2026 New's Items

Felix Fisher elected 2025 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

March 6, 2026

The new 2025 AAAS Fellows are, left to right, Abby Dernberg, Jack Gallant, Alan Chi Lun Yu, Linda Wilbrecht, Özlem Ayduck, Noah Whiteman, Edward Penhoet, Richmond Sarpong, Felix Fischer, David Zilberman and Frédéric Theunissen.

Eleven UC Berkeley faculty members have been elected 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of...

Kristin Persson elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

April 24, 2026
The Academy recognizes accomplished individuals and engages them in addressing the greatest challenges facing the U.S. Prof. Persson uses machine learning, experimental data and computational databases to design and create new materials for energy applications, such as highly efficient batteries, photovoltaics and catalysts. Read the full article HERE.

Researchers uncover new rules for designing protein-like polymers

January 1, 2026

UC Berkeley professor Ting Xu has spent more than seven years trying to figure out how to design synthetic polymers with protein-like behaviors. Now, she and a team of researchers have unlocked “design rules” that upend long-held views on polymers and could pave the way for eco-friendly plastics and other materials.

As reported today in Nature, the researchers, including MIT professor Alfredo Alexander-Katz, discovered something “wild” when...

The AI Revolution in Materials Science, Led by Prof. Persson

January 13, 2026

The open-access materials database managed by Berkeley Lab has surpassed 650,000 registered users, enabling AI-ready scientific datasets at an unprecedented scale for batteries, quantum computing, microelectronics, and more.

Read the full article...

Biodegradable fabric research team led by Prof. Ting Xu awarded $10 million from Bezos Earth Fund

April 24, 2026


In a bold effort to address the growing challenge of textile waste in landfills, the Bezos Earth Fund has awarded $10 million to research led by engineers and scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, to develop biodegradable fibers that can rival the strength and flexibility of natural materials.

The UC Berkeley award is among several grants announced today by the Bezos Earth Fund to “advance breakthrough materials for the fashion and textile...

Record-breaking "molecular sponge" pulls carbon from air faster than ever before

February 4, 2026

A new material developed by BIDMaP(link is external) researchers captures CO₂ from outdoor air with unprecedented speed, marking a critical leap toward practical direct air capture technology.

As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to climb, the scientific consensus is clear: reducing emissions alone is no longer enough. To avert the worst effects of climate change, scientists must also figure out a way to actively remove vast quantities of CO₂ that are already lingering in the sky.

One of the most promising technologies for this task is Direct Air...