Professor Lisa Pruitt is one of two 2022 recipients of the Brown Engineering Alumni Medal, recognizing exceptional records of accomplishment by Brown alumni in their engineering careers. Pruitt received her Ph.D. from Brown and joined the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley in 1993, later becoming a joint professor in the Department of Bioengineering.
BioE News
2022 Commencement
Congratulations to all of our graduates! In addition to our many talented grads, we’re proud that both the keynote and student speakers at the 2022 UC Berkeley doctoral commencement ceremony were bioengineers! Sally Winkler, now a research scientist at AbbVie, gave the student address, and Ann Lee-Karlon, BS alumna and COO of Altos Labs, delivered […]
Researchers resolve riddle of mammalian brain’s navigation system
In a study published in Nature, a team of researchers in the lab of Professor Michael Yartsev studied neural activity in the hippocampus of freely flying bats and found that the neural codes remained unchanged over days and weeks. The discovery that these GPS-like neural codes remain stable over time has upended previous research and may further our understanding of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Rempel leads study on electric vehicle charging stations
A study led by Professor Emeritus David Rempel and the environmental non-profit group Cool the Earth tested the functionality of 657 EVSE (electric vehicle service equipment) connectors at all 181 open public, non-Tesla charging stations in the Bay area. The study found that 27% were nonfunctional, a concerning issue for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
Local news features BioE High School Competition
The annual BioEngineering High School Competition, conceived and managed entirely by undergraduates in the Berkeley BioEngineering Honor Society, was featured in the local The Press newspaper, along with the winning high school team.
Berkeley’s Bakar BioEnginuity Hub opens its doors
UC Berkeley this week celebrated the grand opening of the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub (BBH), the campus’s bold new home for research and innovation. BBH owes much of its success to founding Director Amy Herr and current Director David Schaffer, both BioE Professors. Nearly 20 startups have already moved into the space, several led by bioengineering alumni.
Berkeley commencement features two BioE speakers
Both the keynote and student speakers at the 2022 UC Berkeley doctoral commencement ceremony are bioengineers! Recent PhD alumna Sally Winkler, now a research scientist at AbbVie, will give the student address, and Ann Lee-Karlon, BS alumna and COO of Altos Labs, will deliver the keynote. The ceremony on May 18 will be webcast live.
Solar beats nuclear at many potential settlement sites on Mars
Research by BioE PhD student Aaron Berliner and Prof Adam Arkin shows that photovoltaics could provide all the power needed for an extended mission to Mars, or even a permanent settlement there. The authors are members of the Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES), led by Adam Arkin.
Congratulations new NSF Fellows!
Congratulations to FIFTEEN new NSF Graduate Research Fellows! Among the winners are: current PhD students: Deniz Akpinaroglu, Joana Cabrera, Joy Chen, Benjamin Lesch, Alvince Pongos, Caleb Rux, Gabriel Sturm, and Jazmin Velazquez; incoming PhD students Maple Chen, Russell Ro and Esther Sim; graduating undergrads Joyce Chen and Carolina Rios-Martinez;