University of California, Berkeley

Not to be confused withBerkeley College (disambiguation).

University of California, Berkeley

Former names	University of California (1868–1958)
Motto	Fiat lux(Latin)
Motto in English	"Let there be light"
Type	Publicland-grantresearch university
Established	March 23, 1868(1868-03-23)
Parent institution	University of California
Accreditation	WSCUC
Academic affiliations	AAU APRU IARU URA Space-grant
Endowment	$7.4 billion (2023)
Chancellor	Richard Lyons
Provost	Benjamin E. Hermalin
Total staff	23,524 (2020)
Students	45,307 (Fall 2022)
Undergraduates	32,479 (Fall 2022)
Postgraduates	12,828 (Fall 2022)
Location	Berkeley , California , United States 37°52′19″N122°15′30″W
Campus	Core central: 178-acre (72-hectare) Large suburb:8,164-acre (3,304-hectare)
Newspaper	The Daily Californian
Colors	Berkeley Blue California Gold
Nickname	Golden Bears
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FBS–ACC MPSF America East IRA
Mascot	Oski the Bear
Website	www.berkeley.edu

TheUniversity of California, Berkeley(UC Berkeley,Berkeley,Cal,orCalifornia)is apublicland-grantresearch universityinBerkeley, California.Founded in 1868 and named after theAnglo-IrishphilosopherGeorge Berkeley,it is the state's firstland-grant universityand is the founding campus of theUniversity of Californiasystem.

Berkeley has an enrollment of more than 45,000 students. The university is organized around fifteen schools of study on the same campus, including theCollege of Chemistry,theCollege of Engineering,and theHaas School of Business.It isclassifiedamong "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".TheLawrence Berkeley National Laboratorywas originally founded as part of the university.

Berkeley was a founding member of theAssociation of American Universitiesand was one of the original eight "Public Ivy"schools. In 2021, the federal funding for campus research and development exceeded $1 billion.Thirty-two libraries also compose theBerkeley library systemwhich is thesixth largest research library by number of volumes heldin theUnited States.

Berkeley students compete in thirtyvarsityathletic sports, and the university is one of eighteen full-member institutions in theAtlantic Coast Conference(ACC). Berkeley's athletic teams, theCalifornia Golden Bears,have also won 107 national championships, 196 individual national titles, and223 Olympic medals(including 121 gold).Berkeley'salumni,faculty, and researchersinclude 55Nobel laureatesand 19Academy Awardwinners,and the university is also a producer ofRhodes Scholars,Marshall Scholars,andFulbright Scholars.

History

View from Memorial Glade ofSather Tower(the Campanile), the center of Berkeley

Sather Tower (the Campanile) looking out overSan Francisco BayandMount Tamalpais

Main article:History of the University of California, Berkeley

Founding

Made possible byPresident Lincoln's signing of theMorrill Actin 1862, the University of California was founded in 1868 as the state's first land-grant university, inheriting the land and facilities of the privateCollege of Californiaand the federal-funding eligibility of a public agricultural, mining, and mechanical arts college.The Organic Act states that the "University shall have for its design, to provide instruction and thorough and complete education in all departments of science, literature and art, industrial and professional pursuits, and general education, and also special courses of instruction in preparation for the professions."

Ten faculty members and forty male students made up the fledgling university when it opened in Oakland in 1869.Frederick Billings,a trustee of the College of California, suggested that a new campus site north of Oakland be named in honor ofAnglo-IrishphilosopherGeorge Berkeley.The university began admitting women the following year.In 1870,Henry Durant,founder of the College of California, became its first president. With the completion of North andSouth Hallsin 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 22 female students.The first female student to graduate was in 1874, admitted in the first class to include women in 1870.

Beginning in 1891,Phoebe Apperson Hearstfunded several programs and new buildings and, in 1898, sponsored an international competition inAntwerp,where French architectÉmile Bénardsubmitted the winning design for a campus master plan. Although the University of California system does not have an officialflagship campus,many scholars and experts consider Berkeley to be its unofficial flagship. It shares this unofficial status with theUniversity of California, Los Angeles.

20th century

In 1905, the University Farm was established nearSacramento,ultimately becoming theUniversity of California, Davis.In 1919, the Los Angeles branch of theCalifornia State Normal Schoolbecame the southern branch of the university, which ultimately became theUniversity of California, Los Angeles.By the 1920s, the number of campus buildings in Berkeley had grown substantially and included twenty structures designed by architectJohn Galen Howard.In 1917, one of the nation's firstROTCprograms was established at Berkeleyand its School of Military Aeronautics began training pilots, includingJimmy Doolittle.In 1926, futureFleet AdmiralChester W. Nimitzestablished the firstNaval ROTCunit at Berkeley.Berkeley ROTC alumni include former Secretary of DefenseRobert McNamara,Army Chief of StaffFrederick C. Weyand,sixteen othergeneral officers,ten Navyflag officers,and AFROTC alumna CaptainTheresa Claiborne.

In the 1930s,Ernest Orlando Lawrencehelped establish the Radiation Laboratory (nowLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and invented thecyclotron,which won him the Nobel physics prize in 1939.Using the cyclotron, Berkeley professors and Berkeley Lab researchers went on to discover sixteenchemical elements—more than any other university in the world.In particular, during World War II and followingGlenn Seaborg's then-secret discovery of plutonium, Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory began to contract with the U.S. Army to develop the atomic bomb. Physics professorJ. Robert Oppenheimerwas named scientific head of the Manhattan Project in 1942.Along with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley founded and was then a partner in managing two other labs,Los Alamos National Laboratory(1943) andLawrence Livermore National Laboratory(1952).

The famous "Bodies Upon the Gears" speech (also known as "Operation of the Machine" ) given byMario Savioon the steps of Sproul Hall in 1964.

In 1952, theUniversity of Californiareorganized itself into a system of semi-autonomous campuses, with each campus given a chancellor, andClark Kerrbecame Berkeley's first Chancellor, whileRobert Sproulremained in place as the President of the University of California.Berkeley gained a worldwide reputation forpolitical activismin the 1960s. In 1964, theFree Speech Movementorganized student resistance to the university's restrictions on political activities on campus—most conspicuously, student activities related to theCivil Rights Movement.

The arrest in Sproul Plaza ofJack Weinberg,a recent Berkeley alumnus and chair of CampusCORE,prompted a series of student-led acts of formal remonstrance and civil disobedience that ultimately gave rise to the Free Speech Movement, which movement would prevail and serve as a precedent for studentoppositionto America's involvement in the Vietnam War.In 1982, theMathematical Sciences Research Institute(MSRI) was established on campus with support from theNational Science Foundationand at the request of three Berkeley mathematicians—Shiing-Shen Chern,Calvin Moore,andIsadore M. Singer.The institute is now widely regarded as a leading center for collaborative mathematical research, drawing thousands of visiting researchers from around the world each year.

21st century

In the current century, Berkeley has become less politically active, although more liberal.Democrats outnumber Republicans on the faculty by a ratio of nine to one, which is a ratio similar to that of American academia generally.The school has become more focused onSTEMdisciplines and fundraising.In 2007, theEnergy Biosciences Institutewas established with funding fromBPand Stanley Hall, a research facility and headquarters for theCalifornia Institute for Quantitative Biosciences,opened. Supported by a grant from alumnusJames Simons,theSimons Institute for the Theory of Computingwas established in 2012. In 2015, Berkeley and its sister campus,UCSF,established theInnovative Genomics Instituteto developCRISPR gene editing,and, in 2020, an anonymous donor pledged $252 million to help fund a new center for computing and data science. For the 2020 fiscal year, Berkeley set a fundraising record, receiving over $1 billion in gifts and pledges, and two years later, it broke that record, raising over $1.2 billion.

