A new book entitled “What, if Anything, are Species?” by IB Professor Brent Mishler explores this controversial topic in detail, based on 40 years of investigation. He concludes that species are nothing special; entities currently given that rank are simply clades like taxa at all other levels on the tree of life, smaller or larger than the traditional species level.  He goes into the advantages of fully rankless classification, and of a multi-level approach to ecology and evolution.

Congratulations to Carina Galicia on receiving a 2021 UC Berkeley Excellence in Management Award! Galicia is the Director of Student Services for the Biosciences Divisional Services, which oversees undergraduate and graduate student advisors in the Integrative Biology (IB) and Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) Departments. "Carina cares about people – the students, the faculty, her staff, all of us. ...Guided by kindness, she treats everyone with respect and dignity."

It was proclaimed on March 14th, 2017, also known as "Pi Day" and is Albert Einstein's birthday (and on every March 14th henceforth) that it is Marian Diamond Day in the City of Berkeley. 

Professor Marian Diamond loved to bake pies, and was the first person to publish research on Einstein's brain. We honor her memory this upcoming Pi Day.

Bill Clemens, who died peacefully of metastatic cancer at his home in Berkeley on Nov. 17 at the age of 88, became one of the most persuasive voices against the impact hypothesis. He represented many biologists and paleontologists who, seeing continual turnover of life in the fossil record, challenged the catastrophism of physicists like Luis Alvarez, geologists like his son, Walter, and, increasingly, the public, which found the impact hypothesis very compelling.

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We applaud the combined responses of our students, staff, and faculty during these unbelievably challenging times and celebrate our amazing portfolio of research, education, and scientific progress for the common good.  

Read the IB Newsletter Here!

Cara Brook, a UC Berkeley researcher whose work on bat viruses has taken on new urgency with the rise of COVID-19, is one of five recipients of this year’s L’Oréal For Women in Science fellowships.

The awards were announced yesterday (Monday, Nov. 16) by L’Oréal USA, which sponsors the annual fellowships to recognize early-career female scientists. Brook and the other recipients each will receive $60,000 to advance their research.

The IB Insight Spring 2020 newsletter is here! Join us in celebrating the extraordinary accomplishments of IB's women in this edition honoring the 150 year anniversary of women being admitted to Cal.

The IB Insight Fall 2019 newsletter is here! Learn all about what’s new in IB, our new faculty, and what our IB alumni are up to here.

New research from IB Professor Robert Full and scientists from the Department of Engineering and Tsinghua University in China have created a soft robot nearly as the cockroaches that inspired its design. At 20 to 65 milligrams, these robots are able to carry loads 6 times their weight and withstand the pressure of a 60-kilogram human step.

In the future, these robust, small-scale robots could be useful for search and rescue missions and for fitting into tight, dangerous spaces.

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Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of our most recent PhD graduates and welcoming them as important members of the IB alumni community!

You can view individual alumni profiles highlighting their achievements, professional plans as well as some interesting personal projects here.