Recollections: Part 1 – My days at Berkeley, 9/1978 – 12/1983 – About my doctoral advisor, Allan Pred, other Professors and other Peers
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
UPDATED on 5/28/2021
Image Source: Photo by Keegan Houser
UC Berkeley top U.S. public, fourth overall in QS World rankings
The new rankings examined the following areas:
- research,
- learning experience,
- diversity and internationalism, and
- employability.
UC Berkeley ranks nationally as the No. 1 public and fourth-best university overall, according to the QS World University Rankings’ 2021 listing of top American universities.
Harvard University, Stanford University and MIT took the top three spots, with UCLA behind Berkeley to round out the top five universities with the highest overall scores across the four criteria of research, learning experience, diversity and internationalism, and employability.
As for the top five public universities, after UC Berkeley and UCLA, the University of Michigan ranked 18th, the University of Washington 24th and UC San Diego at 27th.
Three other UC campuses made the top 50, with UC Davis placing 34th, UC Santa Barbara 43rd and UC Irvine 45th.
These latest rankings by the United Kingdom-based QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), a company that specializes in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world, evaluated 350 research universities in 49 states. New York state had 74 universities in the rankings, while California was the next best-performing with 38.
SOURCE:
https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/05/05/uc-berkeley-top-u-s-public-fourth-overall-in-qs-world-rankings/
September 2009
May 4, 2018
Reflections on a Four-phase Career:
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, March 2018
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Public Eulogy of Note: Prof. Allan Pred, University of California, Berkeley
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Public Eulogy of Note: Prof. David Hooson, University of California, Berkeley
I was featured in May 2018 e-Newsletter’s ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT of American Friends of Hebrew University
https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?u=5c25136c60d4dfc4d3bb36eee&id=757c5c3aae&e=d09d2b8d72
I had an e-mail exchange with Prof. Michael Watts after I shared this news with him.
When Prof. Allan Pred was on sabbatical, 1980 – 1983, Prof. Michael Watts served as my acting advisor.
From: “Prof. Michael Watts” <mwatts@berkeley.edu>
Date: Sunday, May 13, 2018 at 1:29 PM
To: Aviva Lev-Ari <AvivaLev-Ari@alum.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: Sharing with you — This May 2018, Official Newsletter has a Global distribution of half a million Inboxes: See article on Aviva Lev-Ari in ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT of American Friends of Hebrew University
Dear Aviva: a very long time! Nice to hear from you and your later extraordinary career! And it seems like you are now on Phase IV. Very exciting.
I am retiring in June but will of course keep writing and conducting research.
You may have heard that Allan’s wife Hjordis passed away relatively recently. It was nice to see their children again at the memorial.
Warmly, Michael
It was an opportunity to expand on my recollections of my time at Berkeley. I have expressed these thoughts as follows:
Recollections: Part 2 – “While Rolling” is preceded by “While Enrolling” Autobiographical Alumna Recollections of Berkeley – Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD’83
The Mentors
The three signatures on my doctoral dissertation, are:
- Prof. Allan Pred [died in 2007 at 70]
- Prof. Richard Walker, and
- Prof. John Freeman in the Business School [died in 2008 at 63]
Allan Pred – Wikipedia
He received his Ph.D. in 1962 from the University of Chicago, and then became an Assistant Professor atBerkeley, and was appointed full professor in 1971 at the age of 34. He served as the chair of the UCBerkeley Department of Geography between 1979 and 1988, and was made a Professor of the Graduate School in …
Allan Pred In Memoriam – Institute of International Studies – UC Berkeley
geog.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/faculty/AllanPred_InMemoriam.html
Jump to Geography biography Page – I am totally unconcerned with the disciplinary limits of geography, but fully concerned with geography as an ontological condition, as an inescapable existential reality. Everybody has a body, nobody can escape from their body, and consequently all human activity– every form of …
Geographer, social scientist Allan Pred dies at 70 – UC Berkeley
Jan 9, 2007 – “Allan Pred was a formidable intellectual, a brilliant thinker, a great humanist, a loyal and trusted friend, and a generous and engaged mentor,” said colleague Michael Watts, professor ofgeography and director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies. “He was the central figure in the making of a …
Allan Pred Biography
geog.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/faculty/A_Pred.html
Allan R. Pred. Professor Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1962 apred@berkeley.edu. Interests: Critical human geography, historical geography of the present, the cultural reworking of “globalization,” Sweden, Europe and the U.S.. I am totally unconcerned with the disciplinary limits of geography, but fully concerned with …
Pred, Allan | AAG
To his colleagues and students, Allan Pred was a formidable intellectual, a brilliant thinker, a great humanist, a loyal and trusted friend, and a generous and engaged mentor. He was the central figure in the making of a distinctive Berkeley approach to geography over the last generation and he left an indelible stamp on the …
Allan Pred – Geography
Oct 25, 2012 – Even in Sweden, Racisms, Racialized Spaces, and the Popular Geographical Imagination. California: UCPress. Watts M, In Memoriam Allan Richard Pred, Professor of Geography, Berkeley 1936 – 200, http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/allanrichardpred.htm, 5 October 2010.
Allan Pred — social scientist who focused on geography’s insights …
Jan 16, 2007 – Allan Richard Pred, a social scientist who transformed UC Berkeley’s geography program and became one of the field’s fiercest and most prolific scholars, died of lung cancer last Friday at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley. Professor Pred, who retired from the UC Berkeley faculty last year after a …
Allan Richard Pred – the Academic Senate – University of California
To his colleagues and students, Allan Pred was a formidable intellectual, a brilliant thinker, a great humanist, a loyal and trusted friend, and a generous and engaged mentor. He was the central figure in the making of a distinctive Berkeley approach to geography over the last generation, and he left an indelible stamp on the …
Allan Pred @ PredFest – 21 April 2006 – YouTube
University of California: Berkeley, Department of Geography PredFest: A Symposium in Honor of Allan Pred …
Allan Pred: scholar, teacher and rebel – SAGE Journals
Allan R. Pred, one of the world’s leading geographers and social scientists, died of lung cancer on 5 January 2007, at the age of 70. He had just retired in May 2006 after 44 years at the University of California, Berkeley. His last public address, to the Geography graduation in May 2006, was Allan at full bore: raging against a …
The Peers
Below, I cite names of my peers during the years I was at Berkeley.
In Green are my peers during the five years of my doctoral studies under Prof. Allan Pred, Advisor.
List of PhD Dissertations @Geography, University of California Berkeley, 1980 – 1985.
1985
Beck, Joanna Eunice. “Environmental Determinism in Twentieth Century American Geography: Reflections in Professional Journals.” (Laney College, Oakland, California)
1984
Hale, George Robert. “Reassessment of the Death Valley-Colorado River Overflow Hypothesis in Light of New Evidence.” (Oakland, CA)
Nelson, Kristin Louise. “Back Offices and Female Labor Markets: Office Suburbanization in the San Francisco Bay Area.” (Berkeley, CA)
Bassett, Thomas Joseph. “Food, Peasantry and the State in the Northern Ivory Coast: 1898-1982.” (Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois)
Godfrey, Brian John. “Inner-City Neighborhoods in Transition: The Morphogensis of San Francisco’s Ethnic and Nonconformist Communities.” (Department of Geography, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York)
Marburg, Sandra Lin. “Man’s Role, Woman’s Place: Images of Women in Human Geography.” (Oakland, CA)
1983
Christopherson, Susan Marie. “Family and Class in the New Industrial City.” [Ciudad Juarez, Mexico] (Department of City Planning, Cornell University) [Died 12/2014]
Groth, Paul Erling. “The Evolution and Exclusion of Hotels, Boarding Houses, Rooming Houses, and Lodging Houses in American Cities, 1880-1930.” (Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, California) Murphy, Michael Edward. “Irrigation in the Bajio Region of Colonial Mexico.” (San Francisco, California)
Priestaf, Iris Gail. “Sacramento River Seepage: alternative mitigating measures.” (D.K. Todd Consulting Engineering, Berkeley, California)
Bassin, Mark. “A Russian Mississippi? A Political-Geographical Inquiry into the Vision of Russia on the Pacific, 1840-1865.” (Department of Geography, University College, London, England)
Harms, Richard William. “Cirques of the Marble Mountains, Northwestern California.” (Bethesda, MD)
Heiman, Michael Kenneth. “Regional Planning and Land Use Reform for Conservation and Development in New York State.” Department of Environmental Studies, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA)
Lev-Ari, Aviva. “Corporate Growth and Locational Interdependence: Observations on the Production, Location, Merger Activity and Organizational Structure of American Paper Companies.”
Professional Career post UC, Berkeley:
- SRI, Int’l, 1985-1988,
- AMDAHL Corporation, 1988-1989
- MDSS, 1991-1994
- MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA, 1995-1997,
- PSC, 1997-2001,
- McGraw-Hill, 2002-2003,
- LPBI Group – 2012 – Present
See,
- Data Science is the Greatest Science !!!!! It is the Greatest Science for Women, as well
- Reflections on a Four-phase Career: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, March 2018
- e-Scientific Publishing: The Competitive Advantage of a Powerhouse for Curation of Scientific Findings and Methodology Development for e-Scientific Publishing – LPBI Group, A Case in Point
- 2018 CV
1982
Michaelsen, Joel Christian. “Large-Scale, Long Period Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions in the North Pacific Region.” (Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, California)
Savage, Victor Roger. “Western Cognition of Nature and Landscape in Southeast Asia.” (Department of Geography, University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore)
Yagasaki, Noritaka. “Ethnic Cooperativism and Immigrant Agriculture: a study of Japanese floriculture and truck farming in California.” (Department of Geography, University of Yokohama, Japan)
Hecht, Susanna Bettina. “Cattle Ranching Development in the Eastern Amazon: evaluation of a development policy.” (School of Public Policy and Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, California)
Storper, Michael Charles. “The Spatial Division of Labor: technology, the labor process, and the location of industries.” (School of Public Policy and Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, California)
1981
Kooser, Jaime Claire. “Regulation and System Interdependence: effects of the siting of California electrical energy facilities.”
Lewis, Nancy Davis. “Ciguatera, Health, and Human Adaptation in the Island Pacific.” (Department of Geography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii)
Liebman, Ellen. “The Evolution of Large Agricultural Landholdings in California.” (Richmond, CA)
1980
Fish, Merle Gerald, Jr. “EL CULTIVO DE ROZA: shifting cultivation in a dry forest of northwest Mexico.” (Department of Biology, Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina)
Henderson, Krimhilde Trescher. “Farm and Forest on the Dorrigo: a historical-ecological study of land use conflict in northern New South Wales.” (7 Banvard Place, Chapman, A.C.T. 2611, Australia)
Lochhead, Elspeth Nora. “The Emergence of Academic Geography in Britain in its Historical Context.” (PIEDA [Planning, Econ and Devel. Consultants] 52 Queens Rd, Reading, UK)
SOURCE
Geography at Berkeley – PAST DISSERTATIONS – PRE-2000
http://geography.berkeley.edu/graduate-studies/past-dissertations-pre-2000/
This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.