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Engineering a Medal When senior Christine Ng first told friends and relatives that she planned to come to Berkeley, some tried to deter her, saying that it would be an “impersonal, brutally competitive environment.” But Ng was not put off and now, four years later, the 21-year-old civil and environmental engineering major has been awarded the University Medal—the highest undergraduate honor. Berkeley turned out to be a more hospitable environment than expected: “My classmates and friends here at Cal, especially in the engineering student community, have embodied the spirit of cooperation, taking on challenges together and encouraging each other to succeed,” said Ng during her speech at Commencement Convocation on May 9. She was able to succeed at Berkeley, she says, “without diminishing the achievements of others.” To be nominated for the University Medal, seniors must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.96, and must also show involvement in the campus community. Ng averaged a 3.992. Yet, when Ng first arrived in Berkeley she was unsure of herself, coming from an all-girls high school to join the predominantly male College of Engineering. To handle this dramatic change, she joined the Society of Women Engineers. Now, Ng is president of that society and, through visits to local schools, she hopes to inspire young girls to consider civil engineering as a career option. That outreach work helped her to win the medal, says Joseph Lai, a student on the prize committee. “Her compelling talk about the need to bring more women into the field of engineering made her stand out from the other candidates,” he says. Ng will attend graduate school at MIT in the fall and hopes to make a career combining civil and environmental engineering with public policy—an unusual course. “Now the decisions [to build roads and dams] are pretty much made by bureaucrats, who don’t understand engineering,” says Ng, who plans to give special emphasis in her work to environmental considerations. One of her professors, Arpad Horvath, director of the consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing, says of Ng, “I have not known an undergraduate more prepared for graduate school. She is a superb individual, precise in her coursework and innovative in her research projects.” Although she studied hard to get such high grades, Ng also found time to take part in the campus and wider community—she has been a member of the Faculty Committee for Undergraduate Studies, helped refurbish homes for the needy, and has collected for the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Ng says that it was her fellow students who gave her the idea to get involved: “In my first year, I learned that so many students devoted themselves selflessly to a worthwhile cause or activity. It inspired me to find a way to advance a cause that is important to me.”  Distinguished teachers Since 1959, when the first teachers were honored by the Academic Senate Committee on Teaching, fewer than 200 teachers have been labeled “distinguished” by the campus. This spring, four more faculty members were given Distinguished Teaching Awards, co-sponsored by the California Alumni Association (left to right): Sara Beckman of the Haas School of Business, Ronald Gronsky of materials science and engineering, French lecturer Seda Chavdarian, and assistant professor of chemistry Carolyn Bertozzi. Still dominant
Photo by Dan Ostmann  Haas awards (Photo by Peg Skorpinski) Yugoslav resistance leader Zivorad Kovacevic, M.A. ’60, and Amy Lemley ’98 (pictured here with Chancellor Berdahl) were honored this spring with awards from the Haas family. Kovacevic received this year’s Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award for his longstanding defense of democracy and the environment in his native Yugoslavia. Lemley was given the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award for her advocacy on behalf of foster youth. She co-founded First Place Fund for Youth, an East Bay nonprofit organization that helps young people in their transition from foster homes to independent adulthood. Head of the whole crew In a move that surprised everyone, in late April Chancellor Robert Berdahl picked Steve Gladstone to be Cal’s next athletic director. Gladstone, 59, one of the nation’s top crew coaches, has been director of rowing and men’s varsity crew coach at Berkeley twice, from 1972 to 1980 and since 1996. He has led Cal teams to three national titles, including back-to-back championships the last two years, and has the top-ranked team this season. “Steve Gladstone is a person who can lead this very good program to the next level, to make it an exemplary championship program in every way,” Berdahl said at the press conference April 30.
After his first stint at Cal, Gladstone established a top-flight crew program at Brown University, winning five national championships and also serving as interim athletic director. “I am very happy and truly honored to be appointed Cal’s athletic director,” Gladstone said. “We will work together to instill Berkeley’s championship standard throughout the entire athletic department. I believe my strength is in building trust,” he added, “and that is the underpinning of building a championship team.” Gladstone was a varsity oarsman at Syracuse University, where he received his B.A. in American literature. His first coaching position was at Princeton University; four years later he took over as varsity lightweight coach at Harvard, leading his teams to four straight undefeated seasons. The son of a broadcast journalist, Gladstone was hired in 1984 by ABC sports as an expert commentator for rowing at the Los Angeles Olympics; NBC brought him into the booth four years later at the Seoul Olympic Games. A national search committee—which included Gladstone himself— had worked for months to find a replacement for John Kasser, who retired as Cal’s A.D. last December. Acting athletic director Bob Driscoll and Vanderbilt associate athletic director Brad Bates were the top two candidates before Berdahl made his surprise choice late in the process. |
 Photo by Peg Skorpinski
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