Volume 2, Issue 13
Dean's Message
Mark Richards
Dean, Physical Sciences
July/August 2005
Dear Friends,
The pace of discovery in astronomy nowadays is dazzling, particularly so at Berkeley. Just this month, astronomy faculty member Geoff Marcy announced an amazing discovery. Geoff and his team of planet hunters have discovered the most Earth-like planet ever found outside of our solar system. Orbiting the star Gliese 876 — a relatively close 15 light years away — this remarkable planet has a radius about 1.8 times that of Earth and a mass of only seven times that of our own planet. This is most likely the first rocky (or "terrestrial") planet discovered outside our solar system. In the planet-finding biz, where most of the planets found are huge gas giants similar to Jupiter, this discovery is certainly the most Earth-like so far, and this find suggests many more exciting discoveries are to come as the technology for locating extra-solar planets becomes more powerful and precise.
Fittingly, it was announced that Professor Marcy is sharing this year's prestigious $1 million Shaw Prize for Astronomy, so congratulations to Geoff and his team on a well-deserved honor.
Exciting discoveries such as the extra-solar planets, dark energy (Professors Perlmutter and Filippenko), and the comet or meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs (Professor Alvarez) certainly keep Berkeley in the public limelight and at the leading edge of science. But it is important to remember that these same professors are in the classroom day-to-day as well, providing Berkeley students an extraordinary window into the excitement and beauty of fundamental scientific discovery. About 1,000 students take Alex Filippenko's famous introductory Astronomy 10 course each year, and geology students can learn stratigraphy and Earth history in the field with Walter Alvarez this fall. Additionally, I'm looking forward to participating in a graduate seminar with Geoff Marcy and Astronomy Professor Eugene Chiang, which is focused on the potentially exotic dynamics of large rocky planets orbiting other stars.
Although this newsletter focuses on the research accomplishments of our faculty and students, I cannot overemphasize the synergy between research and learning at Berkeley. Ideally, learning and discovery should be similar processes. Consistent with this idea, research experience for our undergraduate students is becoming more the norm than the exception, and you will find that faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students participate in a more continuous and vertically-integrated process of education than ever before.
A final note: On Monday, September 26, The College of Letters & Science and the San Francisco Opera will present Science and the Soul: Robert Oppenheimer and Doctor Atomic, a free evening symposium celebrating the opening of the San Francisco Opera's premiere of Doctor Atomic. The symposium will feature dialogue with world-renowned composer John Adams and director and librettist Peter Sellars, exploring the historical, scientific and musical background of the opera. Set in July 1945 in the New Mexico desert, the opera focuses on the tightly knit group of physicists who built and tested the first atomic bomb under the leadership of Berkeley physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Another great story of science and discovery, so mark your calendars!
Warm regards,
Mark Richards