News

Coming from a long line of Iowa farmers, David Savage always thought he would do research to improve crops. That dream died in college, when it became clear that any genetic tweak to a crop would take at least a year to test; for some perennials and trees, it could take five to 10 years. Faced with such slow progress, he chose to study the proteins in photosynthetic bacteria instead...

UC’s Berkeley community of students, staff, faculty and alumni marched on Sunday in the first SF Pride parade held since 2019. Learn more about UC Berkeley’s efforts to recognize Pride Month

A chance discovery on her first day at the University and Jepson Herbaria in 2005 changed Kelly Agnew’s life, leading her down a rabbit hole of Civil War battles and prison camps, gold rush settlements, the exploits and foibles of California’s earliest botanists, the founding of the Sierra Club and ultimately the establishment at UC Berkeley of the largest plant collection at any public university in the world.

In her four years at UC Berkeley, Lucky Simsuangco, 22, said she faced a lot of unexpected turmoil: Thick wildfire smoke canceled classes and darkened skies, regional power shut-offs interrupted classes, and a worldwide pandemic threatened serious illness and moved university life online.

But on Saturday, at Berkeley’s first commencement ceremony in historic California Memorial Stadium since 2019, Simsuangco sat with friends under clear blue skies, wearing her cap and gown and savoring the final moments of her college experience...

Undergraduate students typically start their university years expecting the greatest challenges will come in the classroom or the lab, but the Class of 2022 also had to work through a pandemic, natural disasters and historic social turmoil.

Six UC Berkeley’s faculty members were elected today to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

The six were among 120 members and 30 international members elected at the conclusion of the academy’s 159th annual meeting. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive...

As a kid growing up in Orange County, UC Berkeley biology professor Randy Schekman remembers collecting a jar of dirty pond scum from a nearby riverbed, sliding it under the lens of his toy microscope and being transfixed by the tiny, cellular world he saw.

That fascination led Schekman to an illustrious career: a Berkeley biology professorship and a 2013 Nobel Prize for groundbreaking research on cellular membranes...

UC Berkeley graduate schools and programs scored high in the 2023 Best Graduate Schools rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report. The campus is among 800 institutions with graduate schools surveyed annually by the magazine, which also surveys more than 2,100 graduate programs, including programs at UC Berkeley...