Today’s mini-news: ten faculty members become distinguished, space tea, and exciting pictures of agriculture.
- Welcome to the establishment: Ten Berkeley professors have been inducted as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a national honor society based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This brings the total number of Academy members in the Cal faculty to 234. For those keeping track, the score in this year’s Academy sweeps is Cal 10, Stanford 7. The 233-year-old society essentially hopes to bring together the best heads in the country to solve the world’s problems; it’s unknown what the perks of joining are but we speculate it includes license to wear tweed without irony.
- Space tea: Every Thursday while classes are in session, the Graduate Assembly hosts an Astronomy Colloquium Tea from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in the Hearst Field Annex. Today, you and your fellow tea-drinkers can step over to Le Conte afterward and listen to Kevin Marvel, prankster, surfer, and executive officer of the American Astronomical Society, speak about “Washington’s Role in the Study of the Universe.”
- And for the earthier set: From 5 to 7 p.m. in the Bancroft Library’s gallery, you’ll find the opening reception for the first major survey of California agriculture since the 1970s. Photographer Peter Goin and geographer Paul Starrs wrote the book on the subject (Field Guide to California Agriculture) and donated maps, files, field notes, and pictures to Bancroft. You can pass this off as foodie-ism, even if you’re just there for pictures of tractors.
—Brendan Buhler
