UC Berkeley College of Letters & Science

Andrew Dillin smiles in front of a lush green tree and wooden building. He has short brown hair, a gray beard and mustache, and is wearing a navy blue hoodie. The background shows curved tree branches and a pond surrounded by greenery.

🦠 UC Berkeley's Andrew Dillin is launching CURED, a new center that connects efforts across campus to discover cures for unmet, rare, and emerging diseases.
“We are decentralizing the normal path to clinical breakthrough.”
Read more: https://bit.ly/42CVDkK
#GlobalHealth #ResearchImpact #CURED

An artist’s reconstruction of the Weberian apparatus in a 67 million-year-old fossil fish. Gold-colored bones at the center show the Weberian structure connecting the air bladder on the left to the inner ear on the right. The background shows fish lineages that evolved after the supercontinent Pangea broke up.

Juan Liu, a UC Berkeley paleontologist, assistant adjunct professor of integrative biology and assistant curator in the UC Museum of Paleontology, used fossilized ear bones to rewrite the history of freshwater fish! Learn how: https://bit.ly/4odOY8V 🐟

#Research @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social

Henry Washington, Jr. rests his face on one hand against a light gray background. He wears round eyeglasses, a black turtleneck sweater, and a black wristwatch. His dark, shoulder-length hair is styled in locs, and he wears a silver ring on his finger.

UC Berkeley's Department of African American Studies has launched a three-year initiative on Black critical theory, founded by Professor Henry Washington, Jr., to explore new directions in the field. 📚

➡️ Read more here: https://bit.ly/47dK1am

#AfricanAmericanStudies
#BlackCriticalTheory

Side-by-side portraits of UC Berkeley professors Steven Lee (left) and Jinsoo An (right). Lee, wearing glasses and a gray polo, is speaking with hands gesturing in front of bookshelves. An, wearing glasses and a blue button-down shirt, stands in front of a bookshelf.

📚 Did you know? UC Berkeley students can now major in Korean studies! The program offers an interdisciplinary dive into Korea’s language, history, and culture, reflecting growing demand across campus. 🇰🇷✨

Read More Here ➟ https://bit.ly/42T9pzC

Gov. Newsom visits UC Berkeley to sign bill encouraging quantum innovation - Berkeley News The bill helps cities establish 'quantum innovation zones' to attract and retain businesses built on quantum information science, an area expected to evolve into a trillion-dollar-plus industry.

Today, CA Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill to create “quantum innovation zones” across the state, positioning the UC Berkeley campus as a leader in the race to establish California and the Bay Area as a center of an emerging economy. news.berkeley.edu/2025/10/03/g...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, wearing a dark blue suit and tie, listens attentively to a researcher in a light pink shirt inside a UC Berkeley quantum computing lab. The two stand beside a curved computer monitor displaying code, with blue cables and illuminated equipment surrounding a large cylindrical quantum device glowing with blue light in the background.

⚛️ Gov. Gavin Newsom visited UC Berkeley to sign Assembly Bill 940, creating “quantum innovation zones” to boost research, jobs, and California’s leadership in the trillion-dollar quantum economy.
Learn More: https://bit.ly/432FiG3
#UCBerkeley #Quantum #Research #Innovation

Susanna Elm, a woman with curly light brown hair, wearing a navy blue shirt, is smiling in front of a softly blurred indoor background with warm tones and a hint of flowers.

#FacultyFriday: UC Berkeley historian Susanna Elm studies the late Roman Empire to understand how its legacies of autocracy, slavery, gender, religion and medicine continue to shape the world today 🏛️

➡️ Read more: https://bit.ly/4nY2Unb

#UCBerkeley #History #RomanEmpire #Research

Black and white portrait of Elena Conis, a professor of history and journalism at UC Berkeley. Elena is wearing a dark herringbone blazer, showing one earring, and a thin necklace. Photo Credit: Brittany Hosea-Small

🔬 Elena Conis, UC Berkeley professor of history and journalism, explores the history of vaccine hesitancy from smallpox to COVID-19. Learn how culture, politics & science are influencing policy and shaping attitudes. ➟ https://bit.ly/4gLicJT
#VaccineHistory #PublicHealth

Video screenshot from Professor Keltner's Academic Review video about contributing to Pixar's Inside Out.

