• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Departments
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
    • Aerospace program
    • Engineering Science program
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Commencement
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Space reservations
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Buildings & facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • New students
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • New students
    • Advising & counseling
    • ESS programs
    • CAEE academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • > Degree requirements
    • > Policies & procedures
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
    • Sustainability and resiliency
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > Origin science
Aeriel view of glaciers in Southwest British Columbia.Arctic crossing: The region around the confluence of the Silverthrone and Klinaklini glaciers in Southwest British Columbia provides a glimpse into how the terrain traveled by Native Americans in Pleistocene times may have appeared. (Photo by David J. Meltzer)

Origin science

Fall 2015 Berkeley Engineer
November 1, 2015
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Fall 2015
  • In this issue

    Features

    Sophie’s super hand

    Microscopic hearts

    Heavy lifting

    CellScope in Cameroon

    Dean’s Word

    Upfront

    • Still shakin’ it
    • Open letter on AI
    • Opening Jacobs Hall
    • Fortifying breast milk
    • Transit trends
    • Q+A with BRETT

    Breakthroughs

    • Origin science
    • GMOs on lockdown
    • Light-speed genetics
    • Print and plug
    • Radioactive wrecks?

    Alumni notes

    • Toy tinkerer makes good
    • Spider-inspired silken threads
    • Farewell

    Download this issue

  • Past issues

The first Americans traveled east from Siberia via a land bridge into modern-day Alaska and Canada no more than 23,000 years ago, at the height of the last Ice Age. After a pause of perhaps thousands of years, some groups left for South America while others stayed to roam the continent, diversifying into two branches.

These findings, revealed by a new genomic analysis of the most comprehensive genetic data set from Native Americans to date, both support and dispel some earlier ideas. While they confirm the most popular theory of the settling of the Americas, they refute the notion that an earlier wave of people came from East Asia. The new evidence also undercuts theories that multiple independent waves of migration produced the major subgroups of Native Americans we see today and that Polynesians or Europeans contributed to the gene pool of the first Americans.

Researchers used different statistical models — one created by the lab of associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences Yun Song and another by integrative biology professor Rasmus Nielsen — to analyze the sequenced genomes of multiple individuals, including Native Americans, Siberians and Oceanians.


Read more: Genome analysis pinpoints arrival and spread of first Americans

Topics: Research, Electrical engineering
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • X logo
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
© 2025 UC Regents