Honors & awards archive
SubscribeTwo honored as Distinguished Librarians
October 24, 2012: Lillian Castillo-Speed, head librarian of the Ethnic Studies Library, and Marci Hoffman, associate director of the Law Library,
are winners of UC Berkeley’s 2012 Distinguished Librarian Award.
Sustainability award for senior thesis on campus emissions
October 22, 2012: A recent UC Berkeley graduate in environmental sciences has won a sustainability research award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for her senior thesis calculating the campus’s greenhouse gas emissions based on its entire supply chain of goods and services.
Crysler appointed Arcus Chair in gender, sexuality, built environment
October 17, 2012: Associate Professor of Architecture C. Greig Crysler has been appointed the Arcus Chair in Gender, Sexuality, and the Built Environment. In his teaching, he leads students in exploring the intersection between architecture, ethics and activism.
2012 Berkeley Faculty Service Award shared by Deakin, Gronsky
October 17, 2012: Elizabeth Deakin, a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, and Ronald Gronsky, a professor of materials science and engineering, are joint recipients of the Berkeley Faculty Service Award for 2012.
A road for Perlmutter
October 17, 2012: The last remaining unnamed main road at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was christened Oct. 13, in honor of the 2011 Nobel Prize winner in physics, Berkeley’s Saul Perlmutter.
Fabilli Hoffer Prize challenge: Gravity, in 500 words or less
October 17, 2012: How much can you say in 500 words? That’s the yearly challenge presented by the Lili Fabilli and Eric Hoffer essay contest, which is accepting entries now.
The competition is open to faculty and staff, as well as students.This year’s topic: gravity. The deadline is Dec. 3.
Choper to receive Witkin Medal for lifetime contributions
October 10, 2012: The Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley, Jesse Choper, has been named as this year’s recipient of the Bernard E. Witkin Medal, which recognizes attorneys, judges and legal scholars for a lifetime of work that has changed the legal landscape. The medal will be conveyed at a State Bar Association meeting Oct. 12.
Nobelist in physics got his start at Berkeley
October 9, 2012: An American physicist who shared today’s Nobel Prize in Physics earned his bachelor of arts degree from UC Berkeley in 1965.
National Championship Week caps banner year
October 2, 2012: For Berkeley’s seventh annual National Championship Week, Cal’s student-athletes received a well-deserved heroes’ welcome at a reception hosted by Chancellor Birgeneau at University House.
Two Berkeley alums win MacArthur Fellowships
October 2, 2012: Two UC Berkeley alums, one an Oakland resident who has developed systems that help break the cycle of poverty, the other a leader in geriatric and chronic disease, won MacArthur “genius awards” for 2012.
David Wake and two other Berkeley faculty honored by California Academy
September 28, 2012: David Wake, amphibian expert and professor emeritus of integrative biology, will receive this year’s Fellows’ Medal, the highest honor of the California Academy of Sciences. Wildlife ecologist Justin Brashares, associate professor of ESPM, and astronomer Steven Beckwith are among 10 newly elected fellows of the academy.
Clif Bar in Emeryville snags 2012 Livable Building Award
September 19, 2012: The Center for the Built Environment announces its Livable Building Award for 2012.
Chang-Lin Tien fellowships for 6 grad students
September 19, 2012: Recognizing outstanding research in a wide range of fields, the campus has awarded six students with the Chang-Lin Tien Graduate Fellowship in the Environmental Sciences.
Biophysicist Carlos Bustamante awarded 2012 Sackler Prize
September 13, 2012: Carlos Bustamante will share the Raymond and Beverly International Sackler Prize in Biophysics for his “seminal contributions to single molecule biophysics.”. Bustamante is a professor of molecular and cell biology, physics and chemistry, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences.
Judith Butler wins Adorno Prize
September 12, 2012: UC Berkeley professor Judith Butler is the recipient of this year’s Adorno Prize, a highly coveted German award that recognizes outstanding achievement in philosophy, theater, music or film.
Synthetic biology pioneer Jay Keasling receives Heinz Award
September 12, 2012: Jay Keasling, a leading authority and pioneer on synthetic biology who has engineered microbial “factories” to manufacture an affordable version of a frontline antimalarial drug and biofuel substitutes for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, has won a 2012 Heinz Award, which carries a cash prize of $250,000. Three of the four other winners are UC Berkeley grads.
Deborah Berke awarded new Berkeley-Rupp Prize for advancing women in architecture, contributing to sustainability 
September 10, 2012: Deborah Berke, a New York City-based architect known for her design excellence and commitment to architectural innovation, is the first recipient of the College of Environmental Design’s inaugural Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize.
Book on health, safety, enviromental policy honored
August 30, 2012: Business professor David Vogel has won the Academy of Management Organization and the Natural Environment Division Book Award for his book The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States.
Head-Gordon honored by chemistry society
August 28, 2012: Professor of Chemistry Martin Head-Gordon has been inducted as a 2012 American Chemical Society Fellow, in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and important contributions to the scientific society.
Bears bring home 17 medals from Olympics, 11 of them gold
August 13, 2012: As the 2012 Summer Olympic Games closed Sunday, 46 Golden Bear athletes, coaches and staff members stood tall, following another record-setting performance on the international stage. In all, the Bears earned 17 medals, matching their record haul from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Eleven of the medals were gold, one silver and five bronze.
Berkeley takes silver in UC tech innovation awards
August 7, 2012: Campus was honored with a Sautter award for Kuali Ready, a Web application that helps departments create a continuity plan, which is used to resume critical operations as soon as possible after a disruptive event.
‘Greener and greener’ Li Ka Shing Center wins LEED Gold
August 2, 2012: A recently opened five-story building on the campus’s western edge has been officially certified LEED Gold. The Li Ka Shing Biomedical and Health Sciences Center is the 10th UC Berkeley building to earn high marks from the U.S. Green Building Council, and brings the campus’s LEED-certified space to more than 1 million square feet.
Bakar Fellows advance commercially promising research
July 19, 2012: In its first year, the initiative will give research innovations by six early-career UC Berkeley faculty members — including technologies to move prosthetic limbs with the power of thought and to control Argentine ants using their own pheromones — a significant boost from the lab to the market.
First Brett LGBT fellowship goes to Italian Studies student
July 17, 2012: The first Philip Brett LGBT Fund award has been bestowed on Chris Atwood, a graduate student in Italian Studies. The fund was set up in 2009 in honor of the late professor Philip Brett, an eminent music scholar whose research kick-started the field of musical scholarship about, and by, people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
Berkeley a triple-winner at sustainability awards
June 29, 2012: UC Berkeley won triple honors for its efforts to go green at the 2012 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference.
Cal doctor to oversee U.S. Olympic team’s medical staff
June 28, 2012: Campus doctor Cindy Chang is headed to the Olympics in London as the U.S. team’s chief medical officer.
Tom Brady named Berkeley’s ‘emeritus professor of the year’
June 20, 2012: The scholar of German Reformation studies, who retired in 2006, is recognized by the UC Berkeley Emeriti Association.
International gold awards go to campus communicators
June 13, 2012: Three gold awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recently went to UC Berkeley communicators.
Five undergrad women named Berkeley’s first Bergeron scholars
June 12, 2012: This year’s scholars are the first women to benefit from a program funded by Sandra and Douglas Bergeron in fall 2011to provide scholarships, program support and mentorships to five undergraduate women each year pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Distinguished rural sociologist of 2012: Louise Fortmann
June 11, 2012: The Rural Sociological Society has named Louise Fortmann, a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, as the 2012 Distinguished Rural Sociologist.
