Overlooking the eastern shore of the beautiful San Francisco Bay is UC Berkeley [3], founded during the gold rush days as the flagship institution of the University of California. This campus has become one of the preeminent universities in the world. UC Berkeley has consistently ranked highest among the world’s public institutions for its achievements in teaching and for the quality and breadth of its research enterprise.

Berkeley’s core research community is made up of some 1,600 full time faculty, 10,000 graduate students, and approximately 1,400 post-doctoral fellows from throughout the world. An astounding 22 current and former faculty and 29 alumni have received the Nobel Prize [4]. The first atom-smashing cyclotron was developed here and UC Berkeley faculty played a key role in building the world’s first atomic bomb. It’s the place where vitamin E and K were discovered, the human polio virus isolated, and the flu virus identified. Berkeley scientists and engineers played a crucial role in the computer revolution and the growth of Silicon Valley. Breakthroughs in genomic science and hereditary breast cancer were discovered here. Saul Perlmutter [5] cofounded the Supernova Cosmology Project and George Smoot [6] imaged the infant universe. Read in detail the long and impressive list of discoveries and contributions by UC Berkeley scholars [7].

The 200-acre U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), [8] founded by UC Berkeley physicist Ernest Orlando Lawrence [9], lies on a hillside above the UC Berkeley campus. LBNL has a distinguished history of world-changing discoveries and is managed by the DOE's Office of Science. Many of the LBNL scientists are instructors at UC Berkeley and LBNL and UC Berkeley have a proven track record collaborating on “big science” projects. Today they are pooling their vast expertise to advance the development of next generation of biofuels [10], research carbon capture and sequestration [11], apply biotechnology to develop new drugs and engineer plants [12], pioneer research on energy use [13], and work on environmental theory and energy policy [14].

This month DOE’s .EDUconnections [15] website is pleased to shine the Spotlight on UC Berkeley [16]. This Spotlight provides information about their science and education community, key DOE research initiatives, faculty of interest and exceptional students. This .EDUconnections site offers a revolving spotlight feature to provide a quick glimpse into U.S. research institutions across our country that are committed to supporting and advancing DOE scientific research programs.