Controversies

• Various research ethics, human rights, and animal rights advocates have been in conflict with Berkeley.Native Americanscontended with the school over repatriation of remains from thePhoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.Student activists have urged the university to cut financial ties withTyson FoodsandPepsiCo.Faculty memberIgnacio Chapelaprominently criticized the university's financial ties toNovartis.PETAhas challenged the university's use of animals for research and argued that it may violate theAnimal Welfare Act.
• Cal'sMemorial Stadiumreopened in September 2012 after renovations. The university incurred a controversial $445 million of debt for the stadium and a new $153 million student athletic center, which it financed with the sale of special stadium endowment seats.The roughly $18 million interest-only annual payments on the debt consumes 20 percent of Cal's athletics' budget; principal repayment begins in 2032 and is scheduled to conclude in 2113.
• On May 1, 2014, Berkeley was named one of fifty-five higher education institutions under investigation by theU.S. Department of Education'sOffice of Civil Rights"for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints" by theWhite House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.Investigations continued into 2016, with hundreds of pages of records released in April 2016, showing a pattern of documented sexual harassment and firings of non-tenured staff.
• On July 25, 2019, Berkeley was removed from theU.S. NewsBest Colleges Rankingfor misreporting statistics. Berkeley had originally reported that its two-year average alumni giving rate for fiscal years 2017 and 2016 was 11.6 percent,U.S. Newssaid. The school later toldU.S. Newsthe correct average alumni giving rate for the 2016 fiscal year was just 7.9 percent. The school incorrectly overstated its alumni giving data toU.S. Newssince at least 2014. The alumni giving rate accounts for five percent of the Best Colleges ranking.
• Berkeley community members have criticized UC Berkeley's increasing enrollment. Berkeley residents filed a lawsuit alleging that the university's expanding enrollment violatedCalifornia Environmental Quality Actand that the area lacked the infrastructure to support more students.Critics of the lawsuit accused these community members ofNIMBYism.In August 2021, a judge from theSuperior Court of Alameda Countyruled in favor of the residents, and on March 3, 2022, theCalifornia Supreme Courtalso ruled in favor of the residents, saying that the university needed to freeze its admission rates at 2020–2021 levels.On March 11, 2022, state legislators released a proposal to change CEQA to exempt the university from its restrictions.On March 14, Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law.Berkeley has continued to face a housing shortage.

Organization and administration

Name

Officially named the "University of California, Berkeley" it is often shortened to "Berkeley" in general reference or in an academic context (Berkeley Law,Berkeley Engineering,Berkeley Haas,Berkeley Public Health) and to "California" or "Cal" particularly when referring to its athletic teams (California Golden Bears).In August 2022, a university task force was formed which recommended renaming the athletic identity to "Cal Berkeley" to further tie the athletic brand to academic prestige, and reduce public confusion.

Governance

The University of California is governed by a twenty-six memberBoard of Regents,eighteen of whom are appointed by theGovernor of Californiato 12-year terms. The board also has sevenex officiomembers, a student regent, and a non-voting student regent-designate.Prior to 1952, Berkeley was the University of California, so the university president was also Berkeley's chief executive. In 1952, the university reorganized itself into a system of semi-autonomous campuses, with each campus having its own chief executive, a chancellor, who would, in turn, report to the president of the university system. Twelve vice-chancellors report directly to Berkeley's chancellor, and the deans of the fifteen colleges and schools report to the executive vice chancellor and provost, Berkeley's chief academic officer.Twenty-three presidents and chancellors have led Berkeley since its founding.

Presidents 1868–1869Henry Durant 1869–1870John LeConte 1870–1872Henry Durant 1872–1875Daniel Coit Gilman 1875–1881John LeConte 1881–1885W.T. Reid 1885–1888Edward S. Holden 1888–1890Horace Davis 1890–1899Martin Kellogg 1899–1919Benjamin Ide Wheeler 1919–1923David Prescott Barrows 1923–1930William Wallace Campbell 1930–1952Robert Gordon Sproul

Chancellors 1952–1958Clark Kerr 1958–1961Glenn T. Seaborg 1961–1965Edward W. Strong 1965–1965Martin E. Meyerson(acting) 1965–1971Roger Heyns 1971–1980Albert H. Bowker 1980–1990Ira Michael Heyman 1990–1997Chang-Lin Tien 1997–2004Robert M. Berdahl 2004–2013Robert J. Birgeneau 2013–2017Nicholas B. Dirks 2017–2024Carol T. Christ 2024–presentRichard Lyons

Funding

See also:University of California finances

With the exception of government contracts, public support is apportioned to Berkeley and the other campuses of the University of California system through the UC Office of the President and accounts for 12 percent of Berkeley's total revenues.Berkeley has benefited from private philanthropy and alumni and their foundations have given to the university for operations and capital expenditures with the more prominent beingJ. Paul Getty,Ann Getty,Sanford Diller,Donald Fisher,Flora Lamson Hewlett,David Schwartz (Bio-Rad) and members of the Haas (Walter A. Haas,Rhoda Haas Goldman,Walter A. Haas Jr.,Peter E. Haas,Bob Haas) family.

Berkeley has also benefited from benefactors beyond its alumni ranks, notable among which areMark ZuckerbergandPriscilla Chan;Vitalik Buterin,Patrick Collison,John Collison,theRon Conwayfamily,Daniel Gross,Dustin MoskovitzandCari Tuna,along withJane Streetprincipals;BP;the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, billionaireSir Li Ka-Shing,Israeli-Russian billionaireYuri Milner,Thomas and Stacey Siebel,Sanford and Joan Weill,and professorGordon Rausser($50 million gift in 2020).Hundreds of millions of dollars have been given anonymously.The 2008–13 "Campaign for Berkeley" raised $3.13 billion from 281,855 donors, and the "Light the Way" campaign, which concluded at the end of 2023, has raised over $6.2 billion.

Academics

Faculty and departments

Wheeler Hall,home to Berkeley's largest lecture hall, was the location of aNobel Prizeconferral duringWWII.

The interior of theHearst Mining Building,dedicated byPhoebe Hearstin honor of her late husband,George.

Berkeley is a large, primarily residential research university with a majority of its enrolment in undergraduate programs but also offering a comprehensive doctoral program.The university has beenaccreditedby theWestern Association of Schools and CollegesSenior College and University Commission since 1949.The university operates on asemester calendarand awarded 8,725 bachelor's, 3,286 master's or professional and 1,272 doctoral degrees in 2018–2019.

There are 1,789 full-time and 886 part-time faculty members among the university's academic enterprise which is organized into fifteen colleges and schools that comprise 180 departments and 80 interdisciplinary units offering over 350 degree programs. Colleges serve both undergraduate and graduate students, while schools are generally graduate only, though some offer undergraduate majors or minors:

• College of Chemistry
• College of Computing, Data Science, and Society
• College of Engineering
• College of Environmental Design
• College of Letters and Science
• Goldman School of Public Policy
• Graduate School of Journalism
• Haas School of Business
• Rausser College of Natural Resources
• School of Information
• School of Education
• School of Law
• School of Public Health
• School of Social Welfare
• Wertheim School of Optometry
• UC Berkeley Extension

Undergraduate programs

Doe Memorial Library

The four-year, full-time undergraduate program offers 107 bachelor's degrees across the Haas School of Business (1), College of Chemistry (5), College of Engineering (20), College of Environmental Design (4), College of Letters and Science (67), Rausser College of Natural Resources (10), and individual majors (2).The most popular majors areelectrical engineering and computer sciences,political science,molecularandcell biology,environmental science,andeconomics.

Requirements for undergraduate degrees include an entry-level writing requirement before enrollment (typically fulfilled by minimum scores on standardized admissions exams such as the SAT or ACT), completing coursework on "American History and Institutions" before or after enrollment by taking an introductory class, passing an "American Cultures Breadth" class at Berkeley, as well as requirements for reading and composition and specific requirements declared by the department and school.

Graduate and professional programs

Haas School of Business

Berkeley has a "comprehensive" graduate program, with high coexistence with the programs offered to undergraduates, and offers interdisciplinary graduate programs with the medical schools at theUniversity of California, San FranciscoandStanford University.The university offersMaster of Arts,Master of Science,Master of Fine Arts,andPhDdegrees in addition to professional degrees such as theJuris Doctor,Master of Business Administration,Master of Public Health,andMaster of Design.The university awarded 963 doctoral degrees and 3,531 master's degrees in 2017.Admission to graduate programs is decentralized; applicants apply directly to the department or degree program. Most graduate students are supported by fellowships, teaching assistantships, or research assistantships.

Library system

Main article:University of California, Berkeley Library System

The on-campusUniversity of California Museum of Paleontologyhosts alife-size replicaof aT-rex.

