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Enrollment in the Summer Sessions 2012 is projected to exceed 16,000 — making it another record-breaking season for the program, which offers more than 600 courses. UC Berkeley students make up 75 percent of the campus’s summer scholars.
Press Release archive
Noted classical archaeologist Crawford Greenwalt dies
May 10, 2012: Exploring the history and culture of the ancient city of Sardis in Turkey was a passion of classical archaeologist Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., who died on May 4.
Floating robots use GPS-enabled smartphones to track water flow 
May 9, 2012: A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River on May 9, in a field test organized by UC Berkeley engineers. The devices, equipped with GPS-enabled smartphones, demonstrated the next generation of water-monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies track one of the state’s most precious resources.
Media Advisory: Google’s Eric Schmidt to speak at commencement this Saturday
May 8, 2012:
The University of California, Berkeley’s Commencement Convocation 2012, an annual event honoring all graduating seniors. More than 3,000 graduates in caps and gowns are expected to process across the stage at Edwards Track Stadium to “Pomp and Circumstance.” The sold-out ceremony will include speeches, awards, and students, faculty and campus administrators in colorful regalia.
Versatile University Medalist reflects interests from Chinese literature to forestry
May 8, 2012: Double major Eric Olliff’s inquisitive view of the world has helped earn him the 2012 University Medal, UC Berkeley’s top prize for graduating seniors.
Mind the flying caps and balloons! Commencement takes place Saturday
May 8, 2012: The season of caps, gowns, diplomas, balloons and bouquets moves into full swing at UC Berkeley this weekend, with more than 3,000 newly minted graduates – about 600 more than last year – set to walk across the stage at Commencement Convocation on Saturday (May 12).
Steelhead trout lose out when water is low in wine country
May 7, 2012: The competition between farmers and fish for precious water in California is intensifying in wine country, suggests a new study by UC Berkeley biologists. The study links higher death rates for threatened juvenile steelhead trout with low water levels in the summer and the acreage of vineyards upstream.
Media Advisory: Engineers to toss 100 sensors downriver in Delta field test
May 4, 2012:
UC Berkeley engineers will conduct their inaugural field test of the Floating Sensor Network project on Wednesday, May 9, in Walnut Grove, Calif. They developed floating sensors that can be rapidly deployed in response to emergencies such as levee breaches or oil spills. The fleet includes robotic sensors that can swim around obstacles to target areas of interest and transmit live data to researchers using GPS receivers and mobile phone technology.
PACE’s latest update on California’s K-12 education finds little progress, lots of challenges
May 3, 2012: An examination of the current state of California’s K-12 education — conducted by an independent research center based at UC Berkeley — finds some, but not much, progress.
UC Berkeley’s first online degree program wraps up inaugural semester, addresses health worker shortage
May 3, 2012: This week, students from San Francisco to Alaska will have completed the inaugural semester of the On-Campus/Online Masters in Public Health Degree Program, the first ever online degree offered by UC Berkeley. The pioneering program was designed to expand access to quality education and to help address a nationwide shortage of health care professionals.
Scientists core into Clear Lake to explore past climate change 
May 3, 2012: One of the oldest lakes in the world, Clear Lake has deep sediments that contain a record of the climate and local plants and animals going back perhaps 500,000 years. UC Berkeley scientists are drilling cores from the sediments to explore this history and fine-tune models for predicting the fate of today’s flora and fauna in the face of global warming and pressure from a growing human population.
Four UC Berkeley scientists elected to National Academy of Sciences
May 1, 2012: Four University of California, Berkeley, faculty members – physicists John Clarke and Bernard Sadoulet, chemist John Hartwig and ecologist Mary Power – have been elected members or foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences, bringing UC Berkeley’s total NAS membership to 141.
$60 million Simons Foundation grant to launch theory of computing institute
May 1, 2012: The Simons Foundation has awarded a landmark $60 million grant to UC Berkeley to establish a theory of computing institute that promises to catalyze new advances in broad disciplines that affect our everyday lives, from how we spend our money to how we fight disease.
Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers
April 30, 2012: “Love thy neighbor” is preached from many a pulpit. But new research from UC Berkeley suggests the devoutly religious are less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists, agnostics and less religious people.
