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2021 Fall

Image source: Desiree Stover / NASA

Berkeley Experts Help Launch a Groundbreaking New Space Telescope

By Susan Karlin

The James Webb Space Telescope will offer an unprecedented view of the universe. AFTER A QUARTER-CENTURY IN DEVELOPMENT and years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is poised to finally launch in November. Its multiyear mission: to explore other Earth-like planets and seek out the universe’s first light. Orbiting one million miles from Earth, […]

The World’s Only Ohlone Restaurant Brings Traditional Foods to UC Berkeley

AFTER A FORCED HIATUS from in-person dining due to COVID-19 and the closure of University Press Books, where it was originally hosted, Cafe Ohlone is coming to the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in November.

Image source: Chris Pietsch / The New York Times / Redux

“Dr. Fill” Becomes the First Computer to Win Crossword Tournament

Developed at Berkeley, the AI system edged out its top human competitor by 15 points. AT THE ANNUAL AMERICAN CROSSWORD PUZZLE TOURNAMENT in April, some 1,300 contestants raced to see who could complete the eight puzzles the fastest. The winner was Dr. Fill, an AI system developed by Matthew Ginsberg and helped to victory by Berkeley’s […]

Image source: iStock Photo

Berkeley Scientists Invent New Infinitely Recyclable Plastic Material

FROM THE MICROPLASTICS LEACHING from our laundry to the Styrofoam swirling in the Pacific garbage patch, it seems the world is awash in plastic waste. While we have struggled and failed to wean ourselves off plastics, Berkeley scientists are working hard to address the problem by making polymers that are more readily recyclable and biodegradable. While […]

Image source: Courtesy of Harvard

Dr. Mireille Kamariza is Leading the Fight Against Tuberculosis

Growing up in the Burundi and Cameroon, Dr. Mireille Kamariza, dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

Editors’ Picks: What to Read and Watch This Fall

Our editors have curated a list of entertainment to indulge in this summer. Here are their top picks of books, documentaries, and more, all produced by UC Berkeley faculty and alumni. The Return of Cal Performances For the first time since March of last year, Cal Performances has opened its (physical) doors. And the 2021–2022 […]

Image source: 2016 UC Regents

Chancellor’s Letter: Fall 2021

Trepidation and hope as the fall semester begins I will admit to feeling a bit trepidatious as I begin writing this column. These words are being penned in July, but they shall not be read until September, and we have learned throughout the course of the pandemic the value of a simple, precautionary principle: Expect […]

Image source: Clara Mokri

Award-Winning Reporter Lisa Armstrong Joins Berkeley J-School Faculty

Armstrong brings reporting chops and empathy to her new journalism teaching role. This summer, after a nationwide search and interview process involving current students, the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism announced the addition of two new faculty members: Lisa Armstrong, an award-winning reporter and associate journalism professor at City University of New York (CUNY), […]

Image source: Illustrations by Patrick Welsh

Cal at the “New Yorker”: Shining the Spotlight on Six Alumni Who’ve Been on Staff

From illustrators to editors and everything in between Adrian Tomine In his cover illustrations for the New Yorker, Adrian Tomine ’96 has created some of the most iconic images of life under quarantine, including “Love Life,” from Dec. 7, 2020, which showed a young woman on a Zoom date, holding a cocktail and dressed to […]

She Never Gave Up on Her Dream of Working at Pixar

This animation-loving Cal grad shares her secret to success.

Image source: Courtesy of the Wheeler family

Snapp Chats: a Television Columnist, Etiquette Guru, and Cooking Club Instructor

The latest news from our quarterly columnist BECKY WHEELER ’49 DIED ON APRIL 9 in the home where she grew up in Walnut Grove on the Sacramento Delta, one month shy of her 94th birthday. One of her final wishes was to see Cal one last time, so her daughter and son-in-law, Caroline Perkins ’84 and […]

Image source: © California Academy of Sciences

Editor’s Note: The Asteroid is Us

This used to be Bear Territory. Could it be again? We live in a place where the state animal—mascot of this very university—has been extinct for just shy of a century. No one alive today has ever seen one, but not so long ago they roamed California by the thousands, in kind with the Hupa, […]