Doe Libraryserves as theBerkeley library system's reference, periodical, and administrative center, while most of the main collections reside in the subterranean Gardner Main Stacks and Moffitt Undergraduate Library. TheBancroft Library,which has over 400,000 printed volumes and 70 million manuscripts, pictures, and maps, maintains special collections that document the history of the western part of North America, with an emphasis on California, Mexico and Central America. The Bancroft Library also houses the Mark Twain Papers,the Oral History Center,the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri,and the University Archives.

Reputation and rankings

National

Academic rankings
National
ARWU	4
Forbes	5
U.S. News & World Report	15(tie)
Washington Monthly	13
WSJ/College Pulse	8
Global
ARWU	5
QS	12
THE	9
U.S. News & World Report	5

National Program Rankings
Program	Ranking
Biological Sciences	3(tie)
Biostatistics	7(tie)
Business	7(tie)
Chemistry	1(tie)
Clinical Psychology	3(tie)
Computer Science	1(tie)
Earth Sciences	3
Economics	4(tie)
Education	14(tie)
Engineering	3
English	1(tie)
Fine Arts	15(tie)
History	1
Law	12
Mathematics	3(tie)
Physics	3(tie)
Political Science	4(tie)
Psychology	1(tie)
Public Affairs	4(tie)
Public Health	10
Social Work	4(tie)
Sociology	1
Statistics	2

Global Subject Rankings
Program	Ranking
Agricultural Sciences	123(tie)
Artificial Intelligence	33
Arts & Humanities	11
Biology & Biochemistry	5
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology	22
Cell Biology	42(tie)
Chemical Engineering	155
Chemistry	11
Civil Engineering	33
Clinical Medicine	171
Computer Science	10
Condensed Matter Physics	52
Ecology	7
Economics & Business	5
Education & Educational Research	66
Electrical & Electronic Engineering	72(tie)
Energy & Fuels	64
Engineering	19
Environmental Engineering	116(tie)
Environment/Ecology	6
Geosciences	30
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology	147(tie)
Immunology	68(tie)
Infectious Diseases	98
Materials Science	22
Mathematics	8
Mechanical Engineering	115(tie)
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	57
Microbiology	19
Molecular Biology & Genetics	26
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	64
Neuroscience & Behavior	37
Optics	24
Physical Chemistry	65(tie)
Physics	3
Plant & Animal Science	11
Psychiatry/Psychology	27
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health	38
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging	109(tie)
Social Sciences & Public Health	26
Space Science	3
Water Resources	38

• In the 2024Center for World University Rankings(CWUR)list, Berkeley was the top public university in the nation and ranked 10th overall based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, and citations.
• In the 2023Forbes’America's Top Collegeslist, Berkeley was the highest ranking public school and 5th overall.
• In the 2023–2024U.S. News & World ReportBest Colleges Ranking,Berkeley was tied for both the top public school and for 15th overall.
• In the 2025The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse rankings, Berkeley was the highest ranking public school and 8th overall.

Global

• In 2017, theNature Indexranked the university the 9th largest contributor to papers published in 82 leading journals.
• For 2024, theCenter for World University Rankings (CWUR)ranked the university 12th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, and research performance.

Past rankings

In his memoirs,Clark Kerrrecords Berkeley's rise in the rankings (according to theNational Academies) during the 20th century. The school's first ranking in 1906 placed it among the top six schools ( "Big Six" ) in the nation. In 1934, it ranked second, tied withColumbiaand theUniversity of Chicago,behind onlyHarvard;in 1957, it was ranked as the only school second to Harvard. In 1964, Berkeley was named the "best balanced distinguished university", meaning the school had not only the most top departments but also the highest percentage of top ranking departments in its school. The school in 1993 was the only remaining member of the original 1906 "Big Six", along with Harvard; in that year Berkeley ranked first.

TheAmerican Council on Education,a private non-profit association, ranked Berkeley tenth in 1934. However, by 1942, private funding had helped Berkeley rise to second place, behind only Harvard, based on the number of distinguished departments.In 1985,Yale Universityadmissions officer Richard Moll publishedPublic Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universitieswhich named Berkeley a "Public Ivy".Since its inaugural 1990 reputational survey,Times Higher Educationhas considered Berkeley to be one of the world's "six super brands" along with theUniversity of Oxfordand theUniversity of Cambridge,Harvard University,MIT,andStanford University.

The 2010United States National Research Council Rankingsidentified Berkeley as having the highest number of top-ranked doctoral programs in the nation. Berkeley doctoral programs that received a #1 ranking included English, German, Political Science, Geography, Agricultural and Resource Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Epidemiology, Plant Biology, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Admissions and enrollment

Undergraduate demographics as of Fall 2020

Race and ethnicity	Total
Asian	35%	35
White	22%	22
Hispanic	19%	19
Foreign national	13%	13
Other	9%	9
Black	2%	2
Economic diversity
Low-income	22%	22
Affluentormiddle class	78%	78

For Fall 2022, Berkeley's total enrollment was 45,745: 32,831 undergraduate and 12,914 graduate students, with women accounting for 56% of undergraduates and 49% of graduate and professional students. It had 128,226 freshman applicants and accepted 14,614 (11.4%). Among enrolled freshman, the average unweighted GPA was 3.90.

Berkeley's enrollment ofNational Merit Scholarswas third in the nation until 2002, when participation in the National Merit program was discontinued.For 2019, Berkeley ranked fourth in enrollment of recipients of theNational Merit $2,500 Scholarship(132 scholars).27% of admitted students receive federalPell grants.

Berkeley students are eligible for a variety of public and private financial aid. Inquiries are processed through the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office, although schools such as the Haas School of BusinessandBerkeley Law,have their own financial aid offices.

Fall Freshman Profile

	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
Applicants	128,226	109,597	88,076	87,398	89,621	85,057	82,571	78,923	73,794
Admits	14,614	15,852	15,448	14,676	13,308	14,552	14,429	13,332	13,338
Admit rate	11.4%	14.5%	17.5%	16.8%	14.8%	17.1%	17.5%	16.9%	18.1%
Enrolled	6,726	6,809	6,052	6,454	6,012	6,379	6,253	5,832	5,813
SAT(mid-50%)	N/A*	N/A*	1300–1520	1330–1520	1300–1530	1300–1540	1930–2290	1870–2250	1840–2230
ACT(average)	N/A*	N/A*	31	31	31	32	32	32	31
GPA(unweighted)	3.90	3.87	3.86	3.89	3.89	3.91	3.86	3.87	3.85
* Berkeley began test-blind admissions in 2021.

Discoveries and innovation

Simplified evolution ofUnixsystems andBSDforks

Natural sciences

• Atomic bomb– Physics professorJ. Robert Oppenheimerwas wartime director ofLos Alamos National Laboratoryand theManhattan Project.
• Carbon 14andphotosynthesis–Martin KamenandSam Rubenfirst discovered carbon 14 in 1940, and Nobel laureateMelvin Calvinand his colleagues used carbon 14 as a molecular tracer to reveal the carbon assimilation path in photosynthesis, known asCalvin cycle.
• Carcinogens– Identified chemicals that damage DNA. TheAmes testwas described in a series of papers in 1973 byBruce Amesand his group at the university.
• Chemical elements– Sixteen elements have been discovered at Berkeley (technetium,astatine,neptunium,plutonium,americium,curium,berkelium,californium,einsteinium,fermium,mendelevium,nobelium,lawrencium,rutherfordium,dubnium,andseaborgium).
• Covalent bond–Gilbert N. Lewisin 1916 described the sharing of electron pairs between atoms, and invented the Lewis notation to describe the mechanisms.
• CRISPR gene editing– Nobel laureateJennifer Doudnadiscovered a precise and inexpensive way for manipulating DNA in human cells.
• Cyclotron–Ernest O. Lawrencecreated aparticle acceleratorin 1934, and was awarded the Nobel Physics Prize in 1939.
• Dark energy–Saul Perlmutterand many others in theSupernova Cosmology Projectdiscover the universe is expanding because of dark energy 1998.
• Flu vaccine–Wendell M. Stanleyand colleagues discovered the vaccine in the 1940s.
• Hydrogen bomb–Edward Teller,the father of hydrogen bomb, was a professor at Berkeley and a researcher at theLawrence Livermore National Laboratoryand theLos Alamos National Laboratory.
• Immunotherapy of cancer–James P. Allisondiscovers and developsmonoclonal antibody therapythat uses the immune system to combat cancer 1992–1995.
• Molecular clock–Allan Wilsondiscovery in 1967.
• Neuroplasticity–Marian Diamonddiscovers structural, biochemical, and synaptic changes in brain caused by environmental enrichment 1964
• Oncogene–Peter Duesbergdiscovers first cancer causing gene in a virus 1970s.
• Telomerase–Elizabeth H. Blackburn,Carol Greider,andJack Szostakdiscover enzyme that promotes cell division and growth 1985.
• Vitamin E–Gladys Anderson Emersonisolates Vitamin E in a pure form in 1952.

