In the News

Pepe Alonso, MBA 27, launched AI workshops that drew 80+ students per session, leading to a new MBA elective, the Fundamentals of Agentic AI.

Terrance Odean notes that while anticipated IPOs like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are massive, their overall impact on the $70 trillion U.S. stock market will be limited.

Severin Borenstein is referenced for his research on the 'mystery gasoline surcharge,' a residual price increase in California fuel costs since 2015; price disparities between branded and unbranded stations remain a significant concern.

Sergio Lopez, EWMBA 25, became the first Latino mayor of Campbell, California, focusing his legislative efforts on regional housing, environmental electrification, and transportation.

Associate Professor Martin Beraja argues that studies linking AI to a decline in software jobs are problematic and that recent labor trends may reflect post‑pandemic adjustments. His research finds AI’s gains come from helping firms learn faster and enhance worker productivity rather than replace them.

Associate Professor Abhishek Nagaraj and MIT's Randol Yao analyze citation patterns of Chinese scientific research and find Chinese papers are cited less by Western researchers than expected, potentially due to institutional trust, quality concerns, and field concentration.

Olympic champion swimmer and Norwest Venture Partners investor Ryan Murphy, BS 17, is weighing a 2028 Olympics bid while working full‑time, recently posting a 53.91 in the 100m backstroke at the Pro Swim Series.

Research by Ulrike Malmendier shows that lived experiences durably shape economic decision-making. Individuals, including central bank governors, are influenced by personal history such as inflation experiences, affecting policy and financial behaviors.

Fernando Mendoza, BS 25 and Las Vegas Raiders quarterback, attended MBA commencement to receive his degree, where Dean Jennifer A. Chatman recognized his achievements.

One Fair Wage worked with UC Berkeley Haas professors and students to help small businesses prepare for a proposed $30 minimum wage in Alameda County, with large corporations phasing to $30 by 2030.

Professor Enrico Moretti warns that the proposed Billionaire Tax Act could negatively impact California's economy by driving high-paying technology and biotech jobs out of the state, causing broader employment losses and harming growth.

Jacob Moore, PhD 28, received the 2026 ABA Banking Research Dissertation Grant from the American Bankers Association. The program provides economics or finance doctoral graduate students with $40,000 for one academic year to conduct research on the banking industry. His project will examine the spatial structure of the U.S. banking system and its impact on small business lending, focusing on homebuilders.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Richard K. Lyons announced the launch of darkmatter lab with Hivemind Capital to support frontier research in AI and blockchain, providing $1 million in resources to accelerate commercialization while maintaining researcher control.

Cory La Roe, MBA 26, won the Changemaker Award at the NHL’s Innovation Competition for his project called Hockey Without Barriers. His proposal utilizes AI narration, haptics, and real-time captioning to make hockey more accessible to fans with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. “I think we can make hockey a sport without barriers, and we can start right here in San Jose,” said La Roe, a U.S. Air Force veteran and longtime hockey fan.

Abdelmadjid Laouedj, MFE 22, discusses his professional experience in quantitative finance, explaining how machine learning is applied to equity risk analytics and credit modeling. Laouedj, who has worked across insurance, oncology finance, and banking, said the main principles are similar across industries: you define the target, process the data, engineer relevant features, validate the model, and monitor performance/measure accuracy. "But the way you validate the model and the nature of the features change significantly depending on the domain," he said.