SubscribeHow do we protect civil liberties, privacy and even the character of democracy in a networked world where private interests control much of the digital real estate? Scholar-activist Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked, covers fertile ground in a talk at the School of Information.
Technology & engineering archive
Sethian, Saye win Cozzarelli Prize for applied math paper
February 21, 2012: Two UC Berkeley and LBNL mathematicians, James Sethian and Robert Saye, have won the Cozzarelli Prize from the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for their paper on a new numerical method for tracking large numbers of interacting and evolving phases of materials. The prize is named after the late UC Berkeley biochemist & PNAS editor Nicholas Cozzarelli.
Through engineering prof, girls meet ‘the science of better’
February 16, 2012: Rhonda Righter, professor of industrial engineering, is tackling a new assignment: serving as a volunteer role model to 35 middle-school girls. During a recent presentation at Oakland’s American Indian Public Charter School, she talked about her field: “Industrial engineering is all about making things better,” Righter said. “We’re like detectives who solve puzzles.”
Q&A: Sylvia Ratnasamy on helping students build their own networks
February 15, 2012: Newly awarded a 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Sylvia Ratnasamy, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences in UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering, talks about her passion for improving the Internet and for helping students build their own networks.
Berkeley senior wins prestigious Churchill scholarship
February 14, 2012: As Berkeley’s first Churchill scholar since 1991, civil and environmental engineering major Colin Meyer will use his $50,000 award to continue his studies at England’s University of Cambridge.
Engineering, by popular demand, to offer energy major for undergrads
February 13, 2012: Driven largely by undergraduate interest, the College of Engineering has launched a new major that focuses on the generation, transmission and storage of energy, with additional courses on energy policy. Beginning this fall, the new Energy Engineering major will admit up to eight new students each year.
Scott Shenker elected to National Academy of Engineering
February 9, 2012: Engineering professor Scott Shenker joins the ranks of the National Academy of Engineering, bringing to 92 the total number of UC Berkeley faculty members given the prestigious honor.
Breakthrough in designing cheaper, more efficient catalysts for fuel cells
February 9, 2012: UC Berkeley chemists Chris Chang, Jeff Long and Marcin Majda have redesigned catalysts in ways that could have a profound impact on the chemical industry as well as on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Advanced power-grid model finds low-cost, low-carbon future in West
February 9, 2012: The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other sources of energy that may include nuclear power, according to a new study by UC Berkeley researchers.
Solving the Brueghel ‘imbroglio’ with modern, digital tools
February 7, 2012: Thanks to a grant from CITRIS, associate art professor Elizabeth Honig is employing some decidedly 21st century digital tools to help sort out a controversy surrounding Brueghel scholarship.
For Chancellor Birgeneau, research is for life
February 6, 2012: Throughout his tenure as UC Berkeley chancellor, Robert Birgeneau has sustained a research interest in new materials, maintaining labs both on campus and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Upon his recent receipt of the Shull Prize from the Neutron Scattering Society of America, Birgeneau reflected on the role research has played in his life at Berkeley.
I School dean talks tech innovation on Canadian radio 
February 3, 2012: AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the School of Information and author of The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy, talks about what happened in Silicon Valley to make it the world’s tech innovation center, and how the future of growth and innovation will depend on the new Argonauts — experts who move information fluidly between creative hubs all over the world.
Energy secretary joins groundbreaking for new LBNL research facility
February 2, 2012: U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu joined UC and Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBNL) leaders Feb. 1 to break ground on the lab’s new Computational Research and Theory facility.
Samuelson clinic helps create online-privacy complaint website
February 2, 2012: Two faculty members at Berkeley Law’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic have helped launch an interactive online service for submitting privacy complaints about websites and social networks. Clinic director Jason Schultz and senior fellow Chris Hoofnagle spent two years working with a San Diego-based nonprofit to create the new clearinghouse.
Professors’ innovations benefit society, economy
February 1, 2012: Cutting-edge research is a hallmark of UC Berkeley, and it should come as no surprise that faculty members are eager to see their discoveries put to use. Many, such as chemistry dean Richard Mathies, have formed start-ups to develop their inventions to a point where they become viable in the marketplace, benefiting not only society but the university as well.
