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.
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Alison Galvani (Miller Fellow 2002-2005)
Named the Burnett and Stender Families Professor of Public Health. At 38 years, she is the youngest faculty member ever appointed to a named professorship in the history of the Yale School of Medicine. Read More -
Ewine Fleur van Dishoeck (Visiting Miller Professor 2000) has been selected as the winner of the 2015 Albert Einstein World Award of Science.
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Mildred Dresselhaus (Former Advisory Board Member)
current professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and past president of the American Physical Society, has become the first woman to receive the IEEE Medal of Honor in recognition of her "leadership and contributions across many fields of science and engineering. Read More -
Richard Saykally (Miller Professor 1985 - 1986, 1997 - 1998, Fall 2006)
was highlighted in the UC Berkeley News Center and Nautilus for his research on water and carbonic acid Read more 1 | Read More 2 -
Jeffrey P. Townsend (Miller Fellow 2002–2005)
is featured in a Yale news article that supports the evolutionary house of cards model. Read More -
Chris Chang (Miller Professor 2011-2012)
has been awarded the 2015 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. The award honors the nation’s most exceptional young scientists and engineers, celebrating their extraordinary achievements and recognizing their outstanding promise while providing an unparalleled prize of $250,000 to each National Laureate. Read More -
Marc Kamionkowski (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2010)
was awarded by the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics the 2015 Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. Read More - Bernd Sturmfels (Miller Professor 2000-2001)
on Monday, June 29, 2015 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Frankfurt. Read More
- Britt Glaunsinger (Miller Professor Spring 2015)
has been named one of the 2015 HHMI investigators. The 26 new HHMI investigators are at the forefront of discovery research and considered the "nation's top biomedical scientists". Read More
- Eva Schmid (Miller Fellow 2008-2011)received an honorable mention for the ASAP: Accelerating Science Award Program award, recognizing the value of open access research to enable greater global collaboration and scientific progress. Read More
- Paul Alivisatos (Miller Professor 2001-2002)
was elected to the American Philosophical Society which aims to promote "useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources and community outreach." Read More - NAS - National Academy of Sciences
The Miller Institute congratulates its former members on their election to the National Academy of Sciences:- Steven Balbus (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2012)
- Martin Head-Gordon (Miller Professor 2001-2002)
- Russell Lande (Miller Professor 2004-2005)
- Jitendra Malik (Miller Professor Fall 2001)
- Shaul Mukamel (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1996)
- Daniel Neumark (Miller Professor 1999-2000)
- Richard Taylor (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1999)
- Jeremy Thorner (Miller Professor 1984-1985, 1999-2000)
- AAAS
The Miller Institute congratulates its former members named to the AAAS:- John Clarke (Miller Professor 1975-76, Fall 1994, 2007)
- Alex Filippenko (Miller Fellow 1984-1986, Miller Professor Sp 1996, Sp 2005)
- John Hartwig (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2009)
- Ravindran Kannan (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1991)
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Vincent Poor (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2017) has been elected as Fellow of Royal Society.
- Yue Wu (Miller Fellow 2006-2009)
was named and has been nominated to receive the 2015 Council for Chemical Research (CCR) Rising Star Award. Read More - Marc Kamionkowski (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2010)
was awarded by the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics the 2015 Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. Read More - Robert Kirshner (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1994)
was awarded the 2015 Wolf Prize in Physics for making fundamental contributions toward understanding the structure of the Universe at the very smallest and the very largest sizes and for forging the path to supernova cosmology through his observations and insights. Read More - Michael Manga (Miller Fellow 1994-1996, Miller Professor Fa2008-Sp2009)
was highlighted in the UC Berkeley News Center for his work with geysers like Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park that "erupt periodically because of loops or side-chambers in their underground plumbing". Also included is a video by Eric King (Miller Fellow 2010-2013), shown at a recent Miller symposium. Read More - Pascal Audet (Miller Fellow 2008-2011) & Heather Knutson (Miller Fellow 2009-2012)
were both selected as 2015 Sloan Research Fellows. The achievements of these remarkable early-career scientists and scholars mark them as the next generation of leaders in the sciences, mathematics, and economics. Read More - Marc Kamionkowski (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2010)
was named one of the 2015 AAS Award recipients for outstanding achievements in research, instrument development, and education. The Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics is awarded jointly by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the AAS to recognize outstanding work in astrophysics and for their outstanding contributions to the investigation of the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background, which have led to major breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe. Read More - Heather Knutson (Miller Fellow 2009-2012)
was named one of the 2015 AAS Award recipients for outstanding achievements in research, instrument development, and education. The Newton Lacy Pierce Prize was awarded to her for observational research and for her transformational work in the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. Knutson's groundbreaking spectroscopic and photometric observations, particularly with the Spitzer Space Telescope, have revealed the longitudinal and depth-dependent temperature structure on "hot Jupiters" and lower-mass, close-in exoplanets. Read More - David Weinberg (Miller Fellow 1990-1991)
was named one of the 2015 AAS Award recipients for outstanding achievements in research, instrument development, and education. He was awarded the Lancelot M. Berkeley - New York Community Trust Prize for highly meritorious work in advancing the science of astronomy. He won the prize for his paper "The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III," written with numerous coauthors and published in the Astronomical Journal in 2013. In his prize lecture, "Cosmological Highlights from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey," he reviewed key results in cosmology and galaxy evolution from the Sloan survey's vast, detailed maps of the distant universe and our own Milky Way Galaxy, deep digital imaging over one-third of the sky, and spectroscopy of more than 2 million galaxies, 200,000 quasars, and a half million stars. Read More - Daniela Kaufer (Miller Professor Fall 2012)
was featured in a press release on the UC Berkeley News Center in this article: "Blocking hormone could eliminate stress-induced infertility", and also, a publication was released on eLIFE. Read More - Richard Saykally (Miller Professor 1985-86, 1997-98, Fall 2006),
Stephen Harris (Miller Fellow 1976-77, Visiting Miller Professor 2011-12)
and colleagues have been highlighted in the news for finding surprising results in the first X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of a model lithium electrolyte and opening a possible avenue to better electrolyte for lithium ion batteries. Read More - Barry Sinervo (Miller Fellow 1988-1990)
and his colleagues have been highlighted in the news for receiving a grant to monitor global warming at UC reserves. They have been creating a statewide "climate change observatory" where researchers and students will monitor the impact of global warming on plant and animal life throughout the university's statewide network of protected natural reserves. Read More - Adrian Lee (Miller Professor Fall 2008-Spring 2009) &
Paul Richards (Miller Professor 1970-71, 1987-88, Fall 2001)
were highlighted in the UC Berkeley News Center in the article: "POLARBEAR seeks cosmic answers in microwave polarization". Also included was the Huan Tran Telescope that was named in 2010 in memory of Huan Tran (Miller Fellow 2002-2005). Read More - Alexander Levitzki (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2008)
was awarded the prestigious 2014 Ilse and Helmut Wachter Award as one of the world's most prominent cancer researchers. He was nominated for his leading role in cancer research, which includes helping lay the foundation for personalized cancer therapy, and contributing to the development of new and precise cancer medications. Read More - Jiaxing Huang (Miller Fellow 2004-2007)
and his colleagues have been highlighted in the news for finding that Blu-ray movie discs can be converted into inexpensive templates for efficient light-trapping applications such as solar cells. Read More - John Harte (Miller Professor Spring 2006)
has been included in the 2014 AAAS Fellows recognized for his contribution to advancing science in the area of physics, and honoring him for his contributions to innovation, education, and scientific leadership. Read More - James Kelly (Miller Professor Fall 1993)
has been awarded the 2012 Mahathir Science Award in recognition of his contribution to the development and application of seismic rubber bearings used for protecting buildings, bridges and other such structures against devastating impact of earthquake. Read More - George Oster (Miller Professor 1983-1984, Fall 2003)
has been awarded the prestigious 2014 Sackler Prize in Biophysics for discovery of physical principles behind intracellular force generation in cell motility, morphogenesis and biological pattern formation. Read More - Maryam Modjaz (Miller Fellow 2007-2010)
has been awarded both the NSF Award (2014-2016) & NSF CAREER Award (2014-2019) to study star deaths using stellar forensics. Read More - Saul Perlmutter (Miller Senior Fellow 2010-2015) & Adam Riess (Miller Fellow 1996-1998)
have been named two of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize winners in fundamental physics for major insights into the deepest questions of the Universe. The $3 million prize is shared with Brian P. Schmidt and a team of 51 prize recipients. Read More
The Supernova Cosmology Project Team Breakthrough Prize winners included: Alexei V. Filippenko (Miller Fellow 1984-1986, Miller Professor Spring 1996 & 2005) Richard Muller (Miller Professor 1990)
High-Z Supernova Search Team Breakthrough Prize winners included: Alexei V. Filippenko (Miller Fellow 1984-1986, Miller Professor Spring 1996 & 2005) Saurabh Jha (Miller Fellow 2002-2005) Robert P. Kirshner (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1994) - Marvin Cohen (Miller Professor 1969-1970, 1976-1977, Fall 1988)
has been awarded the 2014 Von Hippel Award which is Materials Research Society's Highest Honor. Cohen is being recognized for "explaining and predicting properties of materials and for successfully predicting new materials using microscopic quantum theory." Read More - Hitoshi Murayama (Miller Professor Spring 2006)
has been highlighted in the news for addressing the UN on the link between science and peace, celebrating the 60th anniversary of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Read More - Daniel Rabosky (Miller Fellow 2009-2012)
is among 18 young scientists and engineers from universities across the country named as 2014 recipients of the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering. He studies the evolutionary processes of species formation and extinction to understand why biological diversity varies so dramatically over space and time. Read More - Richard Saykally (Miller Professor 1985-1986, 1997-1998, Fall 2006)
has been highlighted in the news for leading a study that produced the first x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements for aqueous carbonic acid and for publishing results in Chemical Physical Letters. These XAS measurements, which were obtained at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), were in strong agreement with supercomputer predictions obtained at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Read More - Randy Schekman (Miller Senior Fellow 2008-2013)
has been named to the prestigious Institute of Medicine, one of the highest national honors in the fields of health and medicine. The honor was announced Oct. 20, just a little over a year since Schekman won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Read More - Eugene Chiang (Miller Professor Fall 2013) & Rebekah Dawson (Miller Fellow 2013-2016)
were both highlighted on The Daily Californian for publishing a study in the journal Science that helps solve one of the mysteries of the orbital features of certain exoplanets, or planets that orbit stars in other solar systems... Read More - Philip Kim (Miller Fellow 1999-2001) & Seamus Davis (Miller Professor 2000-2001)
were both awarded the Moore Experimental Investigators in Quantum Materials by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Through grants to 11 universities around the United States, this five-year, $34.2 million investigator program will allow these outstanding physicists to pursue ambitious, high-risk research, including the development of new experimental techniques. Read More - Milo Lin (Miller Fellow 2012-2015)
has been awarded a Heising-Simons transition to independence award in the amount of $500,000. "Established in 2007 by Mark Heising and Elizabeth Simons, the Heising-Simons Foundation (www.heisingsimons.org) is dedicated to advancing sustainable solutions in the environment, supporting groundbreaking research in science, and enhancing the education of children." Milo's grant is titled, "Leveraging Symmetry to Predict Protein Self-Assembly". - Judith Klinman (Miller Professor Fall 1992, 2003-2004) & Alexandre Chorin (Visiting Miller Professor 1971-72, Miller Professor Fall 1982-Spring 1983), former Miller Institute members,
were both awarded the National Medal of Science by President Obama. Read More - Mikhail Shapiro (Miller Fellow 2011-2013) & Ehud Isacoff (Miller Professor Fall 2013)
were both awarded NIH BRAIN Awards. Ehud Isacoff for, "Optical control of synaptic transmission for in vivo analysis of brain circuits and behavior". Mikhail Shapiro for, "Dissecting human brain circuits in vivo using ultrasonic neuromodulation". Read More
•Marc Kamionkowski (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2010) & Leo Radzihovsky (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2008)
were awarded and selected as 2014 Simons Investigators by the Simons Foundation. Read More - Brian Hall (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1997)
was awarded an honorary LL.D by the University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta in June 2014. This honorary degree is the University of Calgary's highest academic honour bestowed on individuals whose notable achievements and community service merit recognition. Read More - John Harte (Miller Professor Spring 2006)
was highlighted on symmetrymagazine.org for applying "principles from his former life as a physicist to his work trying to save the planet". Read More
- Don Tilley (Miller Professor 2004-2005)
has been named one of the 2014 ACS Fellows for outstanding achievement and contributions to science. Read More - Dean Toste (Miller Professor Spring 2014)
