Alameda, another bidder for the site, has put $20,000 behind a “Let’s put the (Alameda) Point to work” campaign.

Three Berkeley sites are also on the Lab’s shortlist of six … Continue reading »]]>

Richmond City illustration of a possible LBNL second campus site

Richmond is pulling out all the stops in its bid to persuade the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to build its second campus there. A full-blown, city-sponsored advertising campaign includes a billboard on I-80, lawn signs for residents’ front yards and “Richmond (Heart) LBNL” buttons available for all to wear.

Alameda, another bidder for the site, has put $20,000 behind a “Let’s put the (Alameda) Point to work” campaign.

Three Berkeley sites are also on the Lab’s shortlist of six — but if there’s a Berkeley welcoming committee, it’s certainly not making its efforts very visible.

The main reason for that is that the three Berkeley-related bids were submitted by private companies, unlike in Richmond and Alameda where the cities signed off on the bids.(...)

Read the rest of Berkeley bids for second Lab campus fly under the radar (745 words)

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | 36 comments |
Post tags: Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, Laurie Capitelli, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, West Berkeley plan

Tomorrow, however, 4,000 members of the public will get a rare chance to visit the Lab on its first Open Day in eight years. The visitors will be able to take bus tours of the site, but the main activities will … Continue reading »]]>

Aerial view of Lawrence Berkeley Lab/Photo: LBL

For most residents of Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is a mysterious presence on the hills over the university campus. Unless you work there or have business there, you won’t get passed the security on the gates.

Tomorrow, however, 4,000 members of the public will get a rare chance to visit the Lab on its first Open Day in eight years. The visitors will be able to take bus tours of the site, but the main activities will be in a covered tent space with exhibits and demonstrations about the scientific work that goes on at the Lab. Many of the exhibits will be on the pioneering work done at the Lab on energy.

“Our goal is to explain and entice the public with science, especially for families and kids,” said Jeff Miller, a spokesperson for LBL. “It’s as much a festival as an Open Day.”

Miller explained that the Lab runs monthly tours, but can only handle 30 people at a time. “We want people to come,” he said. “It’s great that we’re going to have so many people come out.”

LBL is one of the largest employers in Berkeley, with 3,800 employees (1,000 of whom will be at the Lab tomorrow for the Open Day), 25% of whom are Berkeleyans. It’s one of the smallest sites among the network of national labs, run by the Department of Energy. LBL recently announced it was starting a search for a second campus in the East Bay.

By lance. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Computer sciencist Horst Simon named Deputy Director of Berkeley Labs [HPC Wire]
Berkeley youth find tobacco making comeback in their culture [City of Berkeley]
Non-profit land holdings not financially helpful to city of Berkeley [Daily Cal]
UC Berkeley to hold forum on teacher evaluations [Oakland Tribune]
Local intelligence: the story behind North Berkeley’s Indian Rock [The Bay Citizen]

Photo: It’s just that kind of day by Keoki … Continue reading »]]>

Computer sciencist Horst Simon named Deputy Director of Berkeley Labs [HPC Wire]
Berkeley youth find tobacco making comeback in their culture [City of Berkeley]
Non-profit land holdings not financially helpful to city of Berkeley [Daily Cal]
UC Berkeley to hold forum on teacher evaluations [Oakland Tribune]
Local intelligence: the story behind North Berkeley’s Indian Rock [The Bay Citizen]

Photo: It’s just that kind of day by Keoki Seu/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: City of Berkeley budget, Indian Rock, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, UC Berkeley

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is determined to be a good neighbor and, under director Paul Alivisatos, it has launched a number of initiatives to stay in close communication with Berkeley residents.

A recently formed Community Advisory Group is holding meetings every two months with the public to provide information on the Lab’s physical planning and development.

The most recent meeting took place on July 8 at the North Berkeley Senior Center and focused on the geology and … Continue reading »]]>

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is determined to be a good neighbor and, under director Paul Alivisatos, it has launched a number of initiatives to stay in close communication with Berkeley residents.

A recently formed Community Advisory Group is holding meetings every two months with the public to provide information on the Lab’s physical planning and development.

The most recent meeting took place on July 8 at the North Berkeley Senior Center and focused on the geology and geotechnical conditions of Berkeley Lab, which is situated on 200 acres in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus.

Experts described recent geological findings at the Lab site as well as the ongoing program for improving geotechnical safety. There was also a brief update on the facilities projects under way or currently being planned at Berkeley Lab, including the demolition of buildings in the “Old Town” section of the Lab  and construction of a low-energy integrated building systems user facility.

Berkeley Lab has also recently re-started Laboratory tours. They take place once a month on Friday mornings and are open to anyone age 16 or older.

The next meeting will be held September 13, 7- 9:30 p.m., also at the North Berkeley Senior Center. The topic has not yet been determined, though members of the public are encouraged to attend.

For more information on LBNL, including agendas and summaries of all past Community Advisory Group meetings, visit the LBNL website.

