Volume 2, Issue 11
Dean's Message
Mark Richards
Dean, Physical Sciences
May 2005
Dear Friends,
This message discusses an abundance of news, mostly good: First, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) just concluded its competition for the management contract for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) by announcing its award of the contract to the University of California, its current manager, for the next five years. Although not surprising, this is welcome good news for science and engineering at UC Berkeley. LBNL is the recognized leader among national laboratories in unclassified scientific research, including a balanced portfolio of research in biology, chemistry, energy, Earth and environmental science, materials science, computational science, and, of course, physics. We are pleased that DOE has wisely decided to continue a relationship that has served both UC and the nation very well for more than five decades. Congratulations to new LBNL Director and Physics Professor Steven Chu and his LBNL divisional directors for a job well done!
I'm sure many of you heard that last month the Berkeley campus officially welcomed Robert Birgeneau as the ninth chancellor of our great institution. Acknowledging the 137th anniversary of Charter Day in his speech, Birgeneau, also a Physics professor said: "One hundred thirty-seven may not be a special number of most of you, but for a physicist, it is unique since the number 137 [the approximate value of the fine structure constant] plays a profound role in the quantum theory of light." "It is a singular pleasure," he continued, "to assume leadership at a university that has Fiat Lux – Let There Be Light – as its motto." The Chancellor is committed to a diverse campus, and stressed in his inauguration speech the need to find ways to create an inclusive environment.
Berkeley's fall 2005 freshman admission data showed more than 9,600 high school students were offered admission. Admission numbers were up for underrepresented minorities compared to those for the fall 2004 admitted class, but the increases were modest. Additional data show that women now represent about 55 percent of the admitted freshman students, which has been the case for the last few years.
In College news, Executive Dean Ralph Hexter announced that he will be leaving Berkeley this summer to assume the post of president of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Hexter has been executive dean since 2002. He joined UC Berkeley as a professor of Classics and Comparative Literature in 1996. He served as Chair of Comparative Literature from 1996-1998, and became Dean of Arts and Humanities in 1998. We wish him well in his new endeavor.
I am pleased to announce that six College of Letters & Science professors are among the 196 newly elected fellows to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their leadership in scholarship, business, the arts and public life. The newest academy members from Berkeley are Robert Powell, Robson Professor of Political Science; Daniel Boyarin, professor of Near Eastern Studies; Giovanna Ferro-Luzzi Ames, professor emerita of biochemistry and molecular biology; Ronald Lee, director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging; Hiroshi Nikaido, professor of molecular and cellular biology; and Robert Hass, professor of English and past Poet Laureate of the United States.
I hope you enjoy this issue of ScienceMatters@Berkeley!
Mark Richards
Professor of Earth and Planetary Science
Dean, Division of Physical Sciences
College of Letters and Science
UC Berkeley
Mark_Richards@ls.berkeley.edu