Cal Alumni Association

This student is reclaiming his Pomo culture, one recording at a time

UC Berkeley graduate student Tyler Lee-Wynant grew up hearing stories about his great-great aunt, Edna Campbell Guerrero. Born in 1907 in Mendocino County, she was a native speaker of Northern Pomo, ...
Berkeley News

A UC Berkeley undergraduate’s research leads to an astronomical first

A new study by a first-year student may solve a puzzle regarding isolated galaxies that have stopped producing stars.
Cal Alumni Association

2026 University Medal finalists: Eyes on the stars, feet on the ground

Each of the four 2026 University Medal finalists has studied in the fields of science, and each has achieved remarkable academic accomplishments. But among them, a striking pattern is clear: In ...
Cal Alumni Association

This professor uses data to reveal hidden patterns in centuries of human storytelling

David Bamman studies culture at a scale few humans ever could. An associate professor in the UC Berkeley School of Information, Bamman uses computational methods to analyze books, films and music, ...
Cal Alumni Association

UC Berkeley is the No. 1 public and No. 9 overall in Forbes rankings of undergraduate colleges

Forbes has once again ranked UC Berkeley No. 1 among public universities in its list of America’s Top Colleges, continuing several years of No. 1 placements in the publication’s annual list. Berkeley ...
Cal Alumni Association

Scientists split gentoo penguins into four species, one totally new to science. Three of them are already threatened.

The four-foot-tall Emperor penguin of Antarctica may be the most iconic member of this unique family of birds, but 17 other species of penguins populate the Southern Hemisphere, many of them confined ...
Cal Alumni Association

With new digital tools, UC Berkeley researchers are helping Joshua trees survive wildfires

When UC Berkeley postdoctoral researchers Maya Zomer and Lucia Layritz first drove through burned portions of Mojave National Preserve in Southern California, the sight stunned them. “It looks like a ...
Cal Alumni Association

High cost of living suppresses California population growth, UC Berkeley study finds

The pandemic-era exodus of Californians to other states has eased, but the sometimes shocking cost of living continues to press thousands of residents to leave for less expensive locations, according ...
Cal Alumni Association

One-of-a-kind experiment tracked plant evolution in response to climate change at 30 sites worldwide

For decades, ever since biologists recognized the potential environmental harms from climate change, they have worried that plants will not be able to evolve fast enough to adapt to a rapidly warming ...
Cal Alumni Association

Chimps plunder less pineapple from friends — and expect them to do the same

In recent years, scientists have shown that chimpanzees favor certain peers by picking whom they prefer to groom and selectively sharing food. The behavior offers a glimpse into humanity’s prosocial ...
Cal Alumni Association

A new timeline for Neanderthal interbreeding with modern humans

Illustration of an encounter between a group of Neanderthals and a group of modern humans with offspring (red, bottom row) showing recent Neanderthal ancestry, imagined as a cave art painting. DNA ...
Cal Alumni Association

For a Berkeley ROTC cadet, the road less traveled rises toward service and leadership

Like many students still in their teens, Isshin Shiraishi arrived at UC Berkeley in 2023 with no clear plan for his education or life after graduation. Certainly, though, he had no intention to choose ...