stephanie Syjuco, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of art practice, invites viewers into her studio to see firsthand how she embeds politics in her work, and hear her talk about her interest in “how objects reflect cultural moments.”
October 4, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Astronomers typically study objects that are visible night after night or explode suddenly, like supernovas, but astronomy researcher Casey Law is scouring vast amounts of data in search of bright objects that disappear, never to be seen again.
October 2, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Steven Piantadosi, who received his Ph.D. from MIT, is joining the faculty as an assistant professor of psychology.
October 1, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
September 25, 2018
UC Berkeley NewsCenter
Celeste Kidd, who received her Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences from the University of Rochester, is joining the faculty as an assistant professor of psychology.