Faculty receive Humboldt Foundation research awards

By Robert Sanders

Murayama and Goldstein
Hitoshi Murayama and Allen Goldstein. (Photos courtesy of Kavli IPMU and Julie Gipple, UC Berkeley)
Murayama and Goldstein

Hitoshi Murayama and Allen Goldstein. (Photos courtesy of Kavli IPMU and Julie Gipple, UC Berkeley)

Two UC Berkeley faculty members, theoretical physicist Hitoshi Murayama and atmospheric chemist Allen Goldstein, have been awarded prestigious research grants from the Humboldt Foundation , which promotes collaborative research with German scientists.

As part of the award, which was established in 1953, the two researchers will be invited to spend a period of up to one year cooperating with colleagues at a research institution in Germany.

The award is one of up to 100 the Humboldt Foundation grants every year to internationally renowned academics in recognition of their lifetime achievements. The grants honor academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.

Murayama , the MacAdams Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley and director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) in Tokyo, conducts theoretical work on particle physics, quantum field theory, collider physics, dark matter, dark energy, inflation, grand unification and neutrino physics.

Goldstein , a professor of environmental science, policy and management and of civil and environmental engineering, seeks to understand the balance between natural and human sources of trace gases and aerosols in earth’s atmosphere, included the gases that contribute to air pollution, climate change and ozone depletion.

The two will be recognized during the foundation’s annual meeting in Berlin in June.

Kavli IPMU: Hitoshi Murayama receives Research Award from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation