Faculty

MSE professor emeritus Kal Sastry dies at 74

07/19/16 Daily Californian — Kal Sastry, a materials science and engineering professor emeritus remembered for his unique life philosophies and his love for the Berkeley community, died July 15. He was 74.

CEE professor emeritus Robert Wiegel passes away

07/19/16 — Robert Wiegel, a coastal engineering pioneer, distinguished civil and environmental engineering professor and former acting dean, died on July 14. He was 93.

Remembering Joonhong Ahn, professor of nuclear engineering

06/22/16 — Professor Joonhong Ahn died in Japan on Sunday, June 19, 2016. Professor Ahn's research broadly encompassed the entire nuclear fuel cycle. He was a leading expert on Asian nuclear power and traveled frequently to the Asia-Pacific region advising governments and industry, alongside his extensive academic collaborations.

Size comparison of liposomes and 3HM nanocarriers

Finding chemo

06/17/16 Berkeley Science Review — New cancer treatments come in tiny packages, like the 3HM nanocarriers being developed by materials science professor Ting Xu and her collaborators to protect drugs during their journey through the bloodstream to brain tumors.

An energy strategy that can take the heat

06/08/16 Berkeley Research — Working with Chinese colleagues through the Clean Energy Research Center for Water-Energy Technologies, nuclear engineering professor Per Peterson is exploring the use of superhot molten salts to boost efficiency in both nuclear and solar energy production.

The faith and science of Georges Lemaître

06/02/16 America — Karl van Bibber, nuclear engineering chair, cosmologist and practicing Catholic, discusses his own work and that of priest-scientist Georges Lemaître, father of the Big Bang theory.

Development engineering journal launches

06/02/16 SciDevNet — The online journal Development Engineering, which covers technological solutions to extreme poverty, launched at a recent conference in Switzerland. Civil and environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil is co-editor in chief.

This is how cities of the future will get their energy

05/23/16 Washington Post — In a paper written for Science magazine, UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources, public policy and nuclear engineering Daniel Kammen explores the potential for using renewable energy technologies in urban areas to promote low-carbon, resilient and livable cities.

What you see is what you’ve got

05/17/16 — Bioengineering & EECS professor Steven Conolly and his lab are world leaders in development of a new nanoparticle-based medical imaging procedure, Magnetic Particle Imaging.

Carlo Séquin, Anca Dragan and Paul Alivisatos

A college of arts AND sciences

05/11/16 — UC Berkeley is rich in both celebrated and hidden artistic talent, including a trio of engineering professors: computer scientist and geometric sculptor Carlo Séquin, roboticist and Lindy hop dancer Anca Dragan, and research vice chancellor and photographer Paul Alivisatos.

Postdoctoral researcher Florence Bonvin and David Sedlak use liquid chromatography as one of their tools to track chemical contaminants in water supplies

Hazards and opportunities in the pipeline

05/10/16 Berkeley Research — Environmental engineering professor David Sedlak, whose book Water 4.0 calls for a new revolution in urban water systems, is studying the fate of chemical contaminants in wastewater, seeking better ways to treat and clean the water we depend on.

Life with machine: Robot relationships get real

05/01/16 — Three Berkeley professors studying artificial intelligence and robotics are testing how machines and humans come into physical contact, behave independently and interact with one another. The common goal: to create machines with the intelligence to better serve and work with human beings.

Farewell

05/01/16 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni

Postdoc researcher Chinmayee Subban and Ashok Gadgil are refining an affordable water treatment technology to produce fresh drinking water from brackish water

The search for smarter energy and water strategies

04/25/16 Berkeley Research — Environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil, principal investigator for a $64 million joint U.S.-China research center, is seeking innovative ways to meet the energy and water needs of both developing and industrial societies.

Robots that act differently when you’re around

04/19/16 The Atlantic — Roboticist Anca Dragan, head of Berkeley's Interactive Autonomy and Collaborative Technologies lab, is working on algorithms that can help robots coexist with people in the real world.

David A. Dornfeld, professor, manufacturing expert, college leader, 1949-2016

04/11/16 — Faculty director of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and former mechanical engineering department chair was a leader in manufacturing engineering

Magnetic microscope image of three nanomagnetic computer bits

Experiments show magnetic chips could dramatically increase computing’s energy efficiency

03/14/16 — In a breakthrough for energy-efficient computing, Berkeley engineers have shown for the first time that magnetic chips can operate at the lowest fundamental energy dissipation theoretically possible under the laws of thermodynamics.

Pieter Abbeel with the Baxter Research Robot

‘Deep learning’ – a giant step for robots

03/04/16 Berkeley Research — For 15 years, Berkeley robotics researcher Pieter Abbeel has been looking for ways to make robots learn. In 2010 he and his students programmed a robot to fold towels. Now, he's gotten robots to learn from their experience.

Enlargement shows weak points in a thin polycrystalline graphene sheet

Graphene is strong, but is it tough?

02/09/16 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab scientists led by Robert Ritchie, professor of materials science and mechanical engineering, have determined that superstrong polycrystalline graphene is not very resistant to fracture, which could limit its usefulness.

The road to sustainability

01/28/16 CNBC — In a new video series on sustainable energy, civil and environmental engineering professor Arpad Horvath compares the environmental footprints of emerging transportation technologies, from biofuels and high-speed rail to maritime shipping and aviation.