Computer and applied sciences

• Berkeley RISC–David PattersonleadsARPA'sVLSI projectofmicroprocessordesign 1980–1984.
• Berkeley UNIX/Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)– TheComputer Systems Research Groupwas a research group at Berkeley that was dedicated to enhancingAT&TUnixoperating systemand funded byDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency.Bill Joymodified the code and released it in 1977 under theopen sourceBSD license,starting an open-source revolution.
• Deep sea diving–Joel Henry Hildebrandusedheliumwithoxygento mitigatedecompression sickness.
• GIMP– In 1995,Spencer KimballandPeter Mattisbegan developing GIMP as a semester-long project at Berkeley.
• Polygraph– invented byJohn Augustus Larsonand a police officer from theBerkeley Police Departmentin 1921.
• Project Genie–DARPAfunded project. It produced an earlytime-sharingsystem including theBerkeley Timesharing System,which was then commercialized as theSDS 940.Concepts from Project Genie influenced the development of theTENEXoperating system for thePDP-10,andUnix,which inherited the concept ofprocess forkingfrom it.Unix co-creatorKen Thompsonworked on Project Genie while at Berkeley.
• SPICE–Donald O. Pedersondevelops the Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) 1972.
• Tcl programming language– developed byJohn Ousterhoutin 1988.
• Three-dimensionalTransistor–Chenming Huwon the 2014National Medal of Technologyfor developing the "first 3-dimensional transistors, which radically advanced semiconductor technology."
• Vitext editor –Bill Joycreated the first Vi editor in 1976.
• Wetsuit–Hugh Bradnerinvents first wetsuit 1952.

Companies and entrepreneurship

• Activision Blizzard,1979 (asActivision), co-founderAlan Miller(BS) andLarry Kaplan(BA)
• AIG,1919, founderCornelius Vander Starr(Attended)
• Apple,1976, co-founderSteve Wozniak(BS)
• Berkeley Systems,1987, co-founderJoan Blades(BA)
• Bolt, Beranek and Newman,1948, co-founderRichard Bolt(BA, MA, PhD)
• Chernin Entertainment,2009, founderPeter Chernin(BA)
• Chez Panisse,1971, founderAlice Waters(BA)
• Coursera,2012, co-founderAndrew Ng(PhD)
• Databricks,2013, foundersAli Ghodsi(PhD),Matei Zaharia(PhD),Ion Stoica(Professor),Reynold Xin(PhD), Andy Konwinski (PhD), Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji (PhD), and Patrick Wendell (PhD)
• DHL,1969, co-founderLarry Hillblom(JD)
• eBay,1995, founderPierre Omidyar(Attended)
• Gap Inc.,1969, co-founderDonald Fisher(BS)
• Google Earth,2001 (as KeyHole Inc.), co-founder John Hanke (MBA)
• GrandCentral,2009 (asGoogle Voice), co-founder Craig Walker (BA 1988, JD 1995)
• HTC Corporation,1997, co-founderCher Wang(BA, MA)
• Intel,1968, co-foundersGordon Moore(BS) andAndy Grove(PhD)
• LSI Logic,1980, co-founder Robert Walker (BS)
• Marvell Technology Group,1995, co-foundersSehat Sutardja(MS, PhD) andWeili Dai(BA)
• Morgan Stanley,1924 (asDean Witter & Co.), co-founderDean G. Witter(BA)
• Mozilla Corporation,2005, co-founderMitchell Baker(BA, JD)
• Myspace,2003, co-founderTom Anderson(BA)
• Opsware,1997, co-founder Sik Rhee (BS)
• PowerBar,1986, co-foundersBrian Maxwell(BA) and Jennifer Maxwell (BS)
• RedOctane,1999, co-founders Charles Huang (BA) and Kai Huang (BA)
• Renaissance Technologies,1982, founderJames Simons(PhD)
• Rotten Tomatoes,1998, founders Senh Duong (BA), Patrick Y. Lee (BA) and Stephen Wang (BA)
• SanDisk,1988, co-founderSanjay Mehrotra(BS, MS)
• Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker,1996, co-founder John Scharffenberger (BA)
• Softbank,1981, founderMasayoshi Son(BA)
• Sun Microsystems,1982, co-founderBill Joy(MS)
• Tesla,2003, co-founderMarc Tarpenning(BS)
• The Learning Company,1980, co-founderWarren Robinett(MS)
• VMware,1998, co-foundersDiane Greene(MS) andMendel Rosenblum(PhD)
• Zilog,1974, co-founder Ralph Ungermannn (BSEE)

In 2023, theWorld Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Annual PCT Review ranked the University of California's number of patent applications published under thePCT Systemas 1st from the university sector, with 531patent applicationsbeing published during 2023.

Campus

Main article:Campus of the University of California, Berkeley

Sather Gate,connectingSproul Plazato the inner campus, was a center of theFree Speech Movement.

Much of the Berkeley campus is in the city limits ofBerkeleywith portion of the property extending intoOakland.It encompasses approximately 1,232-acres, though the "central campus" occupies only the low-lying western 178-acres of this area. Of the remaining acres, approximately 200-acres are occupied by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; other facilities above the main campus include theLawrence Hall of Scienceand several research units, notably theSpace Sciences Laboratory,theMathematical Sciences Research Institute,an 800-acre (320-hectare) ecological preserve, theUniversity of California Botanical Gardenand a recreation center in Strawberry Canyon. Portions of the mostly undeveloped, eastern area of the campus are actually within theCity of Oakland;these portions extend from theClaremont Resortnorth through thePanoramic Hillneighborhood toTilden Park.

To the west of the central campus is thedowntown business district of Berkeley;to the northwest is the neighborhood of North Berkeley, including the so-calledGourmet Ghetto,a commercial district known for high quality dining due to the presence of such world-renowned restaurants asChez Panisse.Immediately to the north is a quiet residential neighborhood known asNorthsidewith a large graduate student population;situated north of that are the upscale residential neighborhoods of theBerkeley Hills.Immediately southeast of campus lies fraternity row and beyond that theClark Kerr Campusand an upscale residential area namedClaremont.Thearea south of the universityincludes student housing andTelegraph Avenue,one of Berkeley's main shopping districts with stores, street vendors and restaurants catering to college students and tourists. In addition, the university also owns land to the northwest of the main campus, a married student housing complex in the nearby town of Albany ( "Albany Village" and the "Gill Tract" ), and afield research stationseveral miles to the north inRichmond, California.

Bancroft Library

TheUC Botanical Garden,located in theBerkeley Hillsand by theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The campus is home to several museums including theUniversity of California Museum of Paleontology,theBerkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive,and theLawrence Hall of Science.The Museum of Paleontology, found in the lobby of the Valley Life Sciences Building, showcases a variety of dinosaur fossils including a complete cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The campus also offers resources for innovation and entrepreneurship, such as the Big Ideas Competition, the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and the Berkeley Haas Innovation Lab.The campus is also home to theUniversity of California Botanical Garden,with more than 12,000 individual species.

360-degree-view of the UC Berkeley campus

Architecture

South Hall(1873), one of the two original buildings of the University of California, still stands on the Berkeley campus.

What is considered the historic campus today was the result of the 1898 "International Competition for thePhoebe HearstArchitectural Plan for the University of California, "funded byWilliam Randolph Hearst's mother and initially held in the Belgian city ofAntwerp;eleven finalists were judged again in San Francisco in 1899.The winner was FrenchmanÉmile Bénard,who refused to personally supervise the implementation of his plan and the task was subsequently given to architecture professorJohn Galen Howard.Howard designed over twenty buildings, which set the tone for the campus up until its expansion in the 1950s and 1960s.

