UC Berkeley
Lightray announces the launch of Berkeley Wall of Fame. A new site created and conceived by Lightray in collaboration with UC Berkeley University Relations department.
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BERKELEY –UC Berkeley’s Alumni has lead to a hotbed for revolutions beyond just People’s Park and it wants you to know about each and every one of them. Whether it’s theory of the accelerating universe, the food revolution, open-source computing, the effects of the school’s alumni have changed the world and there is a new site launching to tell you all about it.
The Berkeley Wall of Fame (berkeleywalloffame.org) launches on May 9, 2012, with the first selection of what will be an expanding showcase of alumni whose vision and talents have changed the world. Created in a blog style to enable it to continuously grow, the site includes individuals across a diverse range of areas, as well as pairings of people who are connected in offbeat ways. Visitors to the site will be able to nominate alumni to include on the wall.
“It is impossible for us to know about all 400,000 Berkeley alumni and their achievements,” said David Blinder, associate vice chancellor of University Relations. “Rather than the University determining who is important, the website invites alumni to consider, ‘Who inspires you?’ This is just the kind of out-of-the-box approach we need to engage our alumni and demonstrate Berkeley’s far-reaching influence.”
Alumna Kimberly Brooks (née Shlain) ’89, a contemporary artist, conceived of the idea for the Berkeley Wall of Fame and donated the services of her web design and development firm, Lightray Productions (http://www.lightray.com) to build it. The campus’s University Relations department will manage the site.
“I always wanted a simple way to learn about who is making waves from my alma mater. The Wall of Fame idea brings Berkeley’s extraordinary alumni together in a fresh, exciting way,” she said. “It celebrates alums we already know about, and it showcases those you should know.”
Blinder said the site redefines “fame” within a distinctly Berkeley context of groundbreaking research, imaginative thinking and creativity, and public service.
The initial unveiling, which covers 12 individuals, includes:
- Eric Schmidt M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’82, the executive chairman of Google who has led more than a decade of unprecedented innovation and expansion, changing the way we access information.
- Kate ’01 and Laura ’01 Mulleavy, the design duo behind Rodarte whose masterful fashions have wooed international style icons, museums, and even Hollywood.
- Saul Perlmutter Ph.D. ’86, who received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his seminal role in discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe.
- Jane McGonigal Ph.D. ’06, a pioneer in alternate reality games that aim to improