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The indomitable human quest for power, influence and a foothold in the social hierarchy has long been a subject of fascination and study for UC Berkeley psychologist Sheri Johnson. “Some people really want to get to the top and others are happy in the middle, and others are just trying to avoid being at the bottom,” says Johnson in a Q & A just published in The Huffington Post.
Faculty/Staff archive
Herb Strauss, professor emeritus of chemistry, has died at 78
December 22, 2014: Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Herbert “Herb” Leopold Strauss, an internationally recognized spectroscopist, died Tuesday, Dec. 2, at his home in Berkeley after a long illness. He was 78.
Quigley medal honors late real estate professor
December 19, 2014: The new John M. Quigley Medal has been established in memory of the late Berkeley-Haas housing expert and his extensive body of scholarly work in the fields of urban economics and housing policy. Professor Quigley passed away in May 2012.
Outstanding staff sought for 2015 COSA awards
December 19, 2014: UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks has sent out a call for nominations for exceptional individual staff members and/or teams of staff for the 2015 Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards. The deadline is Jan. 29.
Roberto Zoncu profile: Starving cancer
December 18, 2014: In a profile by The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2014 Pew Scholar Roberto Zoncu discusses the adventure of science and his own research to find a way to starve cancer of nutrients. A native of Sardinia, Italy, Zoncu is an assistant professor of molecular cell biology and a recipient of a NIH Innovator Award.
Berkeley innovators named fellows of National Academy of Inventors
December 16, 2014: Biochemist Jennifer Doudna, chemical engineer Jay Keasling and chemist Richard Mathies were among 170 people named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. The organization honors innovators who have file patents in the United States.
Mark Bittman’s menu to include UC Berkeley
December 11, 2014: Mark Bittman, popular food writer and New York Times columnist, will be a distinguished visiting fellow on campus during spring semester, collaborating with faculty, staff and students connected to the Berkeley Food Institute.
Coral reef expert David Stoddart has died at 77
December 11, 2014: David Ross Stoddart, one of the world’s leading authorities on coral reefs and coastal geomorphology and a geographer of international renown, died on November 23rd in Berkeley following a long period of declining health. A professor emeritus of geography, Stoddart was 77.
Sociologist dubs police killings ‘the other capital punishment’
December 10, 2014: As world attention focuses on police power in the United States following the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, sociologist Jerome Karabel writes in the Huffington Post on “The Other Capital Punishment,” which he defines as “the killing of Americans by the police without benefit of charges, trial, jury or the right to appeal.”
UC Berkeley anthropologist-physician wins Margaret Mead Award
December 9, 2014: Seth Holmes, an assistant professor of the UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Medical Anthropology program, teaches in Berkeley’s School of Public Health and is the director of ISSI’s Berkeley Center for Social Medicine.
Mellon grant advances Berkeley’s Digital Humanities
December 2, 2014: A $2 million Mellon Foundation grant will expand UC Berkeley offerings for faculty and students that will introduce them to a range of digital tools and methods.
Carol Christ named director of Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE)
November 24, 2014: Carol T. Christ, longtime UC Berkeley administrator and professor as well as a recent president of Smith College, will be the new director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley, Chancellor Dirks and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Steele announced today (Monday, Nov. 24).
Four UC Berkeley faculty named AAAS fellows
November 24, 2014: Four UC Berkeley faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their contributions to advancing science or its applications.
Engineering’s Fiona Doyle named new dean of the Graduate Division
November 20, 2014: Engineering professor Fiona Doyle will serve as the new dean of the Graduate Division at UC Berkeley, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele announced today (Thursday, Nov. 20). She will begin her new role on Jan. 1.
Education professor Barbara White dies at age 64
November 18, 2014: Professor Barbara White, a faculty member at UC Berkeley for 25 years whose broad ranging academic background encompassed education, computer science, psychology, and mathematics, has died after a battle with cancer. She was 64.
Diana Bautista receives Young Investigator Award from neuroscience society
November 17, 2014: The Society for Neuroscience presented a Young Investigator Award to Diana Bautista, UC Berkeley assistant professor of integrative biology, at its annual meeting Nov. 17 in Washington, DC. The $15,000 award recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions by young neuroscientists who have recently received advanced professional degree.
Jennifer Doudna, cosmology teams named 2015 Breakthrough Prize winners
November 10, 2014: Jennifer Doudna was named a winner of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences at a star-studded gala in Silicon Valley on Nov. 9, while Saul Perlmutter and former Berkeley post-doc Adam Riess accepted the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics on behalf of the two teams they led.
john a. powell, in KPFA series: ‘Ferguson has been a long time coming’
November 7, 2014: Haas Institute director john a. powell delivered a potent history of race in America in a KPFA Evening Dialogue lecture this week. “Ferguson has been a long time coming,” he said. “[It’s] the modern expression of the slave patroller.”
Study identifies effective communication strategies for voter ID laws
November 5, 2014: A new study examining impacts of voter ID requirements finds some effective communications tools to help inform and prepare voters to be prepared when going to the polls.
The skinny on soda taxes, in under 3 minutes 
November 3, 2014: Professor Alan Auerbach answers some key questions about the initiatives on Tuesday’s ballot in Berkeley and San Francisco to add taxes to purchases of most sweetened drinks. Auerbach is director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at UC Berkeley.
Physicist Marvin Cohen receives highest honor from Materials Research Society
October 28, 2014: The Materials Research Society has given solid state theorist Marvin L. Cohen its highest honor, the 2014 Von Hippel Award, Cohen, a professor of physics and LBNL scientist, is being recognized for “explaining and predicting properties of materials and for successfully predicting new materials using microscopic quantum theory.” He will receive the award Dec. 3 in Boston.
Physicist Hitoshi Murayama addresses UN on science and peace
October 23, 2014: In a keynote address at an Oct. 20 UN event highlighting the role of science in bridging nations, UC Berkeley physicist Hitoshi Murayama argued that “basic scientific research is a true peacemaker for humankind.” The event celebrated the 60th anniversary of CERN. Murayama also is director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo.
Open Enrollment for 2015 UC benefits begins Oct. 30
October 22, 2014: Open Enrollment for 2015 UC health and welfare benefits begins Thursday, Oct. 30. The campus’s Human Resources unit will offer informational sessions for faculty, staff, emeriti and retirees; an article from UC details plan offerings.
Randy Schekman named to Institute of Medicine
October 21, 2014: Nobelist Randy Schekman, a UC Berkeley professor of cell and developmental biology, has been named to the prestigious Institute of Medicine, one of the highest national honors in the fields of health and medicine.
UC-grown collaboration a guide for California wanna-bees
October 15, 2014: The new guidebook California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists shows readers how to make native bees thrive in an urban environment — and makes the case for why that matters.
Two honored with Faculty Service Award
October 13, 2014: Joseph Cerny, an emeritus professor of chemistry, and Margaretta Lovell, the Jay D. McEvoy, Jr., Chair of American Art in the Department of the History of Art, are joint recipients of the Berkeley Faculty Service Award for 2014, given by the Academic Senate.
POV: ‘Development engineers’ take aim at global poverty
October 6, 2014: A new generation of development engineers, “dedicated to using engineering and technology to improve the lot of the world’s poorest people,” is emerging around the world, write Shankar Sastry and Lina Nilsson of UC Berkeley’s Blum Center for Developing Economies, in a Washington Post opinion piece.
Moore Investigator grant to physicist Joe Orenstein to explore quantum materials
October 6, 2014: Joseph Orenstein, professor of physics, was one of 19 researchers named Moore Experimental Investigators in Quantum Materials. Investigators receive five-year grants to pursue ambitious, high-risk research, including the development of new experimental techniques that could transform our understanding of quantum materials.
Three faculty members awarded National Medal of Science
October 3, 2014: President Barack Obama has chosen three UC Berkeley faculty members – chemist Judith Klinman, applied mathematician Alexandre Chorin and the late statistician David Blackwelll – to receive the 2014 National Medal of Science. They were among 10 honorees announced Oct. 3 by the White House.
After financial storm, Berkeley is stronger than ever, Dirks says
October 2, 2014: UC Berkeley has emerged from the financial crisis stronger than ever, argues Chancellor Dirks in an article in the latest edition of the “Times Higher Education.”