The structures forming the "classical core" of the campus were built in theBeaux-ArtsClassical style, and includeHearst Greek Theatre,Hearst Memorial Mining Building,Doe Memorial Library,California Hall,Wheeler Hall,Le Conte Hall, Gilman Hall, Haviland Hall, Wellman Hall,Sather Gate,and theSather Tower(nicknamed "the Campanile" after its architectural inspiration,St Mark's Campanilein Venice), the tallest university clock tower in the United States.Buildings he regarded as temporary and non-academic were designed in shingle orCollegiate Gothicstyles; examples of these are North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, and Stephens Hall. Many of Howard's designs are recognizedCalifornia Historical Landmarksand are listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.

Built in 1873 in aVictorianSecond-Empire-style,South Hall, designed by David Farquharson, is the oldest university building in California. It, and theFrederick Law Olmsted-designedPiedmont Avenueeast of the main campus, are two of the only surviving examples of the nineteenth-century campus. Other notable architects and firms whose work can be found in the campus and surrounding area areBernard Maybeck(Faculty Club);Julia Morgan(Hearst Women's Gymnasium andJulia Morgan Hall);William Wurster(Stern Hall); Moore Ruble Yudell (Haas School of Business);Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects(C.V. Starr East Asian Library), andDiller Scofidio + Renfro(Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive).

Natural features

The south fork ofStrawberry Creek,as seen between Dwinelle Hall andLower Sproul Plaza.

Flowing into the main campus are two branches ofStrawberry Creek.The south fork enters a culvert upstream of the recreational complex at the mouth of Strawberry Canyon and passes beneathCalifornia Memorial Stadiumbefore appearing again in Faculty Glade. It then runs through the center of the campus before disappearing underground at the west end of campus. The north fork appears just east ofUniversity Houseand runs through the glade north of the Valley Life Sciences Building, the original site of the Campus Arboretum.

Trees in the area date from the founding of the university. The campus features numerous wooded areas, including:Founders' Rock,Faculty Glade, Grinnell Natural Area, and theEucalyptusGrove, which is both the tallest stand of such trees in the world and the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America.The campus sits on theHayward Fault,which runs directly through California Memorial Stadium.

Student life and traditions

Fans atopTightwad Hillwatch theCal Band,with views of thestadiumand theSan Francisco Bay.

The official university mascot isOski the Bear,who debuted in 1941. Previously, live bear cubs were used as mascots at Memorial Stadium until it was decided in 1940 that a costumed mascot would be a better alternative. Named after theOski-wow-wowyell, he is cared for by the Oski Committee, whose members have exclusive knowledge of the identity of the costume-wearer.TheUniversity of California Marching Band,which has served the university since 1891, performs at every home football game and at select road games as well. A smaller subset of the Cal Band, the Straw Hat Band, performs at basketball games, volleyball games, and other campus and community events.

The UC Rally Committee, formed in 1901, is the official guardian of California's Spirit and Traditions. Wearing their traditional blue and gold rugbies, Rally Committee members can be seen at all major sporting and spirit events. Committee members are charged with the maintenance of the six Cal flags, the large California banner overhanging the Memorial Stadium Student Section andHaas Pavilion,the California Victory Cannon, Card Stunts andThe Big "C"among other duties. The Rally Committee is also responsible for safekeeping of theStanford Axewhen it is in Cal's possession.

Overlooking the main Berkeley campus from the foothills in the east, The Big "C" is an important symbol of California school spirit. The Big "C" has its roots in an early 20th-century campus event called "Rush," which pitted the freshman and sophomore classes against each other in a race up Charter Hill that often developed into a wrestling match. It was eventually decided to discontinue Rush and, in 1905, the freshman and sophomore classes banded together in a show of unity to build "the Big C."

Students invented the college football tradition ofcard stunts.Then known as Bleacher Stunts, they were first performed during the 1910Big Gameand consisted of two stunts: a picture of the Stanford Axe and a large blue "C" on a white background. The tradition is continued today by the Rally Committee in the Calstudent sectionand incorporates complicated motions, for example tracing the Cal script logo on a blue background with an imaginary yellow pen.

The California Victory Cannon, placed onTightwad Hilloverlooking the stadium, is fired before every football home game, after every score, and after every Cal victory. First used in the 1963 Big Game, it was originally placed on the sidelines before moving to Tightwad Hill in 1971. The only time the cannon ran out of ammunition was during a game againstPacificin 1991, when Cal scored 12 touchdowns.The Cal Mic Men, a standard at home football games, has recently expanded to involve basketball and volleyball. The traditional role comes from students holding megaphones and yelling, but now includes microphones, a dedicated platform during games, and the direction of the entire student section.

Student housing

Main article:Housing at the University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley students are offered a variety of housing options, including university-owned or affiliated residences, private residences, fraternities and sororities, and cooperative housing (co-ops). Berkeley students, and those of other local schools, have the option of living in one of the twenty cooperative houses participating in the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC), anonprofithousing cooperativenetwork consisting of 20 residences and 1250 member-owners.

Fraternities and sororities

About three percent of undergraduate men and nine percent of undergraduate women—or 3,400 of total undergraduates—are active in Berkeley's Greek system.University-sanctioned fraternities and sororities comprise over 60 houses affiliated with four Greek councils.

Student-run organizations

Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC)

Main article:Associated Students of the University of California

Wellness Room sleep pods: part of a program created by the ASUC, UC Berkeley's official student association.

TheAssociated Students of the University of California(ASUC) is the officialstudent associationthat controls funding for student groups and organizes on-campus student events. The two main political parties are "Student Action"and "CalSERVE."The organization was founded in 1887 and has an annual operating budget of $1.7 million (excluding the budget of the Graduate Assembly of the ASUC), in addition to various investment assets. Its alumni include multiple State Senators, Assemblymembers, and White House Administration officials.

Media and publications

Berkeley's student-run online television station,CalTV,was formed in 2005 and broadcasts online. It is run by students with a variety of backgrounds and majors. Since the mid-2010s, it has been a program of theASUC.Berkeley's independent student-run newspaper isThe Daily Californian.Founded in 1871,The Daily Calbecame independent in 1971 after the campus administration fired three senior editors for encouraging readers to take backPeople's Park.The Daily Californian has both a print and online edition. Berkeley's FMStudent radio station,KALX,broadcasts on 90.7 MHz. It is run largely by volunteers, including both students and community members. Berkeley also features an assortment of student-run publications:

• California Law Review,law journalpublished byBerkeley Law,est. 1912.
• Berkeley Poetry Review,nationalpoetry journal,est. 1974.
• Berkeley Fiction Review,Americanliterary magazine,est. 1981.
• Heuristic Squelch,satirical newspaper,est. 1991.
• California Patriot,conservativepolitical magazine, est. 2000.
• Berkeley Political Review,nonpartisanpolitical magazine, est. 2001.
• Caliber Magazine,an "everything magazine," featuring articles and blogs on a wide range of topics, est. 2008.
• B-Side,music magazine, est. 2013.
• Smart Ass,liberalmagazine, est. 2015.
• Berkeley Economic Review,economicsjournal, est. 2016.
• Business Berkeley,Haasundergraduate journal.

Student groups

"DeCal" redirects here. For other uses, seeDeCal (disambiguation).

Berkeley DanceMarathon

Zellerbach Hall, home of the Cal Performances theater group

There are ninety-four political student groups on campus, including MEChXA de UC Berkeley, BerkeleyACLU,Berkeley Students for Life, Campus Greens, The Sustainability Team (STEAM), theBerkeley Student Food Collective,Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Cal Berkeley Democrats, and the Berkeley College Republicans.The Residence Hall Assembly (RHA) is the student-led umbrella organization that oversees event planning, legislation, sponsorships and other activities for over 7,200 on-campus undergraduate residents.

Berkeley students also run a number of consulting groups, including the Berkeley Group, founded in 2003 and affiliated with the Haas School.Students from various concentrations are recruited and trained to work on pro-bono consulting engagements with actual nonprofit clients. Berkeley Consulting, founded in 1996, has served over 140 companies across the high-tech, retail, banking, and non-profit sectors.

