Below is a list of our Miller members who have recently received awards or who have been highlighted in the media. Also, the Miller Newsletters is another way to find out what is currently happening in our Miller Community.
- Randy Schekman (Miller Senior Fellow 2008-2013)
has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in revealing the machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of proteins in our cells... Discoveries by Schekman about how yeast secrete proteins led directly to the success of the biotechnology industry, which was able to coax yeast to release useful protein drugs... Schekman is UC Berkeley's 22nd Nobel Laureate, and the first to receive the prize in the area of physiology or medicine... Read More 1 | Read More 2 - Adrian Bejan (Miller Fellow 1976-1978)
was selected to become a member of the Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe. Read More - Linyou Cao (Miller Fellow 2010-2013)
is the recipient of ARO YIP Award: The Young Investigator from the Army Research Office. The award of $150,000 over three years will be used to support Cao's research work on the electron-phonon coupling in two-dimensional materials. The results from Cao's research has the potential to lead to next generation lasers, light emission diodes, and photo detectors that are important for defense needs. Read More - Roland Burgmann (Miller Professor Spring 2014)
was honored as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This honor is bestowed upon members of the union who have made exceptional scientific contributions and attained acknowledged eminence in the fields of Earth and space science. Read More - Robert Bergman (Miller Professor 1982-1983, Fall 1993, Spring 2000)
will be honored at the 2014 Reactions Mechanism Conference for his "achievements and contributions to organic chemistry". Read More - Geoff Marcy (Miller Professor 2011-2012)
is highlighted at the UC Berkeley News Center in an article titled, "Astronomers answer key question: How common are habitable planets?" They will publish their analysis and findings in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read More - Edward Frenkel (Miller Professor Spring 2013)
Edward Frenkel's new book aims to show the beauty of mathematics, inspire awe at its power, and challenge his colleagues to wield it for good. His new book is Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality. Read More - Terence Speed (Miller Professor Spring 2005)
has been awarded the Australian 2013 Prime Minister's Prize for Science for fighting cancer with statistics. Read More - Nicholas Jewell (Miller Professor Fall 1994 & Fall 2004)
has been awarded the Berkeley Faculty Service Award. The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate awarded him for outstanding and dedicated service to the Berkeley campus. Read More - Julius Lucks (Miller Fellow 2007-2010)
was awarded the NIH New Innovators Award. The award is accompanied by a five-year, $1.5 million research grant under the NIH's "High Risk High Reward" grant program. More details at: Cornell Chronicle or Read More - Richard Saykally (Miller Professor 1985-1986, 1997-1998, Fall 2006)
and his research team have shown that when hydrated in water, positively charged ions can actually pair up with one another. Read More - Jeremy Thorner (Miller Professor 1984-1985, 1999-2000)
has been chosen to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Genetics Society of America sponsored Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting that will be held in the Summer of 2014. Professor Thorner was selected in recognition of his many scientific contributions and outstanding community service. - Alexei Filippenko (Miller Fellow 1984-1986, Miller Professor Spring 1996 & 2005)
Filippenko will be presenting a talk at the 49th Annual Nobel Conference - "The Universe at its Limits" - at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota on October 1, 2013. Read More - Ray Jayawardhana (Miller Fellow 2000-2002)
was awarded The Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics. He is a recognized leader in the study of extra-solar planets, brown dwarfs and young stars. A prolific and innovative scientist, he has employed many of the world's largest telescopes to further our understanding of the origin, evolution and diversity of planetary systems. His pivotal and wide-ranging contributions include several high-profile discoveries related to sub-stellar astrophysics and planet formation. Read More
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Barbara Romanowicz (Miller Professor Spring 2010)
is a UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary sciences and a researcher at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory who said about her study in a news article: "Our new finding helps bridge the gap between processes deep in the mantle and phenomenon observed on the earth's surface, such as hotspots." Read More -
Chris McKee (Miller Professor 1984-1985, Fall 1999 & Fall 2004) &
Phil Marcus (Miller Professor 2005-2006)
"Klein and McKee have worked over the last decade to calculate the crucial first steps of star formation, which describes the collapse of giant gas clouds into Frisbee-like disks. They will collaborate with Marcus's team by providing them with their computed velocities, temperatures and densities of the disks that surround protostars. This collaboration will allow Marcus's team to study the formation and march of zombie vortices in a more realistic model of the disk." Read More - Paul Alivisatos (Miller Professor 2001-2002)
Chemist Paul Alivisatos, one of the pioneers of nanoscience, has been appointed to the Samsung Distinguished Chair in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at UC Berkeley in recognition of his many scientific achievements. Read More - Philip Chang (Miller Fellow 2005-2008)
was awarded the NSF Career award for his work on blazars. Read More - David Jenkins (Miller Fellow 2005-2008)
was awarded the NSF Career grant for work on catalytic aziridination. Read More -
Saul Perlmutter (Miller Senior Fellow 2010-2015)
Saul Perlmutter (Berkeley physicist and Nobel laureate) was profiled in the July 6 issue of the England's The Guardian - part of a series on "rational heroes." Read More - Mikhail Shapiro (Miller Fellow 2011-2014) &
Greg Bowman (Miller Fellow 2011-2014) won Borroughs Welcomme CASI awards. - Alexander Hayes (Miller Fellow 2011-2014)
received the Ronald Greeley Early Career Award, American Geophysical Union in recognition for significant early career contributions in planetary science. He also received the NASA Early Career Fellow. - Daniela Kaufer (Miller Professor Fall 2012) &
Feng Wang (Miller Fellow 2005-2008)
Daniela Kaufer and Feng Wang have both been awarded Bakar Fellowships. The Bakar Fellows Program is a unique UC Berkeley initiative to support innovative research by early career faculty, in particular those who want to focus on a project that has real-world applications in areas ranging from health care and agriculture to high-tech and biotech. Read More - Steven Balbus (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2012)
Steven Balbus received the 2013 Shaw Prize in Astronomy... "for their discovery and study of the magnetorotational instability, and for demonstrating that this instability leads to turbulence and is a viable mechanism for angular momentum transport in astrophysical accretion disks." Read More
- NAS: The National Academy of Sciences announced the election of new members and foreign associates in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The honorees include five former Miller Institute members:
Kenneth A. Farley
+ Visiting Miller Professor Sp03
Sarah P. Otto
+ Miller Fellow 1992-94
James A. Sethian
+ Miller Professor Sp11
Eva Tardos
+ Visiting Miller Professor Fa99
John B. Pendry
+ Visiting Miller Professor Fa91 - AAAS: Seven former Miller Institute members have been named members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious 233-year-old national honorary society of leaders from academia, business, public affairs and the humanities. The academy announced the names of its 198 new members on Wednesday, April 24 at its headquarters in Cambridge, MA. The 2013 members include:
Jitendra Malik
+ Miller Professor Fa01
Hitoshi Murayama
+ Miller Professor Sp06 T.
