Volume 1, Issue 2
Dean's Message
Geoffrey Owen
Dean, Biological Sciences
July 2004
Dear Friends,
The response to last month's inaugural edition of ScienceMatters@Berkeley was tremendous. I want to thank those of you who contacted us with your supportive and insightful comments. I think you will enjoy this second edition highlighting the research of John Rice, Michael Manga, and Carlos Bustamante, each of whom has interests that transcend traditional disciplines. I'm delighted to mention that Carlos Bustamante is the winner of the National Academy of Science's 2004 Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics for his outstanding contributions in biophysics. Bustamante won the award for his ingenious use of atomic force microscopy and laser tweezers to study the biophysical properties of proteins, DNA, and RNA, one molecule at a time.
As you read about these three exceptional scientists, I'm sure you'll agree that the future of science requires a multidisciplinary approach. Scientific research is being redefined in terms of the questions it addresses rather than the disciplines that bear on those questions. This emerging unification of science is exemplified by the career of the new Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Professor Steven Chu. In 1997, Chu, a Berkeley Ph.D. and Professor at Stanford, won the Nobel Prize in physics for developing methods for cooling and trapping atoms with laser light, work that led to the "laser tweezers" which Bustamante and many other scientists around the world use every day to study complex molecules. Today, laser tweezers are just one element in Chu's arsenal of sophisticated techniques he employs to study the physical properties of biological molecules. His appointment as Director of LBNL brings to Berkeley a truly ecumenical vision of science. The timing couldn't be better.
I'm pleased that just a month after announcing the election of five new members to the National Academy of Sciences from the Berkeley campus, I have even more news about faculty awards to share with you. Dan Stamper-Kurn, Assistant Professor of Physics, and Abby Dernberg, Assistant Professor-in-Residence of Molecular & Cell Biology, were two of four Berkeley faculty recently honored with Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers at a ceremony in the White House. Stamper-Kurn explores the physical properties of atomic gases at ultra-low temperatures. Dernberg studies chromosome pairing in meiosis, the process by which genetic material is transmitted during cell division.
Eugene Myers, who holds a joint appointment as Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and of Molecular & Cell Biology recently received the 2004 Max Planck Research Prize awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society. Myers was commended for his pioneering work developing algorithms that accelerated the mapping of genomes.
These are exciting times where many disciplines are merging together and new discoveries are being made. Our challenge is to ensure that the right combination of talents is available to address any scientific problem. This will only be possible if our students become familiar with the diversity of skills necessary to become the scientific leaders of the future. It's all happening at Berkeley - stay tuned.
Geoffrey Owen
Professor of Neurobiology
Dean, Division of Biological Sciences
College of Letters & Science
UC Berkeley
Geoff_Owen@ls.berkeley.edu