$20 Million Awarded
For Stem Cell Research

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine yesterday awarded $20.18 million to UC Berkeley to build centralized stem cell laboratories on campus in a new biomedical research building now under construction. The grant will fund the creation of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, which includes collaborators from Berkeley Lab and the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. David Schaffer, with the Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division, is the associate director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center. Full story.

Slain UC Berkeley Student
Worked In Lab’s AFRD

Wootton

UC Berkeley senior and Berkeley Lab employee Christopher Wootton was fatally stabbed during an altercation just off campus last Saturday. He was 21 and due to graduate later this month. Wootton will be remembered by several Lab staff who worked with him in the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, including Steve Lund, who hired him last summer. Go here to read a letter from Lund on the life and passing of Wootten. Those who would like to seek grief counseling can contact CARE Services at 643-7754.

Lab Scientist’s Juneau
Mission a Big Success

Meier

On April 28, Today at Berkeley Lab reported that Alan Meier, with the Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, was headed to Juneau, Alaska to work with community leaders on conservation measures in the wake of recent avalanches that took out transmission lines from a nearby hydroelectric facility. Meier reports that following two days of meetings, media interviews and on-air radio sessions, plus several energy audits at local businesses, the demand for electricity has already been reduced by 30 percent, with a good chance of an additional 15 percent reduction to come. “It’s one of the most rapid voluntary reductions in electricity use that I have observed,” Meier said.

Solar Energy-to-Fuel
Topic of Theatre Talk

Nate Lewis, with Berkeley Lab’s Solar Energy Research Center, presents the next “Science at the Theatre” talk on Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He will discuss “Capturing Solar Energy for Transportation Fuel." The challenge of capturing solar energy and storing it as an affordable transportation fuel, says Lewis, requires developing new materials that can use abundant and inexpensive elements. The talk is free and open to the public. Go here for more information.