Astronomers have discovered nearly 100 examples of massive black holes shredding and devouring stars, almost all of them where you’d expect to find massive black holes: in the star-dense cores of massive galaxies.
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have now discovered the first instance of a massive black hole tearing apart a star thousands of light years from the galaxy’s core, which itself contains a massive black hole.
The off-center black hole, which has a mass about 1 million times that of the sun, was hiding in the outer regions of the galaxy’s central...
From using smartphone data to predict mental health relapses to leading French Club, Asher Cohen found community — and opportunities to serve others — in a myriad of corners of campus.
In the room that Asher Cohen will soon pack up, there’s a corkboard with mementos from his senior year at UC Berkeley: birthday cards, show programs for Carmen and Hamilton and an “I Voted” sticker. In the cabinet next to it is a math calendar a professor gifted him, tiny notebooks with Eiffel Towers that French Club distributed at Cal Day, a medical Spanish textbook, a...
This year's campuswide spring ceremony took place on May 11, 2024, at the California Memorial Stadium. Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall, UC Berkeley alumna and CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, delivered this year's commencement address. Despite the backdrop of chants and protests from graduates opposing the war in Gaza, the ceremony largely proceeded as planned. Within the College of Letters & Science, many departments hosted smaller, more...
The National Academy of Sciences has added eight UC Berkeley faculty members to its esteemed ranks of scholars and experts who advise governments and other organizations on subjects in academic fields ranging from chemistry and physics to psychology and economic policy.
This year’s election of 120 members and 30 international members recognizes scholars’ distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, the National Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday. Those elected this week bring the...
Five individual staff members from the College of Letters & Science are recipients of the 2025 Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Awards (COSA). One of the highest honors bestowed upon staff by the Chancellor, the COSA awards are presented to individuals who, in addition to performing their normal job duties with excellence, "...
Six UC Berkeley faculty members from a diverse range of fields are among nearly 250 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the organization announced in a recent press release. The new Berkeley electees include leading experts in mathematics, statistics, computer science, molecular biology, neurobiology and comparative literature.
Since 1780, the academy has honored excellence and convened leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas, address...
Astronomers tallying up all the normal matter — stars, galaxies and gas — in the universe today have come up embarrassingly short of the total matter produced in the Big Bang 13.6 billion years ago. In fact, more than half of normal matter — half of the 15% of the universe’s matter that is not dark matter — cannot be accounted for in the glowing stars and gas we see.
New measurements, however, seem to have found this missing matter in the form of very diffuse and invisible ionized hydrogen gas, which forms a halo around galaxies and is more puffed out and extensive than astronomers...
UC Berkeley's College of Letters & Science is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 L&S Faculty Awards. This distinguished award recognizes each awardee's exceptional scholarship, service to the College and community, and transformational teaching. These extraordinary individuals not only embody the excellence of the College of Letters & Science, but they also serve as an inspiration to the entire campus community. The recipients will be honored at a private ceremony on Wednesday, May 14....
Deans maintain heavy workloads and busy calendars, so colleges tend to excuse them from teaching.
At UC Berkeley’s College of Letters & Science, however, two deans increased their course load this year. Steven Kahn, head of the Division of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, is currently teaching a cosmology course following a fall Freshman Seminar on big science experiments. Dean Richard Harland of the Division...
Seven UC Berkeley faculty members from a broad range of fields are among the 2024 class of fellows elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals.
Seven UC Berkeley faculty members from a broad range of fields are among the 2024 class of fellows elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals.