Archive for the ‘Berkeley and Stanford’ Category
The Hewlett Foundation has donated a $113M grant to the University of California, Berkeley in what is the largest private gift in the public university’s history. The press release toots all the right whistles about supporting public education and keeping Berkeley competitive with private universities. There is also a nice article in the Los Angeles […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Opinion | Closed
R. Dynes and `The UC’
A news snippit from back home: Robert Dynes, a low temperature physicist, is stepping down from the presidency of the University of California. Local news reports can be found here, here, here, and here. Among other accomplishments, Dynes presided over the growth of the UC system’s relations with industry, worked on budget compromises with the […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Student Life | 1 Comment
The NASA/Stanford University Gravity Probe B (GPB) team has made its first public announcement at the 2007 American Physical Society April Meeting, and they have announced that the geodetic effect predicted by general relativity has been confirmed to within 1%. Analysis on the `frame-dragging’ effect is ongoing, complete results are expected to be announced in […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Physics | Closed
A UC Berkeley senior has been arrested for the `felony grand theft’ of Ernest Lawrence’s Nobel Prize in physics, the university’s first such prize. The student apparently told police that he took the medal “on a whim.” I imagine Stanford undergrads are full of snarky comments regarding this as many probably initially suspected that the […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Just for Fun | 1 Comment
I was ready to bet money that Guth, Linde, and Steinhardt would win for the development of inflationary cosmology, but I’m very happy that John Mather (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) and George Smoot won this year’s prize. I had made a Guth\Linde prediction just before the 2005 prize after a conversation trying to predict […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Physics | 1 Comment
[Some background: I’ve left Berkeley and will soon be travelling to the UK to begin two years of overseas study before returning to Cal to complete a PhD in theoretical particle physics.] Well, the summer is just about over, and I’m overdue for my obligatory post saying goodbye (for now) to Berkeley and looking back […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Opinion, Student Life | 3 Comments
Rest In Peace, Cody’s
My apologies that this is a bit late to be current news. The iconic bookstore on Telegraph Street has closed its doors. In my naivite I’d only perused the shelves of Cody’s Books once earlier this summer, remembering it as the only bookstore to carry a used copy (two, in fact) of Weinberg’s The Quantum […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Opinion | 2 Comments
Big Physics IV: Faculty Clubs
Today I was treated to a very nice lunch at the Berkeley Faculty Club, so I thought this was a natural subject to append to my “Big Physics” series: Big Physics I: Analogies Big Physics II: T-shirts Big Physics III: Parking Big Physics IV: Faculty Club(bing) Faculty clubs are interesting things that I don’t quite […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Reviews | 2 Comments
Big Physics III: Parking
One thing that Berkeley has that Stanford doesn’t: special parking places on campus for its Nobel laureates.
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford | 4 Comments
Big Physics II: Physics T-Shirts
And for my second installment of Berkeley Physics vs. Stanford Physics, I’ll say a few words about something close to my heart: department t-shirts! While Berkeley seems to have a semi-official physics department logo that it imprints on its t-shirts, Stanford does not. This is a bit of a shame since you can purchase all […]
Filed under: Berkeley and Stanford, Student Life | 1 Comment
An American Physics Student in England 