Graduate Education

Interview: From Biology to Medieval Musicology: Saagar Asnani on Embracing a Passion for the Humanities

November 6, 2024

Saagar Asnani is a graduate student in Musicology and Medieval Studies. He focuses particularly on the regions of France, Italy, Occitania, and Catalonia. He works mainly with the relationship between language and music, as his research bridges sociohistorical linguistics with musicology. Saagar earned his MA from UC Berkeley in 2022, and BA in Music, French and Biology from University of Pennsylvania.

How did you decide to pursue a graduate degree in Berkeley’s Department of Music? Is there any advice that you have for undergraduates, who are interested in pursuing graduate...

The Shining Lights Program

The Shining Lights Program is a unique, experiential, semester-long leadership development program committed to supporting the growth and professional development of women and women-identifying future leaders and their allies in the math and physical sciences.

The Shining Lights Program equips participants with essential skills for successful careers in science through leadership skill building, coaching, networking, and mentoring. This comprehensive initiative encompasses both technical proficiency and interpersonal competencies, providing...

Balancing academics and athletics: a character-building experience

August 22, 2024

While the 2024 Games may have drawn to a close, there are still student athletes in the College of Chemistry who daily display the same kind of discipline and resilience as any Olympian. “Being a student athlete at the University of California, Berkeley, presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities,” says gymnast and recent College of Chemistry student Jaxon Mitchell(link is external). He adds, “Balancing a rigorous academic...

Size of tropical glaciers at lowest point in at least 11,000 years

August 5, 2024

Largely melted glacier nestled between rock with a body of water in frontGlaciers are retreating around the world as the planet warms, but scientists have debated how severe the shrinkage is compared to periodic glacial advances and retreats since the end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago.

A new study of four glaciers dotting the high Andes in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia shows that, at least in the tropics, the...

With newly digitized slave ship logs, Berkeley Ph.D. student examines race, power — and literacy

June 13, 2024

William Carter was in a National Archives reading room in the United Kingdom staring at a box of tattered pages covered in cursive writing, sea water stains and smears of blood. It smelled musty, and his hands became smudged turning the soot-covered pages.

Carter, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidate in geography, was mining these centuries-old slave ship logs in 2020 as part of his research into the transatlantic slave trade and what lessons from then might apply to our own understandings about race, literacy and power today.

But there was a problem: He couldn’t read a single...

UC Berkeley’s Hayley Bounds named a 2024 Schmidt Science Fellow

April 29, 2024

Hayley Bounds, a graduate student in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, has been awarded a prestigious 2024 Schmidt Science Fellowship. This fellowship, renowned within the scientific community, seeks out the “world’s best emerging scientists who have completed a Ph.D. in natural sciences, computing, engineering, or mathematics and places them in fellowships in a field different from their existing expertise.” The program not only provides funding for the scientists’ training and research endeavors, it also fosters a community of interdisciplinary leaders. Bounds is...

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...