Ken Goldberg Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
We are proud to announce that co-founders and current faculty member of the Berkeley Center for New Media, Ken Goldberg, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
From Berkeley News:
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced this week that four UC Berkeley faculty — including a chemical engineer, a biochemist, a roboticist and a laser dynamicist — have been elected to its ranks.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice or education. Members are also recognized for pioneering new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering or developing and implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.
This announcement brings the total number of NAE members to 2,534 nationwide and 356 internationally.
The Berkeley honorees include:
Nitash Balsara, the Charles W. Tobias Professor of Electrochemistry in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was honored for his research on the relationship between the mechanical and electrical properties of block copolymer electrolytes. This research has helped improve the performance and safety of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.
Jennifer Doudna, the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences, was recognized for developing widely adopted DNA and RNA editing methods based on CRISPR-Cas9. Doudna is a professor in the departments of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology, an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the founding director of the Innovative Genomics Institute, a member of QB3 and a faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab. Also a winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Doudna is one of only a few dozen people to be elected to all three honorary organizations within the National Academies: the National Academy of Sciences (2002), the National Academy of Medicine (2010) and the National Academy of Engineering (2026).
Ken Goldberg, professor of industrial engineering and operations research and of electrical engineering and computer sciences, is recognized for contributions to practice, research and education in robotics and automation for industrial parts handling. He serves as director of UC Berkeley’s AUTOLab, where he supervises research on robotics, with an emphasis on AI and robot learning. Goldberg is also a professional artist and holds an appointment at UCSF, where he conducts research in medical robotics.
Kam Lau, professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer sciences, is cited for contributions to semiconductor lasers and radio frequency over fiber systems. His innovative research in semiconductor laser dynamics was central to enabling linear fiber-optic transmission products for Hybrid-Fiber-Coax infrastructure, widely deployed today for CATV-distribution and cable modem internet access.