By Date
Equipad wins Collider Cup Alumni Expo Award
Rosalie Fanshel recognized with leadership in graduate diversity award

Fanshel, a 2025 ESPM PhD graduate, received the Graduate Division's Cynthia Ladd-Viti Award for integrating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within their teaching, mentoring, advising, and research.
Professor Patrick Shih honored by the American Society of Plant Biologists

Shih, an assistant professor in PMB, is the Society’s 2025 recipient of the Charles Albert Shull Award.
(Not) The End of Chocolate

PMB professor emerit Brian Staskawicz and IGI researchers are working to safeguard the planet’s supply of cacao from disease.
The Spring 2025 Transcript newsletter is here!
Learn about MCB's exciting research, master of biotech cohort, new faculty, youth STEM conference, alumni and more!
Berman wins Strauss Scholarship
Irrigation boosts groundwater resilience in northern Italy

Despite a decline in the groundwater stores of northern Italy’s Po Plain, a new study led by ESPM researchers found that irrigation practices make aquifers more resilient to drought.
Four seniors named 2025 Babcock Prize recipients

Endowed as a tribute to longtime soil chemistry professor Kenneth Babcock, the prize recognizes high-achieving ESPM undergraduates.
Monica Kapil named SJSU Mechanical Engineering Alumna of the Year
Outstanding faculty awards
Congratulations to our faculty who received the departmental 2025 MCB Outstanding Faculty Awards!
Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology Gloria Brar – Outstanding Contribution to Teaching
Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology Meng-meng Fu – Outstanding Contribution to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Professor of Molecular Therapeutics Michael Rapé – Outstanding Contribution to Service
Student Spotlight: Nikita Bahadur

The graduating molecular environmental biology major spoke to Rausser College about her time at UC Berkeley and plans for the future.
How to Decipher a Forest

ESPM professor emerit Nancy Peluso has spent her career analyzing entanglements between human and natural worlds.
Flamingo Biomechanics Behind Prey-Catching Tornadoes

IB Assistant Professor Victor Ortega Jiménez and a team of researchers have documented how flamingos use their feet, heads and beaks to create a storm of swirling tornados in the water to efficiently trap and then eat their prey. Read more in the Berkeley News article here.
Trump is laying the groundwork to privatize America’s national parks, write Jon Jarvis and Gary Machlis

Former Director of the UC Berkeley Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity Jon Jarvis co-authored an Op-Ed published in The Guardian May 12th.
Empowering Global Scholars

Donor-funded fellowships are supporting global scholars and solutions.
ERG alum Malini Ranganathan wins Anthony Leeds Book Prize

Ranganathan, PhD '15 Energy and Resources, was recognized by the Critical Urban Anthropology Association for the innovative methodological and theoretical contributions to urban anthropology of her latest book, Corruption Plots.
LA’s communities of color bear a disproportionate burden of air pollution

A recent study led by ESPM researchers found that disadvantaged communities in Los Angeles experience significantly higher concentrations and emissions of hazardous air pollutants than non-disadvantaged communities.
A World of Climate Data

Rausser College researchers are helping lead a collaborative network of scientists measuring the breathing of the biosphere around the globe.