This year, along with the entire Berkeley campus, the Department of Mechanical Engineering is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the University of California’s 1870 resolution: “That young ladies be admitted into the University on equal terms in all respects with young men.” The act came just two years after the university’s founding, while many elite East Coast universities waited until the late 20th century to admit their first women students.
Today, our female faculty, students and alumni are at the cutting edge of our work in Mechanical Engineering: holding tenured positions, serving as mentors, leading innovative research, and founding breakthrough startups. Read on to learn more about the ways women have brightened the light in the department over the decades.
