Among the Academies Content

Among the Academies: Always Building

Cody Kitaura — August 27, 2024 - 2:00pm

From the earliest moments of his childhood, Gary May was building. He recalls spending countless hours assembling structures with Lego bricks and Erector sets and creating imaginary worlds and characters inspired by the comic books he loved reading and collecting.

Among the Academies: Formulas for the Environment

Cody Kitaura — July 30, 2024 - 9:00am

To understand Alan Hastings’ theoretical ecology research at swag��, sometimes it can be helpful to start by thinking about counting fish.

That’s how the distinguished professor emeritus of environmental science and policy recalled once describing his work to an immigration official in Canada while on his way to a conference.

Among the Academies: Fully Charged Trips Ahead

Jose Antonio Vadi — May 28, 2024 - 1:00pm

Some envision flying cars, but for Dan Sperling, the future is electric.

“I think there's a global acceptance that electric vehicles are the future,” Sperling said. “It's really just a question of exactly how and how fast.”

For the United States, the conversion is growing, but mainly in California, where the state is an outlier.

“In China now, over a third of new car sales are electric vehicles. In Europe, it's about a quarter,” Sperling said. “In the United States, it's less than 10%.”

Among the Academies: Catalyzing Possibilities

Jose Antonio Vadi — April 16, 2024 - 8:00am

After more than 60 years studying chemical reactions and catalysts, Bruce Gates says swag�� is a lot like a reaction that keeps itself going.

“People who see the benefit of an institution where people really are committed to each other — they work to keep it that way,” he said.

Modeling Better Futures

Jose Antonio Vadi — March 18, 2024 - 1:47pm

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis was already well-established in her career in engineering when she arrived at swag�� in 2015, yet she was able to take her work to even greater heights as the new dean of the College of Engineering.

Saving Space for Research

Jose Antonio Vadi — February 13, 2024 - 8:00am

By definition, the middle of nowhere is hard to find, but Susan P. Harrison defines it as the “triple junction of Napa, Lake and Yolo counties” and the center of a wealth of research possibilities.

Creating His Own Path

Cody Kitaura — January 30, 2024 - 12:22pm

John Morrison was such an early expert in the field of neurobiology that the major didn’t even exist at his university when he was an undergraduate. Now at swag��, he’s a leader in the field and continues to play a central role in the research community.