Alumni

Economics alumnus Roy Tan shares how Berkeley Social Sciences inspired him to give back

October 11, 2024

Berkeley Economics alumnus Roy Tan credits his time as a Social Sciences student with inspiring his lifelong passion for learning and education.

Today, Tan leverages his successful career as an insurance agent for New York Life in San Mateo to give back to the Economics Department to help students prepare for meaningful careers in public and private sectors and tackle society's biggest challenges.

Since he graduated from Cal in 2006, Tan has made meaningful contributions to Berkeley Economics and other academic units over the years. He is the fourth founding member of the...

Political Economy alumnus and Disney Data Analyst Larry Kao offers insights for early-career Social Sciences alumni

October 14, 2024

Political Economy alumnus Larry Kao got his first taste for working in entertainment during his time as a Berkeley Social Sciences student. That meaningful experience led him to his current role as a special projects supervisor for The Walt Disney Company.

A Bay Area native who graduated from Cal in 2002, Kao was a college marketing representative for EMI Music Distribution as well as manager of the student-run concert series on Lower Sproul Plaza. He received his M.A. in East Asian Studies from UCLA before officially beginning his entertainment career, which includes 13 years at...

Hesse Family’s Berkeley Legacy Grows With Creation of a College of Letters & Science Endowment to Support Undergraduates

October 8, 2024

From a hard-scrabble pioneer apple farm in Boulder Creek, California, nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Carla and Renata Hesse’s great-aunts planted the seeds for their family’s extensive ties to UC Berkeley. Spanning four generations and more than 100 years, 10 members of the Hesse family have earned degrees from Berkeley, including eight in the College of Letters & Science.

Today, Carla is the Peder Sather Professor in the History Department after serving as executive dean of the College of Letters & Science from 2014 to 2019 and...

David Baker, a UC Berkeley Ph.D., awarded 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 9, 2024

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared by David Baker, a biochemist who received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1989 working with Randy Schekman, a professor of molecular and cell biology who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

At Berkeley, Baker conducted research primarily on protein transport and protein trafficking in yeast, the field in which Schekman received the prize. But after a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF, he joined the biochemistry...

Two UC Berkeley alums awarded 2024 MacArthur 'genius' fellowships

October 4, 2024

The MacArthur Foundation announced the Class of 2024 MacArthur Fellows on Tuesday, October 1. MacArthur Fellowships, often called ‘genius grants,’ provide each recipient with an $800,000 stipend, a "no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential," according to the MacArthur Foundation website.

Of the five University of California alums selected this year, two are...

UC Berkeley Sociology Alumna Ruha Benjamin Wins MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant

October 3, 2024

UC Berkeley alumna Ruha Benjamin, “a transdisciplinary scholar and writer,” has been awarded a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship for “illuminating how technology reflects and reproduces inequality and championing the role of imagination in social transformation,” the MacArthur Foundation announced this week.

The MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to colloquially as the “genius grant,” is awarded annually to 20 to 30 talented individuals across a...

Understanding ideals and realities as a Berkeley Economics graduate

August 14, 2024

It was a March afternoon in 2023 and I was waiting on the fifth floor of Evans Hall. I don’t remember what day of the week it was, or if it was sunny outside. I do remember eyeing the history of Berkeley Economics on display in front of me. “1875 – Bernard Moses is appointed Professor of History. He is the first faculty member to teach political economy on the Cal campus.” Thinking of the Economics department’s roots in political economy and history, I hummed. What are the odds? I mused. And then, considering my own departure from the Political Economy department in favor...

Finding My Place in LATAM, Part III: Reflections and the Road Ahead

August 22, 2024

Chaka Tellem is a class of 2023 UC Berkeley graduate who studied political economy with minors in public policy and race & law. Tellem will attend Yale Law School in the fall of 2024. His passion for advocacy and law grew from his formative years in Dallas and Los Angeles. Tellem was the ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) student body president for two years, from 2021 to 2023. He had the...

Finding My Place in LATAM, Part II: Backpacking through Central America and Returning to Colombia

April 26, 2024

Chaka Tellem is a class of 2023 UC Berkeley graduate who studied political economy with minors in public policy and race & law. Tellem will attend law school in the fall of 2024. His passion for advocacy and law grew from his formative years in Dallas and Los Angeles. Tellem was the ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) student body president for two years, from 2021 to 2023. He is currently...

Bathsheba Demuth (Ph.D. '17) Awarded John H. Dunning Prize by AHA

November 1, 2021

Bathsheba Demuth (Ph.D. '17) has been awarded the John H. Dunning Prize by the AHA for her book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait (W.W. Norton, 2019). Demuth is currently an Assistant Professor of History & Environment and Society at Brown University. The John H. Dunning Prize is awarded for an outstanding monograph on any subject relating...