Staff

Researchers tackle financial and social impacts of climate disasters at Social Science Matrix event

November 18, 2025

Natural disasters are becoming an everyday threat in the United States. But the consequences extend far beyond immediate damages. From wildfires to floods, climate change is harming the systems that protect homeowners and renters.

Several Berkeley Social Sciences researchers gathered at the Social Science Matrix recently for a panel discussion to examine how climate change, urban planning and insurance instability are currently reshaping the nation’s housing landscape.

The “Financializing Disaster: Insurance and...

OURS associate director Alicia Hayes elected first Black president of NAFA

November 7, 2025

Alicia Hayes, the associate director of national scholarships & experiential fellowships for the UC Berkeley Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarships (OURS), has been elected to serve as the first Black president of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA). Hayes, who came to Berkeley as a staff member of the Cal Alumni Association 1999 and assumed her role in...

Announcing UC Berkeley's 2025 L&S Staff Achievement Award recipients

November 7, 2025

The L&S Staff Achievement Awards, now in its second year, recognize and celebrate outstanding staff members in the College of Letters & Science. Awardees are selected for their exceptional commitment to the College’s shared mission of teaching, research, and public service. Each of these individuals has excelled in areas such as collaboration, goal accomplishment, inclusion & belonging, innovation, and mastery of their work.

We are deeply grateful to our 2025 recipients for their remarkable contributions to the College and to the University. Their...

Building Bridges: Professor Lin Lin

October 29, 2025

Since 2014, Lin Lin has served as a computational mathematician in the Mathematics Department here at UC Berkeley, though he might also be a quantum chemist in disguise. By combining insights from both fields, he is interested in designing new algorithms that harness the power of quantum computers to tackle challenging problems in quantum chemistry and scientific computing more broadly.

Showing early on the tenacity we come to expect in successful scientists, Lin sought out difficult problems when he went from small-town eastern China to Peking University for...

ROTC leaders reflect on a rich and proud history at UC Berkeley

October 13, 2025

Meet ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) leadership at UC Berkeley: CAPT Randy Van Rossum, Lt Col Jeff Fyffe, and LTC Aaron Elliott. Together, they prepare students from Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay Area to become leaders and future military officers.

History Professor Carlos Noreña on Roman imperialism and its legacy

August 25, 2025

UC Berkeley History Professor Carlos Noreña first came to Berkeley as a student in 1988, where he developed a lifelong fascination with Mediterranean antiquity. After earning his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and teaching at Yale in the Department of Classics, he returned to Berkeley, where he has spent the past two decades sharing his passion for Roman history with students.

Noreña’s research encompasses Roman history, geography and material cultures. He is currently working on a book about Roman imperialism, a series of articles on...

Geography professor explains how glaciology offers critical clues for climate change

August 28, 2025

UC Berkeley Geography Professor Kurt Cuffey digs deep—literally—to explore the important layers beneath glaciers’ beauty. Each crevice reveals something different about our environment and the growing concern of climate change.

As a professor who focuses on earth and planetary science, Cuffey’s research addresses climate feedback loops, a process in which initial global warming causes the melting of ice—darkening the planet surface—and causing further warming. In particular, his research showed how carbon dioxide and global temperature over a...

Learning to listen: Expanded UC Berkeley course teaches how to better engage with opposing views

August 21, 2025

Now available to all students, faculty, staff and alumni, the class features lectures and discussions with top UC Berkeley scholars and offers suggestions on navigating especially challenging conversations during polarized times.

Amir Rafiei has long known that some topics can be divisive. But he hadn’t realized how his own actions may have caused divides in his seemingly neutral hobby of filmmaking.

Sometimes he’d feel “locked in” with his own thoughts and ideas. He’d stop listening to what his collaborators were saying about shot techniques or narrative structures...

Berkeley Talks: Economist Gabriel Zucman on the benefits of a (modest) billionaire tax

July 29, 2025

In this Berkeley Talks episode, economist Gabriel Zucman discusses how wealth inequality and billionaire wealth has soared in recent decades, prompting the need for a global minimum tax of 2% on billionaires.

“The key benefit of a global minimum tax on billionaires is not only that it would generate substantial revenue for governments worldwide — about $250 billion a year — but also, and maybe most importantly, that it would restore a sense of fairness,” says Zucman, a...

From Stage to Campus: Jean-Paul Gressieux's Role at TDPS

April 2, 2025
Meet Jean-Paul Gressieux, department manager for the department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) at UC Berkeley. With a rich background in nonprofit theater management and years of experience at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Jean-Paul brings a unique blend of expertise and passion to his role. From supporting the creative process to fostering collaboration among students, faculty, and staff, he ensures TDPS remains a thriving academic and artistic community.