UC Berkeley in 2018: The year in photos
For UC Berkeley, 2018 was a year of firsts and milestones, from the opening of a universal locker room to a Nobel Prize win for the work done on campus — plus the yearlong celebration of the campus's sesquicentennial
December 21, 2018
For UC Berkeley, 2018 was a year of firsts and milestones. The campus opened a universal locker room — one of only a few in the nation — for people of all abilities and genders. Scholars and experts from across the country gathered for a three-day conference to examine race 50 years after the release of the Kerner Report. A first-of-its-kind data science division was launched in response to the growing impact of data and computing in a rapidly evolving digital world. And students de-stressed during finals at Llamapalooza, the campus’s first-ever llama festival.
When the campus wasn’t embarking on new ventures, it was celebrating accomplishments — with a Nobel Prize win for work done here, the granting of a CRISPR patent, spring commencement and Berkeley’s 150th birthday.
Here’s a look back — in photos.
In January, UC Berkeley invited the campus community — about 56,000 people — to share their experiences with sexual violence and sexual harassment in a comprehensive survey, called MyVoice. The findings, released in September, are being used to inform campus violence prevention, intervention and response efforts. (UC Berkeley photo composite by Hulda Nelson)
The Eclipse Megamovie Project received some 50,000 photos of the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse from amateur astronomers and avid photographers. By January, the photos had been stitched together to create an extended view of the eclipse (aka the Megamovie), which will help us better understand the behavior and mechanisms of the solar corona. (Photo courtesy of Rick Feinberg)
In February, Luis Mora, an undocumented undergraduate student, shared his story about being detained for three weeks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I believe everything happens for a reason,” he says. “My detainment has motivated me in a way to get my message out there — that this is what immigration really looks like. We’re just humans, like Americans, trying to achieve a better life. We all have dreams.” (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
UC Berkeley held a conference at the end of February to examine race in the U.S. 50 years after the release of the Kerner Report, a 462-page document that investigated the immediate causes of the 1967 race riots, as well as the racial segregation and discrimination that gave rise to them. At the conference, dozens of scholars and experts from the campus and across the country — including john powell (pictured), a UC Berkeley professor of law, African American studies and ethnic studies — discussed the commission’s legacy and envisioned what a contemporary Kerner Report might look like. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
"Following our curiosity and celebrating the act of discovery, it turns out, can pay off many times over in the long term," Chancellor Carol Christ says. (UC Berkeley photo by Keegan Houser)
In April, Llamapalooza, UC Berkeley’s first-ever llama festival, was a llama love-in, with hundreds of students petting, grooming, feeding, hugging and taking selfies with the animals on Memorial Glade. (UC Berkeley photo by Tonya Becerra)
Chancellor Carol Christ announced in May the university’s plans to redevelop and revitalize People’s Park by building a new residence hall for students and make land available for the construction of permanent supportive housing for members of the city’s homeless population. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
In May, more than 5,500 Berkeley graduates, decked out in black caps, gowns and colorful variations thereof, marched onto the sun-drenched field at the California Memorial Stadium to “Pomp and Circumstance” to celebrate commencement. “It feels great,” says Sumana Al Gharbi, a graduating senior. “Berkeley was a place where I had to test myself a lot — it was a very competitive place — but I definitely grew up a lot here. I wouldn’t have grown so much if it weren’t for Berkeley.” (UC Berkeley photo by Keegan Houser)
In June, UC Berkeley — with the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival — hosted the Breath of Life Institute, a weeklong conference where Native Californians can explore and use the archives of the California Indian languages and materials for their own efforts in language reclamation. Undergraduate student Sean Brown (pictured), from the Paiute Tribe in Bishop, California, attended the conference. When he first got to Berkeley in 2017, he went on a quest to discover who he is and where he comes from, poring over campus archives — audio recordings, photos, journals — to find firsthand accounts of what life was like for his tribe throughout history. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
At the end of July, students got a sneak peak at David Blackwell Hall, the first new residence hall to open at Berkeley since 2012. The building, which houses more than 700 students, opened in August for freshmen to move in. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
In August, UC Berkeley welcomed 8,800 incoming students, who participated in a weeklong orientation. For Mariana Soto Sanchez, being at Berkeley for the first time was overwhelming and exciting. She's interested in majoring in psychology, a subject that touches her on a personal level. “I’ve had so many amazing therapists and doctors, and I really want to give back to that.” (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
A 4,500-square-foot universal locker room at the campus’s Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) opened in September. It's believed to be the first large-scale collegiate universal locker room in California and one of just a few in the nation. Any students or other RSF members needing more privacy, including those who are transgender, non-binary or have disabilities or body image struggles, will find a welcoming facility next door to the men’s and women’s locker rooms. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
Immunologist James P. Allison, who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, launched much of his research at UC Berkeley's Cancer Research Laboratory. (UC Berkeley photo by Stephen McNally)
The University of California announced on Oct. 30 that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted U.S. Patent Number 10,113,167, covering unique RNA guides that, when combined with the Cas9 protein, are effective at homing in on and editing genes. These RNA/protein combinations act like precision-targeted gene-editing scissors. This CRISPR-Cas9 DNA-targeting complex, discovered by Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier and their teams at UC Berkeley and the University of Vienna, is one of the fundamental molecular technologies behind the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool.
In a direct response to the profound and growing impact of data and computing in a rapidly evolving digital world, UC Berkeley today announced its plan to form a new division, provisionally referred to as the Division of Data Science and Information, which will harness the university’s leadership in the field to prepare thousands of students and researchers to bring data science to bear in the classroom, the laboratory and the workplace. The first-of-its-kind division, situated as a peer of Berkeley’s colleges and schools, represents one of the most profound changes in the university’s organization in decades. (UC Berkeley graphic by Hulda Nelson)
In November, the Camp Fire broke out in Northern California, killing more than 80 people. Berkeley student Elisabeth Earley, from Paradise, a town in Butte County, shares how she and her family lost everything to the deadliest fire in the state's history. (Photo courtesy of Elisabeth Earley)
Chancellor Carol Christ announced in December UC Berkeley's new 10-year campus strategic plan, one that will bring the campus closer to its ideal self: a hub of world-changing research and innovative teaching that welcomes a diverse group of students, staff and faculty intent on solving climate change, ending inequality and strengthening democracy. (UC Berkeley photo by Keegan Houser)