On Aug. 24, 2026, UC Berkeley students got their beloved Moffitt Library back — only better. After more than a year of renovations, the longtime gathering spot reopened with three transformed lower floors designed around how today’s students learn and collaborate.
When the doors to the newly renovated Moffitt Library opened on Monday, a cheer rose from the students gathered out front. Then they began to pour inside.
A flurry of events helped new students get settled as they officially join the Golden Bear family.
Each August marks an exciting time at UC Berkeley: the arrival of thousands of new students, who gather the week before classes begin to move in, attend convocation, meet their classmates and make new friends.
After volunteering to be the world's first "prototype" for a CRISPR therapy, Victoria Gray traded a life that felt hopeless for a future she never thought she’d see — and has become a voice of hope for millions like her.
Victoria Gray’s pain started when her mom was giving her a bath in their home in Goodman, Mississippi. She was only 3 months old when she began crying inconsolably. Her mom tried giving her a bottle, she rocked her, but nothing helped.
The Undergraduate Academic Building will welcome students this fall, alongside the Gateway, Moffitt Library and the Free Speech Movement Café.
There’s not a bad seat in the state-of-the-art 400-person auditorium. A naturally lit classroom feels more like a rustic retreat than a standard space to learn calculus. The fifth-floor conference room abandons any notion of a drab meeting space.
More than 9,400 of the newly admitted class of first-year students are from California, representing 48 of the state's 58 counties.
Approximately 14,000 first-year students and more than 5,000 transfer students have been offered a coveted seat in UC Berkeley’s fall 2026 class — and, as to be expected, their collective talents stretch far beyond their impressive academic accomplishments.
UC Berkeley and UCSF have launched a joint program called the Bakar Computational Biomedicine Initiative to develop the frontier of AI and biomedicine, tremendously accelerating advances in clinical care. The new partnership brings together world-class faculty expertise in computing, AI, statistics, biology and medicine, to speed discovery in everything from disease prevention, to early-detection and new therapeutics in healthcare.
The eight-qubit quantum processor is one of California’s contributions to the time capsule, which will be opened in 2276.
A quantum computing chip fabricated at UC Berkeley was chosen by California Gov. Gavin Newsom as one of the state’s contributions to a time capsule to be buried in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday, or semiquincentennial.
Reflecting on a remarkable year!
By clarifying the differences among various types of exploding stars, Filippenko enabled them to be used to measure the expansion of the universe.
May 19, 2026
UC Berkeley supernova and black hole expert Alex Filippenko will share the 2026 Gruber Cosmology Prize, which was announced today (May 19) by the Gruber Foundation.
More than 7,000 graduating students and 25,000 guests attended the campuswide ceremony at California Memorial Stadium.
May 16, 2026
Saturday morning marked UC Berkeley’s 2026 campuswide commencement ceremony, where more than 7,000 graduating students gathered at California Memorial Stadium to hug, laugh, snap selfies and reflect on their academic achievements under a cloudless blue sky.
"Every day is a new opportunity," said Charles Long, the 2026 University Medalist. "Nothing is set in stone."
May 12, 2026
Charles Long couldn’t decide what to wear.
Each of the four finalists for the 2026 University Medal embodies UC Berkeley’s core values: remarkable academic achievement and a deep commitment to public service. This year, all four come from the realms of science.
May 11, 2026
Progress on multiple new housing projects means all first-year students will have the option to live on campus for two years — with another major development in the pipeline.
Beginning this fall, UC Berkeley will guarantee two years of on-campus housing to all incoming first-year students, achieving a decade-long goal that has transformed and redeveloped multiple campus-owned properties in an effort to combat a longstanding student housing shortage.
More than 50 Berkeley programs landed in the top 25 in their fields.
UC Berkeley remains a powerhouse for prestigious graduate programs, with multiple disciplines earning top marks in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.
UC Berkeley Engineering alum Paige Balcom is turning plastic waste into economic opportunity through her recycling company in Uganda
For most graduates, a life in rural or small-town California is the road not taken. But those who have become leaders in less populated parts of the state say their contributions, and their rewards, can be profound.
Production designer Nina Ruscio and casting director Cathy Sandrich Gelfond dish on designing “triggering” hospital sets, casting for raw authenticity and how their time at Berkeley taught them to watch life closely, turning every detail into material for an immersive narrative.
Ask people what they love most about The Pitt, the HBO Max medical drama that debuted in 2025 and went on to sweep the Emmys, and the answer is almost always the same: It feels so real.
Every one of us has a unique microbiome — bacteria of many types that have colonized our skin, our gut and every part of our body since we were in the womb — that contribute to our health and sometimes disease.
A chemical engineer, a biochemist, a roboticist and a laser dynamicist are among the new members.
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced this week that four UC Berkeley faculty — including a chemical engineer, a biochemist, a roboticist and a laser dynamicist — have been elected to its ranks.