ImagiCal has been the college chapter of theAmerican Advertising Federationat Berkeley since the late 1980s.The team competes annually in the National Student Advertising Competition, with students from disparate majors working together on a marketing case underwritten by a corporate sponsor. TheBerkeley Forumis a nonpartisan student organization that hosts panels, debates, and speeches across a variety of fields.Past speakers includeSenatorRand Paul,entrepreneur and venture capitalistPeter Thiel,andKhan AcademyfounderSalman Khan.

UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra

Democratic Education at Cal, or DeCal, is a program that promotes the creation of professor-sponsored, student-facilitated classes.DeCal arose out of the 1960sFree Speech movementand was officially established in 1981. The program offers around 150 courses on a vast range of subjects that appeal to the student community, including classes on theRubik's Cube,blockchain,web design,metamodernism,cooking,Jewish art,3D animation,andbioprinting.

The campus is home to severala cappellagroups, including Drawn to Scale, Artists in Resonance, Berkeley Dil Se, theUC Men's Octet,theCalifornia Golden Overtones,DeCadence, and Noteworthy. TheUniversity of California Men's Octetwas founded in 1948. Since 1967, students and staff jazz musicians have had an opportunity to perform and study with theUniversity of California Jazz Ensembles.For several decades it hosted the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, part of the American Collegiate Jazz Festival, a competitive forum for student musicians. PCCJF brought jazz artists includingHubert Laws,Sonny Rollins,Freddie Hubbard,andEd Shaughnessyto the Berkeley campus as performers. Berkeley also hosts other performing arts groups in comedy, dance, acting and instrumental music.

Engineering Student Teams

Given Berkeley'sSTEMeducation, there are a variety of student-run engineering teams that focus on winning design and engineering competitions. Berkeley has two prominentamateur rocketryteams: Space Enterprise at Berkeley (SEB)and Space Technologies and Rocketry (STAR).Both have launched solid-fuelsounding rocketsand are currently developingliquid propellant rockets.The university also has twoFormula SAEteams: Berkeley Formula Racingand Formula Electric Berkeley.Both of these teams participate in Formula SAE–run competitions, with the former focusing on internal combustion engines and the latter on electric motors. Berkeley has a number of other vehicle teams, including CalSol,CalSMV,and Human Powered Vehicle.

Athletics

Main article:California Golden Bears

The base of theCalifornia Memorial Stadium

The interior ofHaas Pavilionduring aCal Basketballgame.

The university's athletic teams are known as theCalifornia Golden Bears,often shortened to "Cal Bears" or just "Cal," and were historically members of theNCAA Division IPac-12 Conference(Pac-12). Cal is also a member of theMountain Pacific Sports Federationin several sports not sponsored by the Pac-12 and theAmerica East Conferencein women'sfield hockey.In 2024, Cal joined theAtlantic Coast Conference(ACC).The first school colors, established in 1873 by a committee of students, wereYale Blueand gold.Yale Blue was originally chosen because many of the university's inaugural faculty were Yale graduates, including Henry Durant, its first president. Blue and gold were specified and made the official colors of the university and the state colors of California in 1955.In 2014, the athletic department specified a darker blue.

TheCalifornia Golden Bearshave won national championships in baseball (2), men's basketball (2), men's crew (15), women's crew (3), football (5), men's golf (1), men's gymnastics (4), men's lacrosse (1), men's rugby (26), softball (1), men's swimming & diving (4), women's swimming & diving (3), men's tennis (1), men's track & field (1), and men's water polo (13). Students and alumni have also won207 Olympic medals.

California finished in first place in the 2007–08 Fall U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings (now theNACDA Directors' Cup), a competition measuring the best overall collegiate athletic programs in the country, with points awarded for national finishes in NCAA sports.It finished the 2007–08 competition in seventh place with 1119 points. Most recently, California finished in third place in the 2010–11 NACDA Directors' Cup with 1219.50 points, finishing behind Stanford and Ohio State. This is California's highest ever finish in the Director's Cup.The Golden Bears' traditional arch-rival is theStanford Cardinal,and the most anticipated sporting event between the two universities is the annual football match dubbed theBig Game,celebrated with spirit events on both campuses. Since 1933, the winner of the Big Game has been awarded custody ofthe Stanford Axe.Other sporting games between these rivals have related names such as the Big Splash (water polo) or the Big Kick (soccer).

Notable alumni, faculty, and staff

Faculty and staff

For a more comprehensive list, seeList of University of California, Berkeley faculty.

University of California Radiation Laboratory staff on the magnet yoke for the 60-inch cyclotron, 1938; Nobel prize-winnersErnest Lawrence,Edwin McMillan,andLuis Alvarezare shown, in addition toJ. Robert OppenheimerandRobert R. Wilson.

• Shiing-Shen Chern,a leading geometer of the 20th century, co-founded the renownedMathematical Sciences Research Instituteand served as its founding Director until 1984.
• PhysicistJ. Robert Oppenheimerwas scientific director of theManhattan Projectand was the founder of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics.
• Faculty memberEdward Tellerwas (together withStanislaw Ulam) the "father of thehydrogen bomb,"who laid important foundations for the establishment ofSpace Sciences Laboratoryat Berkeley.
• Ernest Lawrence,a Nobel laureate in physics who invented thecyclotronat Berkeley, and founded the Radiation Laboratory on campus, which later became theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• Gilbert N. Lewis,former Dean of the College of Chemistry, was nominated 41 times forNobel Prize in Chemistry.He mentored and influenced numerous Berkeley Nobel laureates, includingHarold Urey(1934 Nobel Prize),William F. Giauque(1949 Nobel Prize),Glenn T. Seaborg(1951 Nobel Prize),Willard Libby(1960 Nobel Prize), andMelvin Calvin(1961 Nobel Prize).
• Glenn T. Seaborg,a Nobel laureate in chemistry who discovered or co-discovered ten chemical elements at Berkeley and served as Chancellor from 1958 to 1961.
• Hans Albert Einstein,the first son ofAlbert Einsteinand a world's leading scholar inhydraulic engineering,was a long-time faculty member at Berkeley.
• Steven Chu(PhD 1976), the 12thUnited States Secretary of Energyand Nobel laureate in physics, was Director ofBerkeley Labfrom 2004 to 2009.
• Janet Yellen,78thUnited States Secretary of Treasuryand the 15thChair of the Federal Reserve,is a professor emeritus at BerkeleyHaas School of Businessand the Department of Economics.

Alumni

For a more comprehensive list, seeList of University of California, Berkeley alumni.

Alumni have included 260American Academy of Arts and SciencesFellows,34Pulitzer Prizewinners, 25living billionaire alumni,22cabinetmembers, 68 recipients of theNational Medal of Science,190 recipients of theMacArthur Fellowship,144 members of theNational Academy of Sciences,139Guggenheim Fellows,and 125Sloan Fellows,and 75 members of theNational Academy of Engineering.

• 
  Earl Warren,BA 1912, LLB 1914, 14thChief Justice of the United States,30thGovernor of California
• 
  Steven Chu,PhD 1976,Nobellaureate, 12thUnited States Secretary of Energy
• 
  Jennifer Granholm,BA 1984, 16thUnited States Secretary of Energy,47thGovernor of Michigan
• 
  Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,BA 1950,4thPresident of Pakistan,9thPrime Minister of Pakistan
• 
  Robert Reich,Professor of Public Policy, 22ndUnited States Secretary of Labor
• 
  Christina Romer,Professor of Economics, 25thChairperson of the President's Council of Economic Advisers
• 
  Steve Wozniak,BS 1986, cofounder ofApple Inc.
• 
  Gordon Moore,BS 1950, cofounder ofsemiconductorcompanyIntel
• 
  Eric Schmidt,MS 1979, PhD 1982, Executive Chairman ofAlphabet
• 
  Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr.,BA 1961, 34th & 39thGovernor of California
• 
  Blake R. Van Leer,MS 1920, inventor, civil rights advocate, president ofGeorgia Tech
• 
  Gregory Peck,BA 1939,Academy Award–winning actor
• 
  Natalie Coughlin,BA 2005, multiple gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer
• 
  Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez,BA 1878,President of Colombia1922–1926
• 
  Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway,heir apparentto thethrone of Norway,BA 1999
• 
  Robert McNamara,BA 1937, 5th President ofWorld Bank,8thUnited States Secretary of Defense,President ofFord Motor Company
• 
  Ed Meese,LL.B. 1958, 75thUnited States Attorney General
• 
  Daniel Kahneman,PhD 1961, awarded the 2002Nobel Memorial Prize in Economicsfor his work inProspect theory
• 
  Harold Urey,PhD 1923,Nobellaureate and discoverer ofdeuterium

Government

Berkeley alumni have served in a range of prominent government offices, both domestic and foreign, includingChief Justice of the United States Supreme Court(Earl Warren,BA, JD);United States Attorney General(Edwin MeeseIII, JD);United States Secretary of State(Dean Rusk,LLB);United States Secretary of the Treasury(W. Michael Blumenthal,BA, andG. William Miller,JD);United States Secretary of Defense(Robert McNamara,BS);United States Secretary of the Interior(Franklin Knight Lane,1887);United States Secretary of TransportationandUnited States Secretary of Commerce(Norman Mineta,BS);United States Secretary of Agriculture(Ann Veneman,MPP);National Security Advisor(Robert C. O'Brien,JD); scores of federal judges and members of theUnited States Congress(10 currently serving) andUnited States Foreign Service;governors of California (George C. Pardee;Hiram W. Johnson;Earl Warren,BA and LLB;Jerry Brown,BA; andPete Wilson,JD), Michigan (Jennifer Granholm,BA), and the United States Virgin Islands (Walter A. Gordon,BA); Lieutenant General of the United States Army (Jimmy Doolittle,BA); Major General of the United States Marine Corps (Oliver Prince Smith); Brigadier General of the United States Marine Corps (Bertram A. Bone,BS);Director of the Central Intelligence Agencyand Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (John A. McCone,BS); chair and members of theCouncil of Economic Advisers(Michael Boskin,BA, PhD.; Sandra Black, BA; Jesse Rothstein, PhD; Robert Seamans, PhD; Jay Shambaugh, PhD; James Stock, MA, PhD); Governor of the Federal Reserve System (H. Robert Heller,PhD) and President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (William C. Dudley,PhD); Commissioners of theSEC(Troy A. Paredes,BA) and theFCC(Rachelle Chong, BA); andUnited States Surgeon General(Kenneth P. Moritsugu,MPH).

Foreign alumni include thePresident of Colombia1922–1926, (Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez,BA); thePresident of Mexico(Francisco I. Madero,attended 1892–93); the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan; the Premier of the Republic of China (Sun Fo,BA); the President of Costa Rica (Miguel Angel Rodriguez, MA, PhD); and members of parliament of the United Kingdom (House of Lords,Lydia Dunn, Baroness Dunn,BS), India (Rajya Sabha,the upper house,Prithviraj Chavan,MS); Iran (Mohammad Javad Larijani,PhD); Nigerian Minister of Science and Technology and first Executive Governor of Abia State (Ogbonnaya Onu,PhD); Barbados' Ambassador to Brazil (Tonika Sealy-Thompson,PhD). Alumni have also served in many supranational posts, notable among which are President of theWorld Bank(Robert McNamara,BS); Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and managing director of theInternational Monetary Fund(Rodrigo Rato,MBA); executive director ofUNICEF(Ann Veneman,MPP); member of theEuropean Parliament(Bruno Megret,MS); and judge of theWorld Court(Joan Donoghue,JD).

Science

Nobel laureateWilliam F. Giauque(BS 1920, PhD 1922) investigatedchemical thermodynamics,Nobel laureateWillard Libby(BS 1931, PhD 1933) pioneeredradiocarbon dating,Nobel laureateWillis Lamb(BS 1934, PhD 1938) examined thehydrogenspectrum,Nobel laureateHamilton O. Smith(BA 1952) appliedrestriction enzymestomolecular genetics,Nobel laureateRobert Laughlin(BA 1972) explored thefractional quantum Hall effect,and Nobel laureateAndrew Fire(BA 1978) helped to discoverRNA interference-gene silencingby double-strandedRNA.Nobel laureateGlenn T. Seaborg(PhD 1937) collaborated withAlbert Ghiorso(BS 1913) to discover twelve chemical elements, such asamericium,berkelium,andcalifornium.David Bohm(PhD 1943) discoveredBohm diffusion.Nobel laureateYuan T. Lee(PhD 1965) developed thecrossed molecular beamtechnique for studying chemical reactions.Carol Greider(PhD 1987) was awarded the 2009Nobel Prize in medicinefor discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells.Harvey Itano(BS 1942) conducted breakthrough work onsickle cell anemiathat marked the first time a disease was linked to a molecular origin.

Narendra Karmarkar(PhD 1983) is known for the interior point method, a polynomial algorithm for linear programming known asKarmarkar's algorithm.National Medal of SciencelaureateChien-Shiung Wu(PhD 1940), often known as the "Chinese Madame Curie," disproved the Law of Conservation ofParityfor which she was awarded the inauguralWolf Prize in Physics.Kary Mullis(PhD 1973) was awarded the 1993Nobel Prize in Chemistryfor his role in developing thepolymerase chain reaction,a method for amplifyingDNAsequences.Olga Hartman(MA 1933, PhD 1936) was a zoologist who described hundreds of species ofpolychaete worms.Edward P. Tryon(PhD 1967) is the physicist who first said our universe originated from a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum.John N. Bahcall(BS 1956) worked on theStandard Solar Modeland theHubble Space Telescope,resulting in aNational Medal of Science.Peter Smith(BS 1969) was theprincipal investigatorand project leader for theNASArobotic explorerPhoenix,which physically confirmed the presence of water on the planetMarsfor the first time.AstronautsJames van Hoften(BS 1966),Margaret Rhea Seddon(BA 1970),Leroy Chiao(BS 1983), andRex Walheim(BS 1984) have orbited the Earth in NASA's fleet ofSpace Shuttles.

Computers

Berkeley alumni have developed a number of key technologies associated with thepersonal computerand the Internet.Unixwas created by alumnusKen Thompson(BS 1965, MS 1966) along with colleagueDennis Ritchie.Alumni such asL. Peter Deutsch(PhD 1973),Butler Lampson(PhD 1967), andCharles P. Thacker(BS 1967)worked with Ken Thompson onProject Genieand then formed the ill-fatedUS Department of Defense-funded Berkeley Computer Corporation (BCC), which was scattered throughout the Berkeley campus in non-descript offices to avoid anti-war protestors.After BCC failed, Deutsch, Lampson, and Thacker joinedXerox PARC,where they developed a number of pioneering computer technologies, culminating in theXerox Altothat inspired theApple Macintosh.In particular, the Alto used acomputer mouse,which had been invented byDoug Engelbart(BEng 1952, PhD 1955). Thompson, Lampson, Engelbart, and Thackerall later received a Turing Award. Also at Xerox PARC was Ronald Schmidt (BS 1966, MS 1968, PhD 1971), who became known as "the man who broughtEthernetto the masses. "

Another Xerox PARC researcher,Charles Simonyi(BS 1972), pioneered the firstWYSIWIGword processorprogram and was recruited personally byBill Gatesto join the fledgling company known asMicrosoftto createMicrosoft Word.Simonyi later became the first repeatspace tourist,blasting off on RussianSoyuzrockets to work at theInternational Space Stationorbiting the Earth. In 1977, a graduate student in the computer science department named Bill Joy (MS 1982) assembledthe originalBerkeley Software Distribution,commonly known asBSD Unix.Joy, who went on to co-found Sun Microsystems, also developed the original version of theterminalconsole editorvi,whileKen Arnold(BA 1985) createdCurses,a terminal controllibraryforUnix-likesystems that enables the construction oftext user interface (TUI)applications. Working alongside Joy at Berkeley were undergraduatesWilliam Jolitz(BS 1997) and his future wifeLynne Jolitz(BA 1989), who together created386BSD,a version of BSD Unix that runs on Intel CPUs and evolved into theBSD family of free operating systemsand theDarwin operating systemunderlyingAppleMac OS X.Eric Allman(BS 1977, MS 1980) createdSendMail,a Unixmail transfer agentthat delivers about twelve percent of theemailin the world.

