University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in the Southside and Northside neighborhoods of Berkeley, California, United States. It was founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley. It is the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system.

Berkeley has more than 45,000 students. They study in fifteen schools on the same campus, including the College of Chemistry, the College of Engineering, College of Letters and Science, and the Haas School of Business. The university is known for its research and is linked to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Students at Berkeley play thirty varsity sports. The university’s teams, the California Golden Bears, have won many national championships and Olympic medals. Many famous people, including 63 Nobel laureates, have been students, teachers, or researchers at Berkeley.

History

Main article: History of the University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley started in 1868. It was the first public university in California and began with ten teachers and forty students in Oakland. It later moved to its current spot in Berkeley. Over the years, the university grew and added many new programs and buildings.

In the 1900s, Berkeley started important programs, like training pilots and making tools for science. In the 1960s, students there became known for speaking up for what they believed in. Today, Berkeley is a large university with many students and keeps growing and changing.

Organization and administration

Berkeley is often called just "Berkeley" or, for its sports teams, "California" or "Cal". The whole University of California is led by a group of 26 leaders called the Board of Regents. Most of them are chosen by the Governor of California. Each part of the university, including Berkeley, has its own leader called a chancellor. The chancellor works with many vice-chancellors and deans.

Berkeley gets some money from public support, but also receives many gifts and support from private people and organizations. Famous supporters include Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, and many others. Big campaigns have helped raise billions of dollars for the university.

Academics

Berkeley is a large university where most students live on campus. It offers many programs for students who want to earn a bachelor’s degree and for students who want to study after earning that degree. The university has been approved to give degrees since 1949.

The university has many teachers and classes organized into fifteen groups, called colleges and schools. These groups include the College of Chemistry, College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, College of Engineering, and others. Students can choose from over 350 different ways to earn a degree.

Students who want to earn a bachelor’s degree can choose from 107 different subjects to study. Some of the most popular subjects are electrical engineering, political science, and environmental science.

Berkeley also offers many programs for students who want to study after earning a bachelor’s degree, including master’s degrees and doctorates. The university works with other schools to offer these programs.

The university has a big library system with many books and special collections. One part of the library holds over 400,000 printed books and many old papers and maps.

Berkeley is known for being a very good school. It has been ranked highly in lists of the best schools in the United States and around the world.

For Fall 2022, Berkeley had over 45,000 students, with most being undergraduates. The university received many applications and accepted a smaller number of students. Many students receive help paying for their education through financial aid.

Discoveries and innovation

Berkeley has been a place where many important discoveries and inventions were made. Researchers there discovered new elements and helped us understand how the universe grows. They have also made advances in medicine, such as creating vaccines and treatments for diseases.

In computer science, Berkeley helped create operating systems, programming languages, and tools that changed how we use computers today. From early computer systems to software that solves big problems, the university’s work continues to shape modern technology.

Campus

Main article: Campus of the University of California, Berkeley

The UC Berkeley campus is in the city of Berkeley and Oakland. It covers about 1,232 acres, but the main part is just 178 acres on the west side. Special places around the campus include the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Lawrence Hall of Science, and the Space Sciences Laboratory. Some parts of the east side are in Oakland, near the Claremont Resort and Tilden Park.

Near the campus, you can find downtown Berkeley to the west, the Gourmet Ghetto with famous restaurants to the northwest, and neighborhoods with many graduate students to the north. South of the campus is student housing and Telegraph Avenue, a busy shopping street. The campus also has land in Albany and Richmond.

The campus has many interesting places, such as museums including the University of California Museum of Paleontology, which has dinosaur fossils, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. There is also a beautiful botanical garden with many different plants.

360-degree-view of the UC Berkeley campus

Architecture

The historic part of the campus was designed in 1898 by Émile Bénard, but John Galen Howard built it. He created over twenty buildings that shaped the look of the campus until it grew in the 1950s and 1960s.

Many important buildings are built in a classical style, like the Hearst Greek Theatre, Doe Memorial Library, and Sather Tower, also known as the Campanile, which is the tallest university clock tower in the United States. Some buildings have different styles, like North Gate Hall and Dwinelle Annex. Many of these buildings are historic landmarks.

South Hall, built in 1873, is the oldest university building in California and has a Victorian style. Other famous architects have also added to the campus, creating a mix of different designs.

Natural features

Two branches of Strawberry Creek flow through the campus. One branch runs under California Memorial Stadium and through the center of the campus. The campus has many green spaces with trees and wooded areas, including the Eucalyptus Grove, which has some of the tallest trees in the world. The campus is located on the Hayward Fault, which runs through California Memorial Stadium.

Student life and traditions

The official mascot of the university is Oski the Bear, who first appeared in 1941. Before that, live bear cubs were used as mascots. Oski is named after the "Oski-wow-wow" cheer and is cared for by a special group of students.

The University of California Marching Band has been part of the university since 1891. The band plays at every home football game and some away games. A smaller group called the Straw Hat Band plays at basketball and volleyball games, as well as other events on and off campus.

Students created the tradition of using cards to make pictures at football games. This started in 1910 and is still done today. The Rally Committee looks after many school traditions, including the large "C" on the hill and flags around campus.

Berkeley students can choose from many places to live, including university housing, apartments, and houses where students share the cost together. There are also groups for students who want to live together based on shared interests or backgrounds.

The university has many student groups and clubs. One important group is the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), which helps plan events and gives money to student groups. There are also groups for media, such as CalTV, The Daily Californian, and KALX radio.

Students can join groups about politics, culture, and many other interests. There are also teams that design and build things, like rockets and race cars. The school's sports teams are called the California Golden Bears, and they compete in many sports. Their biggest rival is Stanford, and they play an important football game called the Big Game every year.

Notable alumni, faculty, and staff

Faculty and staff

For a more comprehensive list, see List of University of California, Berkeley faculty.

• Shiing-Shen Chern, a leading geometer of the 20th century, co-founded the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and served as its founding director until 1984.
• Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was scientific director of the Manhattan Project and was the founder of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics.
• Faculty member Edward Teller was (together with Stanislaw Ulam) the "father of the hydrogen bomb", who laid important foundations for the establishment of Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley.
• Ernest Lawrence, a Nobel laureate in physics who invented the cyclotron at Berkeley, founded the Radiation Laboratory on campus, which later became the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• Gilbert N. Lewis, former dean of the College of Chemistry, was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He mentored and influenced numerous Berkeley Nobel laureates.
• Glenn T. Seaborg, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, discovered or co-discovered ten chemical elements at Berkeley and served as chancellor from 1958 to 1961.
• Hans Albert Einstein, the first son of Albert Einstein and a world's leading scholar in hydraulic engineering, was a long-time faculty member at Berkeley.
• Steven Chu (PhD 1976), the 12th United States Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate in physics, was director of Berkeley Lab from 2004 to 2009.
• Janet Yellen, 78th United States Secretary of Treasury and the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve, is a professor emeritus at Berkeley Haas School of Business and the Department of Economics.

Alumni

For a more comprehensive list, see List of University of California, Berkeley alumni.

Alumni have included many leaders in different fields, such as members of important professional groups and government leaders.

Government

Berkeley alumni have served in many important government roles, both in the United States and other countries.

Science

Many alumni have made important contributions to science and technology.

Computers

Berkeley alumni have helped create key technologies for personal computers and the Internet.

Billionaires

Pulitzer Prize winners

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists and writers have graduated from Berkeley.

Fiction and screenwriters

Many successful writers and screenwriters graduated from Berkeley.

Academy and Emmy Award winners

Berkeley alumni have won many Academy Awards and Emmy Awards.

Music and entertainment

Many alumni have successful careers in music and entertainment.

Sports

Many alumni have successful careers in sports.