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A crowd of some 3,900 in black caps and gowns, and 21,000 fanatically proud fans in the stands above, turned out at California Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s Commencement Convocation 2013. Apple co-founder and Berkeley alum Steve Wozniak keynoted the event, which was held in the sports venue for the first time in more than 40 years.
People archive
Barry Eichengreen on currency wars — ‘perception and reality’
May 23, 2013: In a white paper titled “Currency Wars: Perception and Reality”, UC Berkeley Professor Barry Eichengreen, a leading academic authority on international currencies, makes the case that not all governmental manipulations to devalue a country’s currency should be seen as part of a “currency war.”
Emeritus English professor Paul Alpers dies at age 80
May 22, 2013: Paul Alpers, a UC Berkeley professor of English for 38 years, died May 19 at his home in Northampton, Mass. Alpers was the husband of Smith College President Carol Christ, who served as Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor and provost from 1994 to 2000.
Student graduation speaker on ‘vaulting off a page and into the world’
May 22, 2013: At the English department’s 2013 commencement, student speaker Prachi Naik ’13 pays respects “to the connective tissue of our world, that glimmering lattice of convergences [that is] made most brilliant, most visible through literature.”
Sociologist a KQED Asian Pacific American ‘local hero’ 
May 21, 2013: Each May KQED radio honors a number of ‘local heroes” of Asian Pacific American heritage. Among its 2013 honorees is UC Berkeley sociologist Evelyn Nakano Glenn, cited for groundbreaking scholarship on the intersectionality of race, gender, citizenship and labor.
Jerry Brown tells grads ‘you can make change’
May 20, 2013: California Gov. Jerry Brown praised students for making a difference in the last election, and encouraged them to continue their activism to improve the world, in his keynote speech at Monday’s political-science graduation.
Media Advisory: Gov. Jerry Brown to address 2013 political science graduates
May 17, 2013: California Gov. Jerry Brown will address UC Berkeley political science graduates May 20.
Dorothea Lange winner hopes to inspire change with her photos 
May 15, 2013: In South Africa, UC Berkeley graduate student Molly Oleson photographed farming women seeking better conditions; In India, she captured the lives of girls in Bihar, who are traditionally left uneducated; in Brazil’s Amazon, Oleson will document indigenous communities’ struggle to protect their land and culture from destruction by a new dam. For her work, Oleson won the 2013 Dorothea Lange Fellowship.
Law school’s Altholz wins 2013 Yamashita Prize
May 14, 2013: This year’s Foundation for Change: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize has been awarded to Roxanna Altholz, an assistant clinical professor of law and associate director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley Law. Altholz successfully represented 127 family members of 28 individuals who were forcibly “disappeared” between 1983 and 1985 by Guatemalan security forces.
Ugandan AIDS orphan discovers power of the pedal
May 14, 2013: The humble bicycle propelled AIDS-orphan Chris Ategeka from rural East Africa to UC Berkeley, driving him to success as an engineer, inventor and social entrepreneur.
What’s the matter with sports fans?
May 13, 2013: Author, J-School instructor and sports nut Eric Simons set out on a quest to figure out why he, and millions of other fans all over the world, act the way they do. He gathered his findings in a new book, The Secret Lives of Sports Fans.
Biology scholars thank Birgeneau, Breslauer
May 13, 2013: More than 50 students and 30 alumni of Berkeley’s Biology Scholars Program gathered recently in the Durant Hall atrium to thank Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer for their support.
UCPD team to ride in Special Olympics benefit
May 13, 2013: For the fourth year, members of the campus police force will ride in Bike the Bridges, a 25-mile fundraising ride to benefit Special Olympics Northern California. Others are invited to join the UCPD team or support it with pledges. The event takes place Sunday, June 9.
Holder urges law-school grads to work for ‘a better world’
May 13, 2013: U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder delivered the commencement address at Berkeley Law on Saturday, congratulating graduates on what he called “your chance to help realize your vision of a better world.” Here is a video excerpt of his remarks.
Crown Prince of Norway visits, agreement signed with Haas
May 10, 2013: On a swing through the Bay Area, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit spent the afternoon at UC Berkeley Thursday, meeting with Chancellor Birgeneau and signing a technology-sharing agreement with the Haas School of Business.