🤩 Congratulations to Dacher Keltner, UC Berkeley psychologist, who recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Association for Psychological Science 🏆 Read more >> https://bit.ly/4nPcrwR

A woman looks at enlarged mounted photos of sparse rooms in a house on a gallery wall

🎧 In this insightful episode of #BerkeleyTalks, UC Berkeley philosopher Alva Noë argues that life and art are entangled. Learn how art changes us as humans, and makes us new >> https://bit.ly/42aCvu4

a man in a rice field looking at his mobile phone

💡AI is revolutionizing weather prediction! Co-developed by #UCBerkeley professor William Boos, an AI-based weather model successfully predicted a delayed monsoon in India & enabled millions of farmers to adjust crop planting accordingly. ➡️ https://bit.ly/4nPXKd7

#ResearchWithResults

Logo of L&S Pathways with text: Course Enrichment Grant Awards 2025"

🌟 Congratulations to the 2025 L&S First-Year Pathways Course Enrichment Grant awardees! L&S Pathways helps students explore majors, fulfill breadth requirements, and discover new passions - all while making positive connections in small cohorts. Read more >> https://bit.ly/3Kidk2D

Event details for screening of The Last Class with photos of Robert Reich and W. Kamau Bell.

🗓️ WEDNESDAY, OCT 8: Join us for a screening of The Last Class, the hit documentary capturing UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Robert Reich's last semester. Writer & comedian W. Kamau Bell will join Prof Reich for a conversation after the film.

🎟️ TICKETS ARE ONLINE >> https://bit.ly/4gxZ0PA

Despite initial doubts about whether it could work, immunotherapy is today considered one of the most promising fields within cancer research. We have the work of Allison and researchers like him to thank for it.

🔗 Learn more about world-changing Berkeley research at berkeley.edu/research-impact

Immunotherapy is a breakthrough for which researchers James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo shared a 2018 Nobel Prize, in large part thanks to work Allison did as director of UC Berkeley’s Cancer Research Laboratory.

Cancer is a personal disease. Nearly 2 in 5 people in the U.S. will develop cancer over the course of their lifetime, meaning almost everyone knows someone who has fought it.

Until the discovery of immunotherapy, cancer treatments were crude tools with painful side effects.

Ann speaking at 2014 Senate Hearing.

Blind, neurodivergent, first-gen alum Ann Wai-Yee Kwong ’15 is reframing disability justice and creating space that is joyful, messy, healing & hopeful at UC Berkeley. Her leadership shows that true access requires cultural change.

Learn More 👉 https://bit.ly/42ygPrO

#DisabilityJustice ✊

Headshots of Professor Edmund Campion at left and Professor Carmine-Emanuele Cella at right.

#FacultyFriday: Meet UC Berkeley music professors Edmund Campion and Carmine-Emanuele Cella 🎶 After Campion retires as director of the Center for New Music and Associated Technologies (CNMAT) in 2027, Cella will assume the leadership role. Read more >> https://bit.ly/3K6DTaR

A man sleeping in darkened room, with superimposed image of brain and molecular structure of growth hormone

😴 Chalk up another reason to get your sleep: @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social researchers find that the growth hormone released during sleep is critical not only for childhood growth but also for adult metabolism. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3JThWw1

A close-up portrait of Chris-Batterman Cháirez with long brown hair, wearing a beige button-up shirt. He has a nose ring, cross earring, and a subtle tattoo on his chest. He is outdoors, with trees and glass structures blurred in the background, looking directly at the camera with a slight smile.

