News Briefs

Parents Weekend draws a crowd

Janice, Michael, and Thomas Bea take in Parents Weekend Peg Skorpinski photo

Fall 2007 | Thousands of Cal parents and families joined Berkeley alumni for the annual Homecoming and Parents Weekend on Oct. 12-14, a jumbo reunion of members of the Cal family. Not even a heartbreaking Cal gridiron loss to Oregon State could squelch the spirit of this year’s celebration among Cal’s true blue (and gold) loyalists. If you missed the weekend, sample its flavor in pictures.

Discover Cal at a location near you

If you can’t come to Berkeley as often as you’d like, Berkeley may be coming to you via the Discover Cal faculty lectures. As part of the traveling series, Berkeley’s professors recently presented talks to the extended Cal family on such topics as the economic impact of global warming, California’s environmental quality and rising population, and the national security implications of U.S. energy consumption. Upcoming lectures will be announced soon, and webcasts from some past lectures are online. For details — or to suggest locales and topics for future events — visit discovercal.berkeley.edu.

Winter and spring Cal sports open seasons

DeVon Hardin, a 6'11" force Kelly Cox photo

Planning a visit to campus? Come see the Golden Bears in action on the court, field, mat, track, or in the pool. Winter and spring sports to watch are basketball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, baseball, softball, tennis, golf, track and field, rugby, crew, lacrosse, and women’s water polo. Go to events.berkeley.edu (select the “Sports” tab) to see sports schedules for any day, week, or month.

East Asian library to open

Scholars and donors from around the world gathered in October to dedicate Berkeley’s new C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the first freestanding library in the United States constructed exclusively for an East Asian collection, and one of the few such facilities in the world. Berkeley’s is among the world’s finest collections of volumes (900,000 of them), maps, scrolls, and artifacts from China, Japan, and Korea. The new library, part of the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies, will make the collection more accessible to scholars around the world. The library opens officially in February 2008.

For more details, visit newscenter.berkeley.edu/goto/ealibrary.

Fire safety — on campus and off

The Berkeley fire department provides and installs smoke detectors — free of charge — for UC students living in off-campus housing in Berkeley. The devices are donated by the campus’s Environment, Health, and Safety office. The campus fire marshal urges parents to remind their students to take advantage of this potentially life-saving offer. Call 510/981-5585 for details, and, for fire-prevention information for all students and a self-inspection checklist, visit ehs.berkeley.edu.

New students are all ‘On the Same Page’

More than 4,000 Berkeley students were recently transported to the hallowed ground of a Civil War cemetery to plumb the meaning and lasting national significance of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In its second year, “On the Same Page” — a College of Letters and Science signature program in which all new students receive free copies of the same book to read and discuss — focused on Garry Wills’ Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and cultural historian was on campus in late September to give a public lecture in conjunction with the reading program.

Save the date for 2008

With more than 30,000 visitors usually on hand for Berkeley’s annual spring open house, it’s never too early to mark your calendar and make your travel plans. Cal Day 2008 is set for Saturday, April 12. It’s the perfect day to glimpse all the campus has to offer, from lectures and tours of labs and museums to cutting-edge art exhibitions, sports, live performances, and information on campus programs and student organizations of every persuasion. Admission is free. A mega-schedule of the day’s events will be posted at calday.berkeley.edu in late March.

Chancellor speaks out in ‘Bear in Mind’ webcast

Chancellor Birgeneau Peg Skorpinski photo

Wondering what’s really happening at Berkeley? Go straight to the top to find out in the latest edition of “Bear in Mind,” a webcast
interviewseries with Berkeley’s Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. He talks about undergraduate education, the increasing cost of higher education, and the role he envisions for Berkeley’s new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. He also shares his insights on the recent Hewlett Challenge gift to Berkeley — the largest such gift in campus history — and on how funding for the Energy Biosciences Institute will help Berkeley researchers working to reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment.

The webcast is online at www.berkeley.edu/news/chancellor/bim.

‘¿Está disponible en español?’

Si! Courtesy of the campus’s Visitor Services, a podcast of its popular campus tour is now available in Spanish. Download it for your listening pleasure — in Spanish or English — before your next visit at itunes.berkeley.edu (click on “Explore Cal”).

A ‘genius’ and five Nobel contributors

Claire Kremen MacArthur Foundation photo

Berkeley professors had an award-winning fall, but success was especially sweet for conservation biologist Claire Kremen and for six faculty members involved in the international climate change organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

Kremen was one of 24 nationwide recipients of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, often called the “genius” award. An assistant professor of environmental science, policy, and management, she was cited for her work exploring the behavior of bees and other natural pollinators and for a pioneering conservation-planning initiative in Madagascar. The fellowship will bring Kremen an unrestricted $500,000 award over five years. She is the 41st Berkeley faculty member to receive the honor since the awards first were presented in 1981. This year’s awardees also include three Berkeley alumni.

Six Berkeley professors also played a role in the work of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize. They are among more than 2,000 scientists worldwide who conducted research as part of the IPCC effort. Established in 1988, the panel has issued three major studies that analyze what is causing climate change, its impacts, and what can be done about it.

The contributors are Barbara Allen-Diaz, professor of environmental science, policy, and management; William D. Collins, professor of earth and planetary science; Inez Fung, professor of atmospheric science; Dan Kammen, professor of energy and resources and of public policy; Norm Miller, adjunct professor of geography; and Kirk Smith, professor of public health.