It is with great sadness that we report the death of Teaching Professor Emeritus Thomas J. Carlson, who passed away on 9 April 2025. Tom was a highly respected scientist and teacher who was beloved for his creative intellect, his kindness, and his humanity. Professionally, Tom’s career centered on two themes – botany and medicine. He held a Masters’ Degree in botany from the University of Michigan and was a Curator Emeritus in Berkeley’s University and Jepson Herbaria.

Congratulations to our new NSF Graduate Research Fellows! Among the winners are current PhD students Ashley Qin; incoming PhD students Erin Ahern, Daniel Antov, Marvin Collins, Lauren Iskander, Zachary Lee, Steven Robles Blasini; graduating undergraduates Monica Mendoza and Safaa Mouline; and undergraduate alumni Jacob Bryan, Emily Huynh, and Elaine Tong. Well done!

Our PhD program in bioengineering has been ranked #4 in the United States by the latest US News & World Report graduate schools ranking! Berkeley tied with Duke and Stanford for the #4 spot. 

Berkeley startup AsparaGlue, founded on science by Professor Phil Messersmith and postdoc Subhajit Pal, won an East Bay Innovation Award for their bioinspired surgical superglue.

Professor Aaron Streets has been named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Streets was selected for “developing innovative technology to elucidate genome regulation with single-cell and molecule resolution, and for impactful leadership to diversify bioengineering.College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering and…

Bioengineering Chair Phillip Messersmith has been named to the 2024 class of fellows elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals. Messersmith was recognized for “distinguished contributions to the understanding of wet biological adhesion, and for…

Congratulations to José Pablo Vázquez-Medina for being co-awarded the 2025 David Blackwell Award. The Blackwell Award is given annually to a recently tenured professor in the College of Letters & Science who embodies the values and aspirations of the College in scholarship, teaching and mentorship, and service, and who serves as an inspiration to others in the campus community.

Professor of Integrative Biology, Robert Full and colleagues, published two complementary papers today revealing how squirrel agility inspired a robot to make a stable branch to branch landing.

Read more about squirrel and robot agility via this UC Berkeley News link here

Congratulations to Assistant Teaching Professor Michal Shuldman, who has been named a recipient of the 2025 Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of GSIs!

Check out this video highlight of Professor Aaron Streets’ research, by the Pew Charitable Trust.

Professor of Integrative Biology, Noah Whiteman, was awarded the 2025 Genetics Society of America Medal. This award acknowledges Whiteman's outstanding contributions to the field of genetics. Read more about the Genetics Society of America Award recipients and Whiteman's research here. 

Co-founded by BioE alumnus Karsten Temme, Pivot is bringing cleaner nitrogen to American farmland.

Research led by Professor Patrick Hsu has produced Evo 2, the largest AI model in biology to date, which can accurately predict the effects of all types of genetic mutations.

Congratulations to David Schaffer, Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering and Molecular & Cell Biology, on his election to the National Academy of Engineering!

BioE postdoc Trinh Lam's animated video explains how Herr Lab's BlotSeq single-cell tool uses sequencing data to guide protein selection without the need to predefine targets, making the process more flexible.

A team of Master of Translational Medicine students partnered with NASA to find the perfect applications for their microfabrication technology.

Postdoctoral fellow César Nufio and his colleagues (IB Professor Caroline Williams, Dr. Lauren Buckley, and Dr. Monica Sheffer) have shared a new study of Colorado grasshoppers that shows grasshoppers that overwinter as juveniles have a head start on those that emerge in the spring. Read more via this UC Berkeley News link here: https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/01/31/life-cycles-of-some-insects-adapt-well-to-a-changing-climate-others-not-so-much/.
 

Michael Yartsev will receive the 2025 Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences to recognize his extraordinary scientific achievement in understanding the neural basis of natural behaviors.

It is with sadness that we report the passing of Professor Emerita Thelma E. Rowell during December 2024. Dr. Rowell joined the Berkeley faculty in 1974 as a member of the Department of Zoology and, later, the Department of Integrative Biology.

Michael Yartsev will receive the 2025 Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences to recognize his extraordinary scientific achievement in advancing our understanding of the neural basis of natural behaviors.