January 2019 – July 2022
This past May, Brooke Russell became the first Black woman to earn her doctorate in physics at Yale University. Now at Berkeley Lab, she studies neutrino oscillations at DUNE. Russell shares her journey in a recent article for Physics Today. https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.4.20201026c/full/
This year’s record heat has Phoenix city officials teaming with researchers at Arizona State University to test cool pavements. In an Associated Press article, ETA’s Ronnen Levinson comments on how reflective and evaporative pavements can help mitigate the heat island effect. https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-technology-arizona-bdd2b997ebdf976c22090eaf5b32bcb7
The pandemic has refocused attention on poor classroom ventilation, a chronic problem that affects student performance, according to a Wired article that cites the Lab’s indoor air quality work and quotes ETA’s Rengie Chan. https://www.wired.com/story/school-classroom-ventilation-fresh-air-fix/
In a recent New York Times story — on a new climate sensitivity study that narrows the range of temperature increases due to greenhouse gases — Bill Collins (EESA) referenced mountain climbing to describe this research: “This is an extremely important base camp. We are not at the pinnacle yet.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/climate/global-warming-temperature-range.html
The UC Board of Regents on Tuesday announced the appointment of Michael V. Drake, M.D. as the 21st president of the UC system. He most recently served as president of The Ohio State University and prior to that as chancellor of UC Irvine and as UC’s systemwide vice president for health affairs. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/michael-v-drake-become-21st-president-university-california
In the race for the most powerful computers, Fugaku, a Japanese supercomputer, recently beat American and Chinese machines. But its dominance may not last long, says Berkeley Lab Deputy Director Horst Simon. New machines from Oak Ridge National Lab and China are in the pipeline. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/technology/japanese-supercomputer-fugaku-tops-american-chinese-machines.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
Rachel Wood-Robinson (ETA) sees the COVID-19 shutdown as an opportunity for scientists to reexamine and strengthen their core values on a personal, interpersonal, and societal level. In a recent ACS article, she suggests an experimental approach to help researchers chart a productive path forward. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02027
COVID-19 literature has grown exponentially, which makes conducting research on the disease more challenging. The Lab’s COVIDScholar AI tool offers a simple search box for combing through these documents. In a recent Nature article, one scientist said it was the best tool he’s ever used. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01733-7
Paul Dabbar, DOE Under Secretary for Science, had nice things to say about Berkeley Lab in his blog post, “U.S. Department of Exploration.” He cites the groundbreaking work of Luis Alvarez, Saul Perlmutter, and the ongoing work by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) team. https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-department-energy-or-department-exploration
Jim Bristow of the Lab’s Biosciences Area brought community coronavirus testing to his island home after his wife came down with symptoms of COVID-19, and there was a shortage of tests. Read about how he and the community came up with a plan that is now serving as a model for other communities. https://biosciences.lbl.gov/2020/05/21/bristow-helps-bring-test-and-trace-to-rural-communities/