Congratulations to the 2021 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) selections!

The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution.

Congratulations to:

Dan Kim, 

Claire Evensen

Daisy Horr

 

Congratulations to Noah Whiteman for Being Elected to the Genetics Society of America’s Board of Directors!

Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional membership organization for scientific researchers and educators in the field of genetics. Our members work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance, from the molecular to the population level.

William Clemens, expert on fossil mammals, dies at 88

Bill Clemens, who died peacefully of metastatic cancer at his home in Berkeley on Nov. 17 at the age of 88, became one of the most persuasive voices against the impact hypothesis. He represented many biologists and paleontologists who, seeing continual turnover of life in the fossil record, challenged the catastrophism of physicists like Luis Alvarez, geologists like his son, Walter, and, increasingly, the public, which found the impact hypothesis very compelling.

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Bat virus expert Cara Brook named L’Oréal For Women in Science fellow!

Cara Brook, a UC Berkeley researcher whose work on bat viruses has taken on new urgency with the rise of COVID-19, is one of five recipients of this year’s L’Oréal For Women in Science fellowships.

The awards were announced yesterday (Monday, Nov. 16) by L’Oréal USA, which sponsors the annual fellowships to recognize early-career female scientists. Brook and the other recipients each will receive $60,000 to advance their research.

 

Is English the lingua franca of science? Not for everyone.

​English limits entry into the world of science and limits public access to scientific results. Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda, a graduate student in IB, encountered this firsthand when she began writing her master’s thesis at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, her native country. Read more of her story featured in the Berkeley News...
 

Desert mosses use quartz rocks as sun shades

A graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, found that some mosses in the California desert seek protection from the relentless sun and heat by sheltering under translucent quartz pebbles, essentially using the rocks as sunshades.

The soil under these rocks retains more moisture than exposed desert soil, said Jenna Ekwealor, while enough light leaks through the milky quartz to allow the tiny mosses to remain green with chlorophyll. Mosses actually prefer dim light, making these conditions ideal for growth.