Scientists decode brain waves to eavesdrop on what we hear
January 31, 2012: Stroke victims or paralyzed people unable to speak may someday be able to communicate via synthesizers that decode their internal speech and play it back. That hope comes from research by UC Berkeley neuroscientists Brian Pasley and Robert Knight, who have successfully decoded brain waves to predict what a person heard.
Remote sensing places nature at our fingertips
January 27, 2012: UC Berkeley geologist Bill Dietrich and biologist Todd Dawson are two of many UC scientists placing remote sensors in natural reserves to map land, track animals and collect environmental data.
Lab picks Richmond Field Station for a second campus
January 23, 2012: The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, bursting at the seams of its home next door to UC Berkeley, announced Monday that it has picked the University of California’s bayside Richmond Field Station as the site of its second campus. The lab expansion will have benefits for Berkeley, Chancellor Birgeneau says.
Ashok Gadgil wins Zayed lifetime-achievement award
January 20, 2012: Ashok Gadgil, a UC Berkeley engineering professor and a division director at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, has won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the 2012 Zayed Future Energy Prize, given for innovation, leadership and vision in renewable energy and sustainability. Gadgil was recognized for his sustainable humanitarian work in Darfur, providing healthier, energy-efficient “Berkeley-Darfur” cooking stoves. More than 1,100 nominations were submitted for prize.
L&S website issues mainly resolved
January 19, 2012: Websites for many departments in the College of Letters & Science, which went offline earlier this week because of a hardware failure at an outside hosting vendor, were largely restored, though a few lingering issues remain.
UCTC receives funding for new transportation research
January 19, 2012: The University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) on the UC Berkeley campus is overseeing a new research consortium of five other UC and four Cal State University campuses that just received a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and a matching amount from California’s Department of Transportation.
CDL virtual workshop on web archiving, Jan. 27
January 18, 2012: The California Digital Library will offer a two-hour, hands-on, online workshop, on Friday, Jan. 27, on how to archive websites — what to look for in sites to be archived, how to choose capture settings, and how to configure public archives.
Diesel-truck emissions in Oakland fall sharply, study finds
January 17, 2012: Strict new emission standards for diesel trucks have reduced their emissions of unhealthy pollutants by half at the bustling Port of Oakland, says a team of researchers led by Rob Harley, professor of civil and environmental engineering. Writing in Environmental Science & Technology, Harley details improvements made as a result of aggressive new state regulations.
Endowment for undergraduate women studying science, tech, math
January 11, 2012: A scholarship-mentorship endowment for undergraduate women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is being offered at the UC Berkeley. Five students will be selected each year for the endowment, established by Silicon Valley executives Sandra and Douglas G. Bergeron.
Biofuels, land and ethics
January 10, 2012: Growing dedicated energy crops on lands that won’t support food crops is one of the promises of emerging cellulosic fuels. The latest issue of the Energy Biosciences Institute magazine, Bioenergy Connection, looks at how much land is available, its energy-producing potential and which plants are the most promising alternatives. It also explores ethical questions involved in moving toward greater use of bioenergy.
Internet-privacy complaint center launched
January 5, 2012: Scholars at Berkeley helped lay the groundwork for a new service that allows people to report online-privacy problems, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
I School professor leads “Digging Into Data” project
January 5, 2012: Professor Ray Larson is leading a newly funded project using text mining tools to boost social history research.
Leaping lizards and dinosaurs inspire robot design 
January 4, 2012: Undergraduate and graduate students teamed up with biologist Robert Full to study how lizards use their tails when leaping. What they found can help design robots that are more stable on uneven terrain and after unexpected falls, which is critical to successful search and rescue operations.
Synthetic biologists look to computer-aided design
January 3, 2012: Computer-assisted design tools that have been used to fabricate integrated circuits may soon be coming to the biological sciences, says Professor Jay Keasling, director of the Joint BioEngineering Institute and a world authority on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.
Stellar discovery
January 3, 2012: It takes more than luck to find a supernova. California magazine offers a behind-the-scenes look at the organized search for these astronomical objects, and the role played by scientists at Berkeley.
