Alum

The Berkeley community is filled with people pushing the edges of what’s possible — business leaders whose achievements have shaped entire industries and benefited humankind; alumni whose dedication to Berkeley has had a profound and lasting impact on students and faculty; and young alumni whose early achievements are already showing great promise for their fields …

On Dec. 5, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved fusion ignition for the first time in history. This major breakthrough — in which a controlled fusion reaction produced more energy than was required to start it — was decades in the making. In the experiment, researchers directed powerful lasers emitting 2.05 megajoules …

Reginald DesRoches is riding a wave of successes in his academic career, Five years ago, the renowned civil engineer joined Rice University’s School of Engineering. He followed the auspicious start with the promotion to vice provost two years later. On July 5, the fifth anniversary of his arrival on campus, he started his first day …

When Reggie DesRoches assumes the presidency of Rice University on July 1, he will become the fifth Black leader of a top research institution. He will also be the third Black president in the 65-member Association of American Universities who attended the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, along with Gary May, now the chancellor of the …

ME Alum Ryan Shelby (M.S. ’08, Ph.D. ’13) has received the 2022 Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni. All recipients of the 2022 Achievement Awards will be honored tonight, Thursday, May 12, 2022 at the Berkeley Charter Gala. The Gala will take place at the Residence Inn Berkeley at 2121 Center …

After winning the gold medal in the 400-meter race in the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Oakland-born Archie Williams was honored with a parade. But when he graduated from UC Berkeley with a mechanical engineering degree in 1939, he couldn’t get hired in his chosen field because he was Black. So he dug ditches for the East Bay …

Hypothermia is one of the greatest factors in preventable infant mortality — particularly in low- and middle-income countries — contributing to the deaths of about one million newborns each year. Ideally, infants have skin-to-skin contact with their mother, but in some cases, that’s just not feasible. To help address this issue, civil and environmental engineering …

While Fiat Vox is on summer break, we have been revisiting some of our favorite episodes. In this episode, first released in 2018, we talk with then-Ph.D. candidate Sonia Travaglini, who is now on staff at the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership at Berkeley, about how we could use fungi to mitigate all sorts of …

Is engineering an art or a science? Most of us would place it firmly in the latter camp: with the careful application of specific rules and factors, it’s a broad discipline based on scientific and mathematic principles. But at least one Berkeley Engineering alumnus sees it differently. Alireza Lahijanian (B.S.’09, M.S.’10 ME) is the co-founder of …

The trustees of the Tamalpais Union High School District have approved Archie Williams High School as the new name to replace Sir Francis Drake, the San Anselmo high school’s moniker for the past 70 years. The 5-0 vote on Tuesday, after more than an hour of public comment, followed last Thursday’s near-unanimous choice of Williams by the …

Alumni Spotlight Introducing… Miller Allen B.S. ’93, M.S. ’95 Ph.D. ’02 Mechanical Engineering I was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland where I still live with my wife and two children. My parents, godmother, and uncle all attended Cal, and I wanted to attend Cal from as early as I can remember. I also …

This summer, as thousands of Americans drive their lower-emission cars on the nation’s roads and highways, very few of them are aware that this month marks the 50th anniversary of a seminal event that paved the way to the invention of their vehicles. On August 24, 1970, Berkeley’s College of Engineering students participated in the …

Over its 200 years of existence, the stethoscope has emerged as the ultimate symbol for the medical community. Dangling from the neck of a doctor or nurse, the acoustic device seems to bestow upon the wearer an instant veneer of competence and credibility. But here’s something people might find surprising, perhaps even shocking: the health …

Pines (B.S.’86 ME), the current dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering, will start his appointment July 1.

Hummingbirds are some of the most nimble fliers on Earth. Their speed and agility are spectacular, driven by the complex muscles that control their wings. This is a difficult system for robots to emulate, and in general, the small winged robots that we’ve seen have relied on compromises in control in order to be able …