has been awarded the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry sponsored by the Aldrich Chemical Company. - Larry Overman (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1989)
has been awarded the ACS Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry. - Michael Marletta (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2000)
has been awarded the Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry sponsored by the Alfred R. Bader Fund. - Maurice Brookhard (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 1996)
has been awarded the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis. - Shaul Mukamel (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1996)
has been awarded the Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology. - Xie Chen (Miller Fellow 2012-2014)
was highlighted on phys.org in the article: Quantum information meets condensed matter: inside the mind of Xie Chen. Read More - Michael Jordan (Miller Professor Fall 2008)is the 2015 recipient of the David E. Rumelhart Prize, a prestigious honor reserved for those who have made fundamental contributions to the theoretical foundations of human cognition. Read More
- Xiang Zhang (Miller Professor 2011-2012)
and his team of researchers have found a way to dramatically increase the sensitivity of a light-based plasmon sensor to detect incredibly minute concentrations of explosives. They are developing plasmon laser sensors that could soon compete with bomb-sniffing dogs. Read More - Matthew Good (Miller Fellow 2010-2013)z
has been awarded the 2014 Career Award through the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in the area of interface science. Read More - Jeffrey Townsend (Miller Fellow 2002-2005),
Yi Cui (Miller Fellow 2003-2005) &
Alison Galvani (Miller Fellow 2002-2005)
Three former Miller Fellows with New York Academy of Sciences President Ellis Rubensteinand a bust of Charles Darwin, at the 2014 Blavatnik Science Symposium in New York City, where Professor Cui was honored as a Finalist for the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists. Professor Galvani is a former Faculty Winner of the Blavatnik Prize, which celebrates the most innovative and promising faculty-rank scientists and engineers. Read More
- Jason Stajich (Miller Fellow 2006-2009)
received national recognition by winning the 2014 Alexopoulos Prize from the Mycological Society of America, a scientific society dedicated to advancing the science of mycology - the study of fungi of all kinds including mushrooms, molds, truffles, yeasts, lichens, plant pathogens, and medically important fungi. Read More - Donald DePaolo (Miller Professor 1997-1998)
Former ESD Director Don DePaolo, now LBNL's Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Science, was selected as this year's AGU Harry Hess Medal recipient. This award is given annually to one honoree in recognition of "outstanding achievements in research on the constitution and evolution of the Earth and other planets." 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. Professor Thorner was selected in recognition of his many scientific contributions and outstanding community service. Read More - Mark Hauber (Miller Fellow 2002-2005)
who received a HFSP Young Investigator Grant, was highlighted in the Human Frontier of Science newsletter (p. 7) for his new book entitled, "The Book of Eggs". Read More - Alison Galvani (Miller Fellow 2002-2005)
was highlighted on theguardian.com in the article: Virus experiments risk unleashing global pandemic, study warns... Read More - Saul Perlmutter (Miller Senior Fellow 2010-2015) &
Barbara Meyer (Miller Senior Fellow 2013-2018)
have been elected members of the American Philosophical Society. They were 2 of the 3 UC Berkeley professors that were elected at the scholarly society's 2014 spring meeting in Philadelphia, where APS was founded in 1743. Read More - Robert Bergman (Miller Professor 1982-1983, Fall 1993, Spring 2003)
has been named the 2014 recipient of the Welch Award in Chemical Research for "pioneering work in alkane activation and mechanisms of organometallic reactions." Read More - NAS announces new members:
Richard Borcherds (Miller Professor 2000-2001)
Julian Davies (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1988)
Daniel Eisenstein (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2005)
Craig Evans (Miller Professor Fall 2001, Fall 2002)
Richard Harland (Miller Professor Fall 2010)
Angel Rubio (Incoming Visiting Miller Professor)
Joseph Silk (Miller Professor 1980-1981)
Montgomery Slatkin (Miller Professor Spring 1989, Spring 2000)
Eske Willerslev (Incoming Visiting Miller Professor)
Bin Yu (Miller Professor Spring 2004)
Read More - AAAS announces new members:
Kenneth Farley: California Institute of Technology (Visiting Miller Professor SP 2003)
Edward Frenkel: University of California, Berkeley (Miller Professor SP 2013)
Daniel Tataru: University of California, Berkeley (Miller Professor SP 2011)
Alex Zettl: University of California, Berkeley (Miller Professor 1995, SP 2007)
Read More - Guggenheim Fellows named:
Ashvin Vishwanath (Miller Professor Fall 2009),
Jonathan Feng (Miller Fellow 1995-1997), Jiaxing Huang (Miller Fellow 2004-2007),
Ray Jayawardhana (Miller Fellow 2000-2002) &
Jun Korenaga (Miller Fellow 2001-2002)
were named Guggenheim Fellows. They were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.