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Bertozzi was cited for a number of specific contributions. She developed the concept of bioorthogonal chemical … Continue reading »]]> Carolyn Bertozzi (right), who holds appointments in both chemistry and molecular and cell biology at Berkeley, has won the 2010 Lemelson-MIT Prize for “her pioneering inventions in the field of biotechnology”. The $500,000 prize has been dubbed the “Oscar for inventors”, and is awarded to outstanding mid-career inventors “who have developed a patented product or process of significant value to society”.

Bertozzi was cited for a number of specific contributions. She developed the concept of bioorthogonal chemical reactions, a term she coined to describe chemical reactions that neither interact nor interfere with biological molecules. Researchers are using these bioorthogonal reactions for a myriad of applications. In her own lab, Bertozzi is using bioorthogonal reactions to label cell surface sugars with imaging probes. This could potentially be important in cancer detection.

Building on this work, Bertozzi developed a genetically encoded aldehyde tag technology. The technology enables site-specific modification of proteins expressed in any cell type. Finally, Bertozzi developed a cell nanoinjector.  An individual carbon nanotube is mounted on the tip of an atomic force microscope. The “cargo” for the cell is attached to the nanotube with a chemical bond. After the “nanoneedle” penetrates the cell membrane, the cargo is released into the cell. Unlike previous technologies, Bertozzi’s nanoinjector causes no visible harm to the cell.

In an email exchange with CNet, Bertozzi said the prize would help her on a personal level. “From the personal standpoint, the prize will give me more flexibility with regard to child care — a challenge for all working families — and, accordingly, enable me to pursue new entrepreneurial activities that include students and other trainees,” she said.

At the university, Bertozzi has won a number of teaching awards since she joined the faculty in 1996. She has mentored around 130 budding chemists and established the graduate chemical biology program. In addition to her faculty appointments at Berkeley, Bertozzi is the Director of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

By lance. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Carolyn Bertozzi, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Lemelson-MIT Prize

UC Berkeley prof under investigation for controversial Aids article [Daily Cal]
Sims named new varsity football coach at BHS [Contra Costa Times]
America’s most stoned cities: we’re number 26 (shared with Oakland) [Daily Beast]
Alice Waters TV? It could happen [Associated Press]
Best and brightest here at Berkeley Lab [Innovation]

Photo by Keoki Seu from Berkeleyside Flickr pool

By lance. | Permalink | No comment | … Continue reading »]]>

UC Berkeley prof under investigation for controversial Aids article [Daily Cal]
Sims named new varsity football coach at BHS [Contra Costa Times]
America’s most stoned cities: we’re number 26 (shared with Oakland) [Daily Beast]
Alice Waters TV? It could happen [Associated Press]
Best and brightest here at Berkeley Lab [Innovation]

Photo by Keoki Seu from Berkeleyside Flickr pool

By lance. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Alice Waters, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

The Helios project was originally conceived by Steve Chu, then director of Lawrence Berkeley Lab, now US Secretary of Energy. It is designed to bring together LBL and UC … Continue reading »]]>

Artist's rendering by Jennifer Mahoney

New plans for the Helios Energy Research Facility will be presented to the UC Board of Regents next week. The project calls for a new five-story, 112,800 sq ft building across the street from the UC Berkeley campus, on the site bounded by Oxford, Berkeley Way, Shattuck and Hearst.

The Helios project was originally conceived by Steve Chu, then director of Lawrence Berkeley Lab, now US Secretary of Energy. It is designed to bring together LBL and UC Berkeley researchers working on solar energy, biofuels and other ways to curb climate change. The original plan was to construct a large building on LBL land in Strawberry Canyon. The new scheme — Helios West — will replace a grim, unused 1950s building that once housed California Department of Health Services offices. Ultimately, a second, smaller building — Helios East — will be constructed on the Strawberry Canyon site.

Helios West will house the BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute, a collaborative project between LBL, UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois, and the university’s bioengineering department. Helios East, which is planned to be a 21,000 sq ft building, will house the Solar Energy Research Center.

The Helios West plan has been discussed at the city’s Planning Commission and Design Review Committee. It has also been presented at a number of public meetings for comment. Helios West will be built on Hearst, at the east end of the site, with a public park to the south and a new pedestrian pathway along Walnut Street (see rendering above), which is currently blocked by the old DHS building. Ultimately, the plan is for a new community health campus, integrating optometry, neuroscience and some other programs, on the west end of the site, but those have been shelved because of budgetary constraints.

By lance. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Helios, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Steve Chu, UC Berkeley

Chu won the Nobel prize for physics in 1997 for his work on trapping atoms with laser light. When he became director of LBL, he turned much of his attention to energy and climate issues, … Continue reading »]]>

Lawrence Berkeley Nat'l Lab - Roy Kaltschmidt, photographer

Steve Chu, energy secretary in the Obama administration, returned to Berkeley today to speak to his former colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL). If you’re reading Berkeleyside before the 10:30 finish to Chu’s presentation, you can watch a live webcast.

Chu won the Nobel prize for physics in 1997 for his work on trapping atoms with laser light. When he became director of LBL, he turned much of his attention to energy and climate issues, which are at the core of his work at the Department of Energy.

By lance. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Steve Chu