Don Tilley
+ Miller Professor 2004-05
Bin Yu
+ Miller Professor Sp04
Shaul Mukamel
+ Visiting Miller Professor Sp96
Marc Kamionkowski
+ Visiting Miller Professor Fa10
Arunava Majumdar
+ Miller Professor 2003-04 - Randy Schekman (Miller Senior Fellow 2008-2013) &
Terence Speed (Miller Professor Spring 2005)
Both Randy Schekman and Terence Speed have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. The backbone of the Society is its Fellowship, which is made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Fellows and Foreign Members are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science. Read More - Alexander Levitzki (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2008)
April 2013: Alexander Levitzki received the (AACR) American Association for Cancer Research's 2013 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research for his contributions to signal transduction therapy and his work on the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors as effective agents against cancer. Levitzki is a professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at Hebrew University. Read More
2012: Last year, Alexander Levitzki also received the 2012 Nauta Award for outstanding achievements in the field of Medicinal Chemistry by the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC). Prof. Levitzki's research focuses on cell signaling pathways with a special emphasis on the role of tyrosine kinases. He has pioneered the therapeutic concept that tyrosine kinase function can be selectively modulated by small molecule inhibitors, in face of worldwide skepticism whether sufficient selectivity can be obtained. Read More - Eric Agol (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2011)
April 2013: Eric Agol has discovered one of two exoplanets that Geoffrey Marcy (Miller Professor 2011-2012) regards as "tantalizingly similar to Earth". These two "are the best candidates yet for the possibility of life". Read More - Daniela Kaufer (Miller Professor Fall 2012)
April 2013: Kaufer's research on stress was funded by a BRAINS (Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists) award from the National Institute of Mental Health of the NIH and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. Chronic stress is known to cause major health problems, but acute stress is thought to improve people's performance and health. A new study by UC Berkeley professor, and Miller Professor Daniela Kaufer shows why that is. Stress generates new nerve cells in the brain that, two weeks later, help people learn better. Read More -
Eric King (Miller Fellow 2010-2013)
April 2013: Former Miller Fellow, Eric King, on new discoveries about liquid metals and their implications in the study of magnetic fields. His work was posted in a PNAS article: "Planets' magnetic fields come from more complex inner flows than thought." Read More - Grigori Perelman (Miller Fellow 1993-1995)
January 2013: The Poincaré Chair recognizes former Miller Fellow, Grigori Perelman, and the Miller Institute as it seeks talented young mathematicians. Read More - John Lott (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2005)
January 2013: Awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing for the explication of Perelman's celebrated solution of the Poincare Conjecture. Read More - Tamas Hausel (Miller Fellow 1999-2002)
Awarded one of the 2012 European Research Council's Advanced Grant (worth 1.3 million euros). Read More - Gabor Somorjai (Miller Professor 1977-1978, Miller Senior Fellow 2009-2014)
January 2013: Awarded the 2013 National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences. This award, which honors innovative research in the chemical sciences, was awarded for the "groundbreaking experimental and conceptual contributions to the understanding of surface chemistry and catalysis at a microscopic and molecular level." Read More -
Sandra Faber (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2005)
December 2012: Awarded a National Medal of Science. This award is considered the U.S. government's highest award for scientists. She was awarded for "work charting the properties of galaxies." Read More - Jesse Thaler (Miller Fellow 2006-2009) &
Julius Lucks (Miller Fellow 2007-2010)
Both awarded the prestigious Sloan Foundation Fellowships. These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field. Read More - Ian Agol (Miller Professor Fall 2012)
December 2012: Wins 2013 AMS Oswald Veblen Prize. The Veblen Prize is given every three years for an outstanding publication in geometry or topology that has appeared in the preceding six years. Agol is honored for his many fundamental contributions to hyperbolic geometry, 3-manifold topology, and geometric group theory. Read More - Alexander Engstroem (Miller Fellow 2009-2012)
Awarded 25000 EUR for research expenses through "The Ruth and Nils-Erik Stenback Prize" awarded by the Finnish Society of Science and Letters. The celebration will be held on April 29 to recognize 175 years of the Finnish Society of Science and Letters. - Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2014)
Awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics... often considered the most prestigious award in those fields after the Nobel Prize. He was awarded for groundbreaking theoretical contributions to quantum information processing, quantum optics and the physics of quantum gases. Read More