January 2005
Friends of the College of Engineering,
I am pleased to begin this New Year with a report that in a recent international ranking by the Times of London Higher Education Supplement, Berkeley Engineering was named the No.1 engineering and information technology (IT) college in the world -- finally, a well-researched and highly reputable international ranking system that got it right! The weekly British newspaper also named Berkeley No. 4 on its list of the top 100 science universities.
In December, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $42.6 million grant to support Berkeley-centered research and development of an affordable and accessible cure for malaria , a disease that is responsible for over 1.5 million deaths each year and most of those are children. UC Berkeley researchers, led by Professor Jay Keasling (ChemE, BioE, LBNL ) will partner with the Institute for OneWorld Health , the first U.S. nonprofit pharmaceutical company, and Amyris Biotechnologies to bio-engineer a synthetic equivalent of the compound artemisinin, currently the most effective treatment known for malaria. The breakthrough technology behind the process - part of a pioneering new field called Synthetic Biology - has been in development over the past 10 years by Jay his colleagues at Berkeley .
It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of our most distinguished colleague and very dear friend Professor Emeritus Don Pederson , who passed away after a long illness on December 25th. Don was mentor to generations of Berkeley students and faculty, including me, and was the energy and inspiration behind Berkeley 's international research leadership in microelectronics for more than a quarter century. Don's spirit certainly lives on in so much of what Berkeley Engineering represents today.
In September, we will again honor the most accomplished of our alumni with the 2005 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award . This award is presented in two categories: Lifelong Achievement and Outstanding Young Leader. I encourage you to think about alumni you know who have made, or are making, major contributions to their field, to academia, or to society and to nominate them online for this important award. Presentations will take place Sept. 24, 2005 at our annual gala dinner in the Hearst Memorial Mining Building .
We are all struggling to deal with the enormity of the recent events in Asia , and our hearts go out to those affected by this horrible tragedy. As engineers, we are resolved to redouble our efforts to invent technologies and services that can mitigate significantly the impact of future such disasters on our world.
All the very best to you and to your loved ones for 2005,
/rich
A. Richard Newton
Dean, College of Engineering and
the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering
Lab Notes is published online by the Public Affairs Office of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The Lab Notes mission is to illuminate groundbreaking research underway today at the College of Engineering that will dramatically change our lives tomorrow.
Media contact: Teresa Moore, Lab Notes editor, Director of Public Affairs
Writer, Researcher: David Pescovitz
Web Manager: Michele Foley
Subscribe or send comments to the Engineering Public Affairs Office: lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu.
© 2004 UC Regents. Updated 01/03/05. |