Bike to Work Day at Berkeley, in photos
May 9, 2013: Hundreds of people strapped on their helmets and rode their bikes to UC Berkeley Thursday in celebration of Bike to Work Day, and some of them sent in their photos. Take a look.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute names three new campus investigators
May 9, 2013: Three young faculty members – Nicole King, Michael Rape & Russell Vance – have won the most sought-after appointment for a researcher at any American university: as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. The institute will pay their salaries in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and provide research funding, freeing them from constant application for federal research grants.
Committee named to find Berkeley’s next provost
May 6, 2013: A committee of Berkeley administrators, faculty, students and staff has been formed to advise Chancellor-designate Nicholas Dirks on the search to replace Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, who has announced his intention to retire at the end of 2013.
Chancellors see Berkeley’s future through students’ eyes
May 3, 2013: Dirks, who takes over as Berkeley’s chancellor on June 1, and Robert Birgeneau, who has held that position for nine years, took a lunch meeting in a Durant Hall conference room with the winners of the campus’s Fiat Lux Remix contest.
Students check out incoming chancellor
May 3, 2013: Nicholas Dirks introduced himself and fielded questions at a conversational meet-up Thursday afternoon between UC Berkeley students and the campus’s next chancellor. About 100 people turned out for what Dirks called one of the “first of a long series of conversations with you.” Earlier in the day, Chancellor Birgeneau and Dirks met with student winners of the “Fiat Lux Remix” contest.
For law student, an intensely personal path to Sax Prize
May 2, 2013: For Micah West ’13, winner of the 2013 Sax Prize for clinical excellence, the path to advocacy has been intensely personal. When West was 19, his father pled guilty to two felonies and received a one-year sentence to a halfway house. “I could no more walk away from my father than I could any of the millions incarcerated in this country,” West said in accepting the award, honoring his tireless work at Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic and his efforts to launch the new Youth Defender Clinic.
Two faculty named Guggenheim Fellows for 2013
May 1, 2013: Two UC Berkeley faculty — improvising pianist and composer Myra Melford and English literature scholar Joanna Picciotto — have been named Guggenheim fellows for 2013, an award conferred for both achievement and promise.
Nicholas Dirks, history prof
May 1, 2013: Appearing not as a future chancellor but as a fellow faculty member, Nicholas Dirks led a history department colloquium Tuesday on the topic of “Scholars and Spies: World War II and the Emergence of South Asian Area Studies.”
Building an LGBT community for STEM majors
April 30, 2013: An appreciation for diversity and a passion for energizing student life led Paul Zarate,a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, to found the Berkeley chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM), a national organization dedicated to the professional development of LGBT students.
From Marin to The Hague, working for justice
April 30, 2013: Alexa Koenig, who is finishing up her dissertation as she settles into her role as executive director of the Human Rights Center, plans to “engage pretty deeply” with the center’s work in war-torn regions all over the globe.
White House honors student working to stop human trafficking
April 29, 2013: Graduate student Minh Dang has been named a White House Champion of Change. She is among a group of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women cited for extraordinary commitment to their communities and the nation.
Meet future veterinarian (or zookeeper) Amanda Wong
April 29, 2013: Aspiring veterinarian (or zookeeper) Amanda Wong is VP of the Cal Pre-Vet Club. In an interview with DugDug, “a blog for pets,” the Berkeley junior talks about her stint as a zoo volunteer, teaching visitors about horned frogs and golden eagles — and other experiences with animals so far.
Chancellor looks back: ‘a period where leadership mattered’
April 26, 2013: In an interview with NBC11, Robert Birgeneau talks access and excellence, Dreamers, and how — despite a budget model for UC Berkeley that has changed in response to severe state funding cuts during his time as chancellor — “we still spend our money, as we should, like a public university.”
Fourteen staffers, six teams win Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards
April 25, 2013: Fourteen staffers and members of six teams will be honored Monday (April 29) as the UC Berkeley campus recognizes the 2013 recipients of the Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau will hand out awards and shake the honorees’ hands. The 2 p.m. event will be streamed live online.
Ten Berkeley faculty named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 24, 2013: Ten Berkeley professors have been named members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious 233-year-old honorary society of national leaders from academia, business, public affairs and the humanities.