TheXCF,an undergraduate research group located inSoda Hall,has been responsible for a number of notable software projects, includingGTK+(Peter Mattis,BS 1997),The GIMP(Spencer Kimball,BS 1996), and the initial diagnosis of theMorris worm.In 1992,Pei-Yuan Wei(BS 1990)an undergraduate at the XCF, createdViolaWWW,one of the first graphical web browsers. ViolaWWW was the first browser to have embedded scriptable objects, stylesheets, and tables. He donated the code to Sun Microsystems, inspiringJavaapplets. ViolaWWW also inspired researchers at theNational Center for Supercomputing Applicationsto create theMosaic web browser,a pioneeringweb browserthat became MicrosoftInternet Explorer.

Billionaires

Billionaire alumniincludeGordon Moore(Intel founder),James Harris Simons(Renaissance Technologies),Masayoshi Son(SoftBank),Jon Stryker (Stryker Medical Equipment),Eric Schmidt(former Google Chairman) andWendy Schmidt,Michael Milken,Bassam Alghanim, Kutayba Alghanim,Charles Simonyi(Microsoft),Cher Wang(HTC),Robert Haas(Levi Strauss & Co.),Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor(Interbank, Peru),Fayez Sarofim,Daniel S. Loeb,Paul Merage,David Hindawi,Orion Hindawi,Bill Joy(Sun Microsystems founder),Victor Koo,Tony Xu(DoorDash),Lowell Milken,Nathaniel Simonsand Laura Baxter-Simons, Liong Tek Kwee and Liong Seen Kwee,Elizabeth Simons and Mark Heising,Oleg Tinkov,andAlice Schwartz.

Pulitzer Prize winners

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalistMarguerite Higgins(BA 1941) was a pioneering female war correspondentwho covered World War II, theKorean War,and theVietnam War.NovelistRobert Penn Warren(MA 1927) won three Pulitzer Prizes,including one for his novelAll the King's Men,which was later made into an Academy Award-winningmovie.Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonistRube Goldberg(BS 1904) invented the comically complex—yet ultimately trivial—contraptions known asRube Goldberg machines.Journalist Alexandra Berzon (MA 2006) won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009,and journalistMatt Richtel(BA 1989), who also coauthors the comic stripRudy Parkunder the pen name of "Theron Heir,"won the 2010Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.Pulitzer Prize–winning historianLeon Litwack(BA1951, PhD 1958) taught as a professor at UC Berkeley for 43 years;three otherUC Berkeley professors have also received the Pulitzer Prize. Alumna and professorSusan Rasky(BA 1974) won thePolk Awardfor journalism in 1991. USC Professor and Berkeley alumnusViet Thanh Nguyen's (PhD 1997) first novelThe Sympathizerwon the 2016Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Fiction and screenwriters

Irving Stone(BA 1923) wrote the novelLust for Life,which was later made into an Academy Award-winningfilm of the same namestarringKirk DouglasasVincent van Gogh.Stone also wroteThe Agony and the Ecstasy,which was later made into afilm of the same namestarring Oscar winnerCharlton HestonasMichelangelo.Mona Simpson(BA 1979) wrote the novelAnywhere But Here,which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-winning actressSusan Sarandon.Terry McMillan(BA 1986) wroteHow Stella Got Her Groove Back,which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-nominated actressAngela Bassett.Randi Mayem Singer(BA 1979) wrote the screenplay forMrs. Doubtfire,which starred Oscar-winning actorRobin Williamsand Oscar-winning actressSally Field.Audrey Wells(BA 1981) wrote the screenplayThe Truth About Cats & Dogs,which starred Oscar-nominated actressUma Thurman.James Schamus(BA 1982, MA 1987, PhD 2003) has collaborated on screenplays with Oscar-winning directorAng Leeon the Academy Award-winning moviesCrouching Tiger, Hidden DragonandBrokeback Mountain.

Academy and Emmy Award winners

Berkeley alumni have won 20Academy Awardsand 25Emmy Awards.Gregory Peck(BA 1939), nominated for four Oscars during his career, won an Oscar for acting inTo Kill a Mockingbird.Chris Innis(BA 1991) won the 2010 Oscar for film editing for her work on best picture winner,The Hurt Locker.Walter Plunkett(BA 1923) won an Oscar for costume design (forAn American in Paris).Freida Lee Mock(BA 1961) andCharles H. Ferguson(BA 1978) have eachwon an Oscar for documentary filmmaking. Mark Berger (BA 1964) has won four Oscars for sound mixing and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley.Edith Head(BA 1918), who was nominated for 34 Oscars during her career, won eight Oscars for costume design.Joe Letteri(BA 1981) has won four Oscars for Best Visual Effects in theJames CameronfilmAvatarand thePeter JacksonfilmsKing Kong,The Two Towers,andThe Return of the King.Emmy Awardwinners include Jon Else (BA 1968) for cinematography;Andrew Schneider(BA 1973) for screenwriting; Linda Schacht (BA 1966, MA 1981), two for broadcast journalism;Christine Chen (dual-BA's 1990), two for broadcast journalism;Kathy Baker(BA 1977), three for acting; Ken Milnes (BS 1977), four for broadcasting technology; andLeroy Sievers(BA 1977),twelve for production.Elisabeth Leamy(BA 1989) is the recipient of thirteenEmmy awards.

Music and entertainment

Former undergraduates have participated in the contemporary music industry, such asGrateful Deadbass guitaristPhil Lesh,the PolicedrummerStewart Copeland,Rolling Stone MagazinefounderJann Wenner,the Bangleslead singerSusanna Hoffs(BA 1980),Counting Crowslead singerAdam Duritz,electronic music producerGiraffage,MTVcorrespondentSuchin Pak(BA 1997),AFImusiciansDavey HavokandJade Puget(BA 1996), and solo artistMarié Digby( "Say It Again").People MagazineincludedThird Eye Blindlead singer and songwriterStephan Jenkins(BA 1987) in the magazine's list of50 Most Beautiful People.Alumni have also acted in classic television series such asKaren Grassle(BA 1965) who playedCaroline IngallsinLittle House on the Prairie,Jerry Mathers(BA 1974) who starred inLeave it to Beaver,andRoxann Dawson(BA 1980) who portrayedB'Elanna TorresonStar Trek: Voyager.

Sports

Sport alumni include tennis athleteHelen Wills Moody(BA 1925) won 31Grand Slamtitles, including eight singles titles atWimbledon.Tarik Glenn(BA 1999) is aSuper Bowl XLIchampion.Michele Tafoya(BA 1988) is a sports television reporter forABC SportsandESPN.Sports agentLeigh Steinberg(BA 1970, JD 1973) has represented professional athletes such asSteve Young,Troy Aikman,andOscar De La Hoya;Steinberg has been called the real-life inspirationfor the title character in the Oscar-winningfilmJerry Maguire(portrayed byTom Cruise).Matt Biondi(BA 1988) won eight Olympic gold medals during his swimming career, in which he participated in three different Olympics. At theBeijing Olympicsin 2008,Natalie Coughlin(BA 2005) became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics.

See also

• Blockeley
• Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
• Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute
• World Community Grid

Further reading

• Rorabaugh, W. J. (1990).Berkeley at War: The 1960s.Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-506667-7.
• Brechin, Gray(1999).Imperial San Francisco.UC Press Ltd.ISBN0-520-21568-0.
• Cerny, Susan Dinkelspiel (2001).Berkeley Landmarks: An Illustrated Guide to Berkeley, California's Architectural Heritage.Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.ISBN0-9706676-0-4.
• Helfand, Harvey (2001).University of California, Berkeley.Princeton Architectural Press.ISBN1-56898-293-3.
• Wong, Geoffrey (May 2001).A Golden State of Mind.Trafford Publishing.ISBN1-55212-635-8.
• Freeman, Jo (2003).At Berkeley in the Sixties: The Education of an Activist, 1961–1965.Indiana University Press.ISBN0-253-21622-2.
• Wiseman, Frederick(Director) (2013).At Berkeley(Motion picture). Zipporah Films.

External links

• Official website
• California Bears Athletics website
• "California, University of".Collier's New Encyclopedia.1921.
• "University of California".The New Student's Reference Work.1914.
• University of California, BerkeleyatCurlie