Press Releases

Visit Berkeley's Public Affairs site for a complete list of press releases from the Berkeley campus.

Jun 11, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Lydia Sohn among Bakar Fellows pursuing path to marketplace

Mechanical engineer Lydia Sohn is one of five UC Berkeley scientists awarded Bakar Fellowships to help take their lab-bench discoveries into the marketplace. Sohn, an associate professor and member of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, will look for ways to screen for metastatic cancer cells that have been shed from breast tumors and are circulating in the blood threatening to establish satellite tumors.

Jun 05, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter To improve today’s concrete, do as the Romans did

In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, a UC Berkeley-led team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the ancient Romans, whose massive concrete structures have withstood the elements for more than 2,000 years.

May 28, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Berkeley engineers create new light-controlled gel

Inspired by the way plants grow toward light sources, a phenomenon known as phototropism, UC Berkeley bioengineers have created a hydrogel that could be manipulated by light.

May 15, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Students' 'Big Ideas' tackle societal problems

UC Berkeley’s annual Big Ideas contest honored this year’s crop of outstanding social projects targeting money matters, water technology and cultural taboos during a special awards celebration at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

May 14, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Ugandan AIDS orphan discovers power of the pedal

The humble bicycle propelled AIDS orphan Chris Ategeka from rural East Africa to UC Berkeley, driving him to success as a mechanical engineer, inventor and social entrepreneur. Now he is empowering his former countrymen, one bicycle at a time, to repay the random acts of kindness that allowed him to live his dream.

May 14, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Wireless signals could transform brain trauma diagnostics

New technology developed by engineers at UC Berkeley is using wireless signals to provide real-time, non-invasive diagnoses of brain swelling or bleeding. The device could potentially become a cost-effective tool for medical diagnostics and to triage injuries in remote areas.

May 09, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter University Medal goes to wunderkind Ritankar Das

Ritankar Das, a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology, caps off his whirlwind tenure at UC Berkeley this month by being named the year’s top graduating senior. At 18, Das is the youngest University Medalist in at least a century.

Apr 24, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Three engineering professors among Berkeley's new AAAS members

Jitendra Malik and Bin Yu, both professors of electrical engineering and computer sciences, and Frances Hellman, of physics and materials science & engineering, are among 10 UC Berkeley faculty members named Wednesday as new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Apr 18, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Disaster expert cites “failure to learn” for Deepwater Horizon blowout

Bob Bea, professor of civil engineering and an internationally recognized veteran of disaster investigations, shared his assessment of the Deepwater Horizon blowout at an April 17 talk on campus. He called the event a “system disaster” that exemplified a “failure to learn” from past mistakes.

Apr 11, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Launch of antimalarial drug a triumph for Berkeley, synthetic biology

Twelve years after a breakthrough discovery in his Berkeley laboratory, chemical engineering professor Jay Keasling is seeing his dream come true with the launch of large-scale production of a partially synthetic version of artemisinin, a chemical critical to making today’s front-line antimalaria drug.

Mar 26, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Making living matter programmable

A dozen of the pioneers of synthetic biology, including SynBERC director and bioengineer Jay Keasling, gathered on campus March 25 to discuss the revolutionary potential of “programming life,” which some compared to the digital revolution.

Mar 25, 2013 UC Berkeley NewsCenter Artificial intelligence expert Robert Wilensky dies at 61

Robert Wilensky, UC Berkeley professor emeritus of computer science and one of the campus’s first faculty members in the field of artificial intelligence, has died at age 61.