Cal students “Spread the Word” at Richmond High with college-going help
April 26, 2012: UC Berkeley student volunteers will introduce 90 Richmond High teens to campus Friday, culminating a yearlong effort to help these local students navigate a path to college.
Media Advisory: Therapy dogs to give “fur fix” to students facing finals
April 26, 2012:
As UC Berkeley students study for final exams, pet therapy dogs from Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) will visit campus to relieve students’ stress.
UC Berkeley class prepares disabled students for competitive job market
April 23, 2012: If it’s a tough job market out there for able-bodied college graduates, imagine how employment prospects might look to students with cerebral palsy or a muscular or neurodegenerative disease. That’s why a dozen UC Berkeley students are enrolled in “Professional Development and Disability,” a unique course that is teaching them how to market their disabilities as strengths.
Media Advisory: April 21 Cal Day to welcome visitors
April 18, 2012: Cal Day, UC Berkeley’s free, annual public open house, is set for Saturday, April 21. Some 40,000 visitors are expected to visit the campus’s museums, labs, performance halls, classrooms and more. More than 370 events are scheduled.
Graduate students in linguistics leaving legacy for speakers of endangered language of Garifuna
April 17, 2012: Linguistics graduate students’ efforts examining the little known Garifuna language may help with its revitalization.
Campus releases 2012-13 freshman admission data
April 17, 2012: Demand for admission to UC Berkeley’s 2012-13 freshman class hit a record high this season. Among those applicants, some 13,000 students have been offered admission, officials announced today.
Aspiring oral surgeon promotes “Super Star Smiles” for children
April 16, 2012: UC Berkeley integrative biology major Hường Trần says she is “paying it forward” with a program taking dental-health education into classrooms for needy children.
UC Berkeley job fair to reflect upbeat hiring market for college grads
April 16, 2012: This week’s pre-graduation job fair at UC Berkeley promises to be upbeat, with scores of recruiters coming to the campus, and a new national survey showing that employers expect to hire 10 percent more college graduates this year than they did in 2011.
UC Berkeley passes management of Allen Telescope Array to SRI
April 13, 2012: After operating the Hat Creek Radio Observatory for more than 50 years, and most recently partnering with the SETI Institute to build the Allen Telescope Array, UC Berkeley is handing over management to SRI International, which will operate the observatory for the U.S. Air Force. The telescope will track space debris and continue to search for signs of intelligent civilizations.
UC Berkeley to welcome visitors, expand minds at Cal Day open house
April 10, 2012: Whether you’re a robotics enthusiast or a fan of children’s literature, a sports buff or a classical music aficionado, this year’s Cal Day — set for Saturday, April 21 — promises to expand your universe!
uok? Text messages — even automated ones — can soothe the disconnected soul
April 9, 2012: Text messaging often gets a bad rap for contributing to illiteracy and high-risk behavior such as reckless driving. But a Berkeley social-welfare professor has found an upside to texting, especially for people who feel stressed out, isolated and alone.
African Americans are more apt to blog than whites and Latinos
April 4, 2012: The blogging community is more racially diverse than one might think. Internet-connected African Americans are more likely to blog than their white and Hispanic counterparts, according to new research from UC Berkeley.
Fertilizer use responsible for increase in nitrous oxide in atmosphere
April 2, 2012: UC Berkeley chemists have analyzed the isotopic composition of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas – in air samples from as far back as 1940 and found the fingerprint of nitrogen-based fertilizer, proving definitively that the 20 percent increase in atmospheric nitrogen since the Industrial Revolution is largely due to the Green Revolution.
New material cuts energy costs of separating gas for plastics and fuels
March 29, 2012: In producing hydrocarbons for the chemical industry, refiners must first crack oil at high temperatures and then cool the mixture to liquefy the gases for separation. This energy-intensive chilling step could be eliminated thanks to a new material that can do the gas separation at high temperature.
Big grant for Big Data: NSF awards $10 million to harness vast quantities of data
March 29, 2012: Never before has data analysis been so hot. The quest to capture the massive amounts of data being produced in our world — and thus unveil answers to some of society’s most vexing problems — has gotten a $10 million boost, via a National Science Foundation award to UC Berkeley.
Comerio leads national roundtable on integrated disaster recovery
March 19, 2012: Northern California experts, including UC Berkeley architecture professor Mary Comerio, are heading up a national roundtable on improving responses after major disasters.
