John Blaustein

Two years into his term, the chancellor speaks confidently about the initiative that he brought to Berkeley and that has drawn the largest public notice—to increase the number of underrepresented minorities on campus. Racial politics of course can be a minefield, a reality he acknowledges in his often careful choice of words, but his conviction that he knows what is needed is equally in evidence. Interviewed in his office at California Hall, he shared some of the political experiences that shaped his determination, as well as his hopes that Berkeley’s academic depth and breadth will yield big solutions — in energy, health care, and other field — to some big problems.

Lawrence Berkeley Lab under Steve Chu and the university have significant initiatives under way to find new sources of energy, and new ways to conserve energy. What, in your view, are the most promising areas of that research?

It’s always dangerous to pick one over the other because all of the different approaches require research, and until the research is finished, you don’t know which is best. It may be that through our Department of Energy-financed initiative someone will develop new solar cells that are very cheap to manufacture and will be incredibly efficient. A second area in which we’re going to make a major investment here at Berkeley is biomass energy conversion. The essential point is to find new energy sources that are carbon neutral, which really means that you take carbon that’s already above ground and recycle it so that you’re not increasing the carbon content, as opposed to digging it up from below ground and bringing it into the atmosphere.

Plants, presumably?

Right. We would like to find plants that grow very efficiently, ideally in areas where we’re not currently growing food, and figure out a way to convert them into fuel—and to do that inexpensively. There are many people who believe that with the techniques of synthetic biology, we could genetically alter bacteria and that these bacteria would eat the plants, convert them into sugar, and the sugars could be converted into alcohols, which you could then burn either to heat homes or to power automobiles.

What are some of the other areas of publicly oriented research here that most interest you?

There are two that I’ve put some fair amount of personal energy into. Stem cell techniques have phenomenal promise in enabling us to address some of the most horrific, debilitating diseases that mankind suffers, most especially neurological diseases — ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Type 1 diabetes. We now have a Center for Stem Cell Research. It has 30 faculty members, and they cover the range from fundamental molecular biologists like Randy Scheckman to people like Charis Thompson who worry about ethical issues and equity in reproductive medicine. In addition, we have an outstanding synthetic biology group and very strong bioengineering generally. One of the challenges with stem cell research will be how you go from the test tube to the whole population.

Has this office been active in trying to change the attitude toward stem cell research in Washington?

I’ve talked personally to friends of the president to try to get them to persuade Mr. Bush that his policies are shortsighted. That obviously was not successful.

In announcing this new position of Vice Chancellor for Diversity Issues —

It’s actually Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion. The title was chosen carefully.

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