From Chancellor Lyons: "Berkeley One of Society's Most Valuable Assets"

An open letter from Chancellor Lyons this week to alumni upon the news of our most recent Nobel Laureates:

Dear Cal alums, parents, and friends,

Every October, six Nobel Prizes are awarded to an individual or group for their groundbreaking contributions to a specific field. And every year, UC Berkeley hangs in suspense as we await the announcements. It was worth the anxious wait this year: Not one, but two faculty members were awarded a Nobel Prize last week — John Clarke in physics and Omar Yaghi in chemistry, respectively making them the 27th and 28th faculty members to win a Nobel. If you include Cal alums, there are 63 Berkeley Nobelists to date by our count.

John is sharing the prize with Michel Devoret and John Martinis, both of whom were at Berkeley at the time of their prize-winning research and are now affiliated with UC Santa Barbara. They were honored for discovering quantum tunneling, a strange aspect of quantum mechanics that describes the ability of particles, such as electrons, to move through barriers that classical physics says they should not be able to breach. Their work laid the foundation for superconducting quantum bits, or qubits, at the heart of many of today’s quantum computers. John said in a video that the trio had no way of knowing their work would lead to the prize. “You have to keep on trying to do this very basic science,” he said, “because you just don’t know what is going to come out of it.”

Omar, who is also sharing the prize with two other chemists, created compounds called metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, that can readily absorb, store, and release gases and vapors. To date, more than 100,000 MOF structures have been synthesized, each tuned to a specific application. Some, including versions Omar created, can capture carbon dioxide from flue gases produced by power plants or industry. His more recent MOFs can harvest water from desert air. Omar said in a video, “If you can think it, you can actually go to the lab and make it,” calling Berkeley “the nirvana of science.”

Good things come in threes. Adding to a week of wows was the announcement that vision scientist Teresa Puthussery was named a 2025 MacArthur “genius” Fellow. She researches how different cell types in the retina capture and encode visual information, as well as how neurodegenerative diseases disrupt normal visual signaling. Her work will also help develop better diagnostic and monitoring tests and new therapies to restore naturalistic sight after vision loss.

Boatloads of hard work, the ability to challenge the status quo, collaboration, and an unwavering zeal for discovery led to each of these extraordinary recognitions. These are the things that the Nobel, MacArthur, and other prestigious awards are made of. And these are the things that make Berkeley one of society’s most valuable assets.

Go Bears!
Chancellor Rich Lyons