Features

The tides are returning: Environmental engineers help turn back the clock 200 years for San Francisco Bay

UC Berkeley professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Stacey and colleagues are doing research that will help restore San Francisco Bay's salt ponds — created when the bay area started manufacturing salt in 1854 — to an ecosystem better suited to the flora and fauna that enjoyed coastal living long before we did.

Inspired by nature itself: Tissue engineers devise elegant tools to heal vessels, nerves and skin

Song Li, a leader in the fast-growing field of tissue engineering, is developing replacement arteries, nerve grafts and wound healing technologies that work in concert with the body's own natural repair systems. Three of his students are forming startup companies that will bring these technologies to the clinical setting in just a few years.

A breath of fresh air: How alumna Gail Brager opened the workplace to a natural cool

Buildings account for more than one third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Gail Brager (M.S. '82, Ph. D. '84 ME) is trying to make a dent in that statistic through her more than 20 years of investigating thermal comfort in office buildings. Her most forward-thinking contribution may be this simple: windows that open.