Carolyn Bertozzi (right), who holds appointments in both chemistry and molecular and cell biology at Berkeley, has won the 2010 Lemelson-MIT Prize for “her pioneering inventions in the field of biotechnology”. The $500,000 prize has been dubbed the “Oscar for inventors”, and is awarded to outstanding mid-career inventors “who have developed a patented product or […]
Berkeley Lab
Posted inSchools
The 83-year old rock star professor at Cal
Marian Diamond is a rock star of UC Berkeley. At 83, with her hair swept up in a chignon and always elegantly dressed, Diamond’s classes on Integrative Biology routinely draw more than 750 students. But that is not the source of her popularity. She is a rock star because she has gone viral. Diamond’s lectures […]
Posted inCity
It took the German Chancellor three days to get home from Berkeley
When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Lawrence Berkeley Lab last Thursday morning, she thought she would end the day by flying back home. She didn’t reach Germany until Sunday. Like millions of people, Merkel’s travel plans were disrupted by the huge cloud of volcanic ash that has spread across northern Europe. The ash cloud […]
Posted inCity, Schools
Tight security = Head of state at Berkeley
All that extra security in Berkeley today was for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited the Berkeley Lawrence Lab on her swing through the Bay Area. There are more than 100 German staff scientists and postdoctoral students working at Berkeley Lab, and Merkel planned to take a photo with them. She probably kept up her […]
Posted inSchools
Berkeley Lab measures its economic impact
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory generated 5,600 jobs and $446.5 million in personal income, and contributed $690 million to the Bay Area’s economy in 2009, according to an economic impact study prepared by CBRE Consulting of San Francisco. The same study concludes that Berkeley Lab was responsible for creating more than 12,000 jobs nationally. The […]
Posted inSchools
Welcome the Rosenfeld
If Berkeley wasn’t already blushing from its dominance in scientific nomenclature* it looks like another local name may be immortalized. In a refereed article in Environmental Research Letters, a group of scientists propose that a unit of electricity savings be named the Rosenfeld, after Arthur Rosenfeld, “the godfather of energy efficiency” (photo right). The proposed […]
Posted inSchools
Helios West to go before UC Regents next week
Artist's rendering by Jennifer Mahoney New plans for the Helios Energy Research Facility will be presented to the UC Board of Regents next week. The project calls for a new five-story, 112,800 sq ft building across the street from the UC Berkeley campus, on the site bounded by Oxford, Berkeley Way, Shattuck and Hearst. The […]
Posted inCommunity
The future of West Berkeley: An open letter
To: John King, Architecture Critic, San Francisco Chronicle From: Michael Goldin, Berkeley Some time ago you were touring the West Berkeley area with [Berkeley architect] Regan Bice and you stopped by our new building – Swerve. We spoke about the district and had some differences over the question of how the district ought to change over […]
Posted inSchools
Alivisatos to lead Berkeley Lab
Paul Alivisatos was confirmed as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory today by the University of California Regents. Alivisatos succeeds Steven Chu, who joined the Obama administration as Secretary of Energy in 2009. Alivisatos had been serving as interim director for the last 11 months. Alivisatos runs LBL’s Helios solar research initiative, where he […]
Posted inCity
Berkeley’s ARRA bonanza
Microsoft’s Jon Udell has created a fascinating database of work from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the government economic stimulus plan (hat tip: Scott Mace). Enter Berkeley and look what you find: 195 projects awarded for $327.6 million. The bulk of that, of course, goes to Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the university. But […]
Posted inCity
The world’s energy research capital. Begins with B, ends with Y
OK, my headline might be stretching the point. But it might not. Look what is coalescing in Berkeley: Energy Biosciences InstituteRenewable and Appropriate Energy LaboratoryUniversity of California Energy Institute (ugliest website ever for a serious project)The Energy Institute at Haas (new this week)A bewildering array of energy research at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (there’s work on […]
Posted inSchools
Chu returns to Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Lawrence Berkeley Nat'l Lab – Roy Kaltschmidt, photographer Steve Chu, energy secretary in the Obama administration, returned to Berkeley today to speak to his former colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL). If you’re reading Berkeleyside before the 10:30 finish to Chu’s presentation, you can watch a live webcast. Chu won the Nobel prize […]
