Around Cal

Photo of a woman in a green and white dress and colorful head wrap, staring straight at the camera unsmiling, standing in front of a weathered building.

A survivor in Uganda, outside of a church attacked by rebels. Photo by Stephen Smith Cody.

$1 million for war crimes work

In recognition of its investigations and research on war crimes and human rights abuses in more than a dozen countries, as well as its recent work on wartime sexual violence, the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law was one of nine nonprofits worldwide to receive a $1 million award from the MacArthur Foundation. promise.berkeley.edu/macei

A RADICAL initiative

Cal Performances has launched Berkeley RADICAL, an ambitious program that will commission visiting artists to create major new works on campus in collaboration with the university’s intellectual community. The resulting artistic process and contextual research will be disseminated online. Famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel will inaugurate the initiative. promise.berkeley.edu/radical

Got a research quandary?

Until recently, if you were a small business or government agency with a research issue in need of investigation, there was no formal way to elicit the help of Berkeley students and faculty. Karen Andrade, a Ph.D. student in environmental science, policy, and management, has started the UC Berkeley Science Shop to help make those connections easier. promise.berkeley.edu/shop

Nobel laureate dies at 99

Charles Townes, a professor emeritus of physics who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the laser and later pioneered its use in astronomy, died in January at age 99. He was a central figure at the Space Sciences Laboratory for almost 50 years. promise.berkeley.edu/townes

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