The dean and chairs of the Division of Social Sciences initiated the Distinguished Teaching Award to encourage and reward faculty members who have been exceptionally generous and effective in both undergraduate and graduate teaching. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a faculty member who has made extraordinary service contributions to their department and to the campus.
Steven Weber, a professor of political science and information and director of the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity makes his case on the future of the global enterprise in his new book, Bloc by Bloc: How to Build a Global Enterprise for the New Regional Order. Weber, one of the world’s most expert practitioners of scenario planning, argues that the worldwide network will not completely collapse, but will instead be redefined by the development of competing regional blocs.
Berkeley eonomist Ted Miguel and his former Ph.D. adviser at Harvard, Michael Kremer, have worked on a poverty-fighting project in Kenya since the 1990s. This groundbreaking project was among the research cited in the announcement of Kremer's 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, and Miguel has been invited to attend the ceremony.
When President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he vowed to build a “big, beautiful wall” between the United States and Mexico. But the more than 700 miles of barriers already in place at the border — mostly built in the 1990s and early 2000s — have already created more harm than good, says Wendy Brown, a professor of political science at UC Berkeley.
If adversity sparks innovation, the deadly Tubbs Fire fueled alumna Bailey Farren to develop Perimeter, a mobile app to help first responders and citizens alike respond more quickly when wildfires approach. Farren, who earned a double major in cognitive science and rhetoric, is the CEO of Perimeter and heads a seven-member team. Except for one, all are Berkeley alumni; among them is Trevor Greenan, whose childhood home burned in a wildfire in October 2017.
