Thomas J. White and John W. Taylor began their collaboration on fungal molecular evolution more than 30 years ago when Taylor, a PMB professor, invited White, a biotech pioneer, to an informal seminar in the Botany Department on the Berkeley campus. White was invited to present his Cetus Corporation research on fungal enzymes that convert plant cell walls to sugar.

Following that meeting, they used a cloned fungal ribosomal DNA to show that fungi were not close relatives of red algae (Kwok et al. 1986); a modest accomplishment, but one of the first efforts to apply molecular evolution to fungi.

Today the pair are collaborating on a lecture series that kicked off in January with an extremely well-attended Regents' Lecture. White will again be back on campus in April to give another seminar to the department. Read more about the history of their collaborations, all of the papers they've published together and see a video of the Regents' Lecture at our web site.

A series of important and sweeping changes are coming to all UC Berkeley labs.

 

UC is proposing systemwide policies on Personal Protective Equipment, Laboratory Safety Training, and Minors in Laboratories and Shops.

 

The main focus of the policies is to help prevent workplace injuries and illnesses among faculty, staff, students, volunteers and visitors.

 

View the proposed policies at pmb.berkeley.edu/safety 

  

 

In April 2013, Shared Services for Research Administration will "go live" and begin providing services to a number of departments, including PMB.

 

Decisions concerning how the new Research Administration model will work, as well as elements of the organizational structure, are still being discussed.  As we move closer to implementation, we do know:

• Faculty will have a single point of contact, familiar with their research
• Research Administrators will remain physically located on campus
• Departments will be supported by a team, so that work continues seamlessly if the primary contact is out of the office
• Faculty will have clear feedback loops and steps for escalating issues

Training sessions - in person or on the Web - are now being offered to faculty, students and staff. The sessions are very user-friendly and are led by instructors knowledgeable in all Google applications. There is a wealth of opportunity and new, better ways to send email, plan your day and work with colleagues near and far using the new campus Google tools. Sign up for classroom training at the UC Learning Center - login through the  blu portal, select Learning Center on the left and search by course title or the term 'bConnected'.   For more information, visit bconnected-project.berkeley.edu/trainingsupport.