🎶 From Mexico City to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Professor Chris Batterman Cháirez has observed how music travels with migrants, shaping cultures and telling powerful stories. Learn about his research and new course: Music, Movement and Migration in Latin America ➡️ https://bit.ly/4p5Fs92

White campus building with sun shining through, with copy "Welcome to our new faculty at L&S"

Welcome to our new UC Berkeley Letters & Science faculty members! 🌟 Hailing from across the U.S. and the world, these brilliant scholars are bringing their expertise in Arts & Humanities, Bio Sci, Math & Physical Sci, and Social Sci research & education! https://bit.ly/3V43fZp

Portrait of Jennifer Doudna wearing a blue shirt, black suit, standing inside a lab

🎧 On this episode of #BerkeleyTalks, listen to Jennifer Doudna, #Nobel laureate and professor of molecular & cell biology and chemistry, discuss CRISPR and the future of gene editing. ➡️ https://bit.ly/3HWuOAG

UC Berkeley is the #1 public and #5 overall in latest Forbes rankings of undergraduate colleges - Berkeley News The annual rankings focus on graduates' return on investment and career achievements, among other factors.

In its newest ranking of America’s Top Colleges, Forbes placed UC Berkeley at #1 among public universities and #5 nationwide based on academic, financial and career outcomes for undergraduate students. news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/27/u...

A man stands with his arms folded across his chest in front of a colorful mural of flowers with pointed leaves. He is smiling and wearing a rust-colored blazer, T-shirt, eyeglasses and has a beard and mustache.

#AlumniSpotlight! Meet Ruben Canedo, a trailblazer for educational justice 💙 💛 As UC Berkeley's director of strategic equity initiatives, he's striving to make sure students have the food, housing & essentials needed to succeed in school and life. https://bit.ly/47NYH0B

A portrait of Stephanie Syjuco, a woman with long dark hair wearing a dark tank, and a close-up image of Stephanie Syjuco's "Present Tense (Roll Call)" exhibit.

#FacultyFriday: Meet Stephanie Syjuco, a renowned artist and longtime Art Practice professor @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social. Her exhibition, "Present Tense (Roll Call)" at BAMPFA showcases Berkeley's history of radical education and protest.
Learn more >> https://bit.ly/3JrJWqi

Acclaimed author Alec Nevala-Lee visited Berkeley Lab to discuss his new biography on Luis Alvarez, Collisions: A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs. The event featured a presentation by Alec on the life and legacy of Alvar... Author Alec Nevala-Lee Visits Berkeley Lab

“Gossip is the backbone of physics.”

Author Alec Nevala-Lee stopped by Berkeley Lab to talk about Nobel laureate Luis #Alvarez, whose groundbreaking research shaped modern physics.

📺 Watch the full talk: https://youtu.be/s2JkpdsfOvg

@nobelprize.bsky.social

Berkeley Talks: Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna on CRISPR and the future of gene editing - Berkeley News “We're in an era of programmable genome editing," says the UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology. “It's really exciting to see all the possible applications of this."

🎧Berkeley Talks: Jennifer Doudna discusses how CRISPR can be used to correct disease-causing genetic mutations, the impact that it’s already having on people’s lives and where she sees the technology going in the future. news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/22/b...

illustration of a textbook laying open and viruses, chromosomes, blood cells, etc flying out of the pages

We've got your back for back-to-school season with free resources for learners of all ages! Check out our Education page to access our textbook-style resources CRISPRpedia & CRISPR Made Simple in English & Spanish, our free-to-use illustrations, & more! innovativegenomics.org/education/

#STEMed 🧬

With a 63-by-30 foot art installation, Stephanie Syjuco explores education and activism at BAMPFA - Berkeley News "Present Tense (Roll Call)" covers BAMPFA's Art Wall in a collage of text unearthed from UC Berkeley's long history of radical education and protest.

With a 63-by-30 foot art installation, Stephanie Syjuco explores education and activism at @bampfa.bsky.social news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/15/w...

7 world-changing UC innovations that emerged from federal research funding From the internet to the ozone layer, AI to the human genome, UC scientists have turned federal research funding into history-making, economy-boosting solutions.

From the world's first email to saving millions of premature newborns to CRISPR gene editing, history-making innovation is happening across the UC system every day. www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/7-world...