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People who report a declining quality of sleep as they age from their 50s to their 60s have more protein tangles in their brain, putting them at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life, according to a new study by psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley.  “Insufficient sleep across the lifespan is significantly predictive of your development of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain,” said lead author Matthew Walker, a sleep researcher and professor of psychology.

The Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive hosted Mildred Howard, a widely acclaimed artist and longtime Berkeley resident whose family has deep roots in the Bay Area’s African American community. In a conversation with Leigh Raiford, UC Berkeley associate professor of African American studies, and Lawrence Rinder, BAMPFA’s director and chief curator, she discussion touched on a range of topics, from South Berkeley’s ongoing struggles with gentrification, to the role of the university in supporting diverse communities, to Howard’s own work as an artist.

For Martha Olney, a teaching professor of economics at UC Berkeley, coming out didn’t happen all at once. As a graduate student in 1980, she met her wife, Esther Hargis. A few of their friends knew they were together, but “it wasn’t something you told people.” Esther was a Baptist pastor, so she needed to be careful at the time to protect her career. It wasn’t until the couple decided to adopt their son, Jimmy, nearly two decades later, that they decided they had to live their lives fully out.

Louise George Clubb, professor emeritus of Italian studies and comparative literature, recalls her memories of learning that her father had taken part in the storming of Omaha Beach.

Two decades ago, UC Berkeley mathematician Paulo Ney De Souza co-authored a book, Berkeley Problems in Mathematics. That sparked a lifelong fascination with math for the Cuban-born Felix Gotti, who this month finished his dissertation and earned his Ph.D. in mathematics.

Growing up in New York City, UC Berkeley ethnic studies professor Catherine Ceniza Choy remembers seeing a lot of nurses dressed in their crisp white uniforms. But she also noticed that many of the nurses were Filipino. Years later, as a graduate student at UCLA, Choy began to wonder: Why were there so many Filipino nurses in the U.S.? What she found took her back to the early 20th century after the Philippines became a U.S. colony.

Growing up in rural Ethiopia, Lelisa Bera knew that getting an education wasn’t a given. It was a privilege that many parents couldn’t afford to give their children. But now he will graduate on Wednesday, May 22, with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. And without a teacher who gently encouraged him to think bigger, he might never have made it to where he is today.

David Hollinger, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of history, has been named to the advisory board of a project to produce an ambitious oral history of former President Barack Obama’s life, from growing up in Honolulu to managing the Great Recession to overseeing the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. The project, launched by the Obama Foundation and Columbia University, will inclu

Matt Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience, presented a TED Talk at the organizaton's April 15-19 conference in Vancouver, Canada. The video of Walker’s 19-minute “Sleep is your superpower” talk was just posted on the TED Talks website and received more than 1 million views in the first 72 hours.