Read More 1 | Read More 2 - Kam-Biu Luk (Miller Professor Fall 2001)
was awarded the APS Prize: 2014 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics. Read More - Garnet Chan (Miller Fellow 2000-2002)
won the William O. Baker Award for Initiatives in Research. Read More - Robert Kirshner (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 1994)
won the James Craig Watson Medal. Read More - Daniela Kaufer (Miller Professor Fall 2012)
was featured on the UC Berkeley News Center in this article: "Commonly available blood-pressure drug prevents epilepsy after brain injury". Read More - Edward Frenkel (Miller Professor Spring 2013)
is scheduled to be interviewed by Stephen Colbert on April 7. The show is to be broadcast on Comedy Central and will posted online. - Adam Summers (Miller Fellow 1999-2001)
is highlighted on Science Friday for his research in clearing and staining fish. Read More - Eugene Chiang (Miller Professor Fall 2013)
has received the 2014 Distinguished Teaching Award by UC Berkeley. Read More - Alex Filippenko (Miller Fellow 1984-1986, Miller Professor Spring 1996, 2005)
was featured in the UC Berkeley News Center for his work on a newly discovered bright supernova in a nearby galaxy. Read More - Lawrence Hall (Miller Fellow 1981-1983, Miller Professor Fall 1995) &
Jesse Thaler (Miller Fellow 2006-2009) &
Lisa Randall (Visiting Miller Professor 2011-2012) &
Riccardo Barbieri (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 1994) &
Yasunori Nomura (Miller Fellow 2000-2002)
participated in the powerful and highly praised documentary, "Particle Fever". This documentary was featured on the UC Berkeley News Center. Read More - Dmitry Budker (Miller Professor 2002-2003, Fall 2012) &
Ron Folman (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2013) was featured on the Daily Californian and the UC Berkeley News Center for showing that diamond sensors can measure the tiny magnetic fields in high-temperature superconductors, providing a new tool to probe these much ballyhooed but poorly understood materials. Read More - Feng Wang (Miller Fellow 2005-2008)
was featured on the UC Berkeley Research site for using carbon to control the light. Feng Wang has been developing optoelectronics for faster computing. Read More - Heino Falcke (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2006)
and his team was awarded the ERC Synergy Grant to image event horizon of black hole. The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 14 Million Euros to a team of European astrophysicists to construct the first accurate image of a black hole. The team will test the predictions of current theories of gravity, including Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Read More - Daniela Kaufer (Miller Professor Fall 2012)
was featured on the UC Berkeley News Center for: "Seizing Control of Brain Seizures". Read More - Eske Willerslev (Visiting Miller Professor Spring 2015)
was featured on NPR discussing the topic: Ancient DNA Ties Native Americans From Two Continents To Clovis. Read More - Daniela Kaufer (Miller Professor Fall 2012)
was featured on the UC Berkeley News Center for: "New evidence that chronic stress predisposes brain to mental illness"... Read More - Theodor Agapie (Miller Fellow 2007-2009)
was named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Read More - Alex Zettl (Miller Professor 1995 & 2007)
was the winner of the 2013 Feynman Prize. The award recognizes his exceptional work in the fabrication of nanoscale electromechanical systems (NEMS), spanning multiple decades and including carbon nanotube-based bearings, actuators, and sensors brought to fruition with cutting-edge nanoscale engineering. Read More - George Leitmann (Miller Professor 1966-1967)
was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class & theChevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, France... Read More - Lynn Ingram (Miller Professor 2003-2004)
was featured on the UC Berkeley News Center for "why state's water woes could be just beginning"... Read More - Linyou Cao (Miller Fellow 2010-2013)
was awarded the NSF Career award. NSF will provide funds to Cao's research project, "Van der Waals Epitaxial Heterostructures: Beyond 2D Materials". Read More - Peter Molnar (Visiting Miller Professor Fall 2005)
was awarded the 2014 Crafoord Prize in Geophysics. Read More - Ray Jayawardhana (Miller Fellow 2000-2002)
was appointed dean for the Faculty of Science. Read More - Melissa Wilson Sayres (Miller Fellow 2011-2014) &
Kirk Lohmueller (Miller Fellow 2010-2013)
are featured on the UC Berkeley News Center for their study that dispels theories of Y chromosome's demise... Read More