Latest news with #UniversityOfCaliforniaBerkeley
CBS News
a day ago
- Business
- CBS News
UC Berkeley professor killed, reportedly by masked gunman in Greece
A marketing professor at the University of California, Berkeley has died, reportedly after being gunned down by a masked gunman while visiting Greece earlier this month. The university confirmed to CBS News Bay Area on Saturday the death of Przemyslaw "Pshemek" Jeziorski, an associate professor at the Haas School of Business. "We are heartbroken by news of the tragic and sudden death of Professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski, a beloved member of our marketing faculty and Haas community," said Jennifer Chatman, dean of Haas School of Business. A native of Poland, Jezioriski had taught at the business school since 2012. According to reports from Greek and Polish media outlets, Jezioriski was in a suburb of Athens near his ex-wife's home on July 4 when a masked gunman shot him at least five times. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Jeziorski had two children with his ex-wife, who returned to Greece after their divorce six years ago. According to her attorney, the former couple were in the midst of a child custody dispute. CBS News Bay Area was unable to independently verify these reports. "While authorities are investigating what happened, our focus is on supporting our community during this difficult period. My heart goes out to Przemek's family and loved ones. We will miss him," Chatman added. Łukasz Jeziorski, Przemyslaw's brother, said on a European crowdfunding site, "He was the victim of a terrible crime, and the perpetrator is still at large. Our family is heartbroken, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that justice is served." Jezioriski previously studied at the Warsaw School of Economics, the University of Arizona, the University of Chicago and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Outside of his work at the university, Jeziorski co-founded the startup Keybee, a service that helps manage short-term rentals.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Incredible timelapse shows how Camp Mystic was a sitting duck in high-risk flood zone as death toll hits 129
A striking timelapse shows the Guadalupe River rapidly overtaking Camp Mystic, the all-girls Christian camp where at least 27 children and staff members were killed in the early hours of July 4. Camp Mystic, which has hosted generations of girls since 1926, sits along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas. Many of its cabins - including those that housed some of the youngest victims - were constructed within federally designated flood zones and floodways, areas considered so hazardous that construction is typically restricted or prohibited entirely. Emergency officials now say some of the worst damage occurred in a section of the camp, dubbed 'The Flats,' where cabins were located directly in the river's floodway - the zone typically reserved for fast-moving floodwaters in extreme events. Anna Serra-Llobet, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in flood risk management, said it was 'problematic' to build a camp that houses children in an area so susceptible to flooding. 'It's like pitching a tent in the highway,' Serra-Llobet told the New York Times. 'It's going to happen, sooner or later - a car is going to come, or a big flood is going to come.' In 2019, the all-girls camp completed a $5 million expansion, adding new cabins and buildings to accommodate growing demand. While some of that construction occurred on higher ground, records show that several new buildings were still placed in flood-prone areas - and the original riverfront cabins remained in use. Despite a long history of deadly floods in the region - including one in 1987 that killed 10 campers at a different site - Kerr County officials approved the expansion. At the time, flood experts say the camp should have used the opportunity to relocate or elevate vulnerable structures. 'Any time you house large groups of children near a river with a history of flooding, there has to be a serious reassessment of risk,' Hiba Baroud, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate, told the Times. 'In this case, the dangers were well known.' Kerr County adopted stricter floodway regulations in 2020, stating that such areas pose 'an extremely hazardous' threat to human life. Yet existing cabins at Camp Mystic remained in place. As storms dumped heavy rain upstream on July 3, local officials received rainfall and river-level data from a network of gauges - a system originally installed after past deadly floods. Despite years of discussion about upgrading the county's flood alert infrastructure — including better sirens and communication tools — local efforts stalled due to funding shortages and political inaction. Meanwhile, the camp's riverside buildings remained in daily use. Baroud said the tragedy at Camp Mystic should serve as a national reminder of the dangers posed by riverfront development in a changing climate. 'These events are devastating, and they're also preventable,' she said. 'We can't keep placing people - especially children - in harm's way and acting surprised when the worst happens.' However, by the time water began rising around 2am on July 4, most of the campers were asleep and some cabins were quickly overwhelmed, while others were torn completely apart. Search crews later described finding beds flipped over and belongings swept hundreds of yards downstream. At least 27 campers and staff died in the flood - all at Camp Mystic. The statewide death toll from the series of floods that struck Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana has risen to 129. Camp officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment, however, in a brief statement on their website, the camp wrote: 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly.' Just two days ahead of the disastrous flood, the Christian girls camp passed a state inspection. Inspectors noted the presence of emergency plans but did not include specifics, the New York Times reported. Camp Mystic's co-owner and longtime executive director, Dick Eastland, was among those killed in the flooding. In interviews over the years, the property owner had acknowledged the power of the Guadalupe but often emphasized that safety systems were in place. In 1990, after helping install the river gauge warning system, he reportedly told the Austin American-Statesman: 'The river is beautiful, but you have to respect it.' State and local officials have launched formal investigations into the camp's preparedness, construction approvals, and emergency procedures. Legal experts say civil lawsuits are likely as grieving families seek answers about why the camp was allowed to operate in such a high-risk area. Environmental and safety advocates are now calling for tighter enforcement of floodway building restrictions and better oversight of seasonal camps nationwide.
Forbes
07-07-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Which Universities Mint The Most PhDs In Key Technology Areas?
A massive study of 1.2 million STEM PhD dissertations sheds light on their funding sources and the ... More universities where much of the research in critical technology areas is being conducted. MIT, Stanford University, and the University of California-Berkeley are the top producers of PhDs across several technology areas critical to U.S. innovation and security, according to a new study. That same study found that the federal government was the dominant funding source for doctoral STEM research, far outpacing support from both private industry and nonprofit organizations. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper titled Funding the U.S. Scientific Training Ecosystem: New Data, Methods, and Evidence, authors Dror Shvadron (University of Toronto), Hansen Zhang (Duke University), Lee Fleming University of California-Berkeley, and Daniel P. Gross (Duke University) examined 1.2 million PhD dissertations completed between 1950 and 2022. They obtained information about the dissertations from three sources: the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database, which republishes dissertations completed at most universities; OpenAlex, an open-access bibliometric database; and individual university libraries. For their sample, they identified the university granting the degree and the topic under study. They focused on STEM dissertations in the life sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, and engineering. Based on the dissertation texts, they also were able to determine the source of financial sponsorship for the research for about 870,000 dissertations out of the 1.2 million. The gap was due primarily to missing full-text data for older dissertations, especially those before 2000. They also classified those dissertations that addressed any of 18 critical technology areas identified in 2024 by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as 'critical and emerging technologies (CETs) that are potentially significant to U.S. national security.' Those technologies have been considered crucial to charting 'new pathways in American innovation and strengthen the nation's security.' The researchers listed the top five universities and sources of support for PhD graduates between 2000 and 2022 in each of the 12 largest CETs: Advanced Computing, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Autonomous Systems, Biotechnology, Clean Energy Generation and Storage, Communications and Networking, Data Privacy and Cybersecurity, Microelectronics and Semiconductors, Networked Sensing, Quantum Science, and Space Technology. MIT ranked in the top 5 in 10 of the 12 areas and was the leader in 4 of the categories (Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Autonomous Systems, Quantum Systems). It was followed by Stanford University, which placed in the top 5 in 9 areas and led in four (Advanced Computing, Clean Energy Generation and Storage, Microelectronics and Semiconductors, and Networked Sensing). UC Berkeley achieved a top 5 ranking in 7 of the 12 areas. The University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Purdue University, and UCLA also ranked among the top 5 institutions in 4 or more of the CETs. The University of Wisconsin ranked first in Biotechnology dissertations. UCLA led in Communications and Networking. Purdue claimed the top spot in Data Privacy and Cybersecurity. The University of Colorado-Boulder was first in Space Technology. In addition, they considered PhDs conducted on artificial intelligence topics as a separate category. For dissertations on AI, the top ten institutions, in order, were: Stanford University, MIT, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Maryland-College Park, Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Washington, UCLA, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois. It is important to recognize that these rankings were limited to institutions included in the ProQuest dataset. Therefore, universities that stopped reporting their dissertations to that data base at some point are undercounted. Georgia Tech is an example of an institution whose rankings are likely underestimated for this reason. The researchers also found that the federal government has historically been by far the largest sponsor of STEM PhD training both historically and currently. In 2022, roughly 50% of the PhDs in the sample acknowledged in their dissertations that they had received some type of support. Federal agencies were by far the most common funders, supporting 42% of the graduates. Roughly 15% were supported by non-profit organizations, and 10% by private companies. The funding patterns have changed over time. Federal support for STEM dissertations peaked in 1967 at 52.5%, before declining in the 1970s, and stabilizing in the 1980s. It has increased modestly since 2000. The four largest federal sponsors are the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy. Individually, 12 different federal agencies have each supported more dissertations than the largest private company (Intel) or non-profit organization (the Howard Hughes Medical Institute). The National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health were each acknowledged by more PhD graduates than all the sponsors in the entire commercial sector combined. Although this pattern of government dominance was found for most universities and STEM fields, there were some between-field variations. For example, astronomy and astrophysics dissertations rely heavily on government support, while those in pharmaceutical science and automotive engineering receive more industry funding. In subjects like geology and materials science, support was provided by both sectors. Of course, some dissertation writers may have neglected to credit their funding source, and some universities no longer participate in ProQuest, introducing the risk of some undercounting. However, the authors contend that such sources of attrition are modest, leading them to conclude that 'U.S. scientific training, and in turn the future scientific workforce, is heavily underwritten by the U.S. government.' The study confirms the central role played by federal funding in supporting STEM doctoral research, a finding that comes as the Trump administration is freezing and cancelling billions of dollars in government funding across a broad swath of scientific areas. Those cutbacks have led to calls for increased support from private business and foundations, but the magnitude of federal funding in nearly all science and engineering fields dwarfs that received from nonfederal sources, making it highly unlikely that nonfederal subsidies could ever become a viable option for adequate funding of STEM doctoral research. As Shvadron told me, 'the U.S. science and innovation ecosystem relies on a complex network of funders, with the federal government playing a central role. That role is unlikely to be replaced by other sources of funding.' In addition, even if private and non-profit funders were to increase their support in response to government cuts, their priorities would likely differ, shifting the scope and focus of graduate training. "As government support declines, we should expect a reduction in the number of STEM graduate students trained in the U.S. Unfortunately, the full implications of such cuts will only become apparent over the long run,' Shvadron added.
