Berkeley is the simplified name for University of California, Berkeley. Set up in year 1868, it is the oldest branch school among all branch schools of the University of California. Also, it is one of the starting members of the Association of American Universities. Just as Stanford and MIT, it is the leader in America’s engineer world.
The school enjoys high reputation in the scholar circle in the world, and has abundant resources, and has strong ability of researching. It has 14 academies, and it has all majors that universities can have. Many of its majors are among the top of America, including chemistry, mathematics, English, politics, the history of art, music, mechanical engineering and physics.
The mid of 20th century is the golden age for Berkeley’s physics, chemistry and biology. With cyclotron invented by Ernest O. Lawrence, scientists in this school discovered many chemical elements that are heavier than aranium, for example, Berkelium and Californium, which, apparently, are named after the school. During the Second World War, Lawrence’s Radiation Laboratory was in charge of the development plan of atomic bombs for American military.
Berkeley became famous in the world for its students’ protest of the American government during the Vietnam War. The Free Speech Movement in 1964 in Berkeley changed view of politics and morality of a whole generation.
There are more than 69 Nobel Prize winners that have worked or studied at Berkeley, including 35 alumni. Also, there are 15 A.M. Turing Award winners and 7 Fields Medal winners. In the ten-year-once National Research Council’s ranking of all universities in 1995, 35 of its 36 subjects came into America’s top ten. Besides, among its professors, there are 136 academicians from National Academy of Sciences, and 91 academicians from National Academy of Engineering. Also, the number of graduates that have won National Science Foundation fellowship tops all American schools. Surprisingly, there are three Nobel Prize winners that are related to Berkeley in year 2009 and year 2011. This again increases Berkeley’s reputation.
Despite in scholar world, Berkeley is also outstanding in sports. In total, its alumni have won 91 gold medals, 40 silver medals, and 28 bronze medals in the Olympic Games. Its rowing team has won gold medal for America in the Olympics, which is a world record.
There are many Chinese famous people who once were students in Berkeley. Famous ones are like Chien-Shiung Wu(吴健雄), the widely recognized ‘greatest female scientist after Madame Curie ‘, Luke Chia-Liu Yuan(袁家骝), the great Chinese physicist and the grandson of influential Chinese politician Yuan Shikai(袁世凯), Zheng Zhonghan(郑中翰), Chief director of China’s microelectronic program.
Also, the famous American students are like Earl Warren, Jimmy Doolittle, Gordon E. Moore, Norman Mineta, Steven Chu, and Steve Wozniak.
Berkeley has much cooperation with Chinese universities, and there are many universities that have summer or winter holiday exchange programs with it. These schools include Zhejiang Gongshang University(浙江工商大学), Beijing Foreign studies University(北京外国语大学), Chongqing University(重庆大学), Wenzhou University(温州大学), East China Normal University(华东师范大学), Southwest Jiaotong University(西南交通大学), Nanjing Audit University(南京审计学院), East China University of Science and Technology(华东理工大学), Nankai University(南开大学), North China Electronic Power University(华北电力大学), Sun- Yat-Sen University(中山大学), Xi’an Jiaotong University(西安交通大学) and Jiangnan University(江南大学). These programs provide excellent students the chance to experience the world’s best university for several weeks, which has a lot of benefit for these students’ studies, and also for their horizons.
Edited by Amy Wang from Daxue Consultant China
Credit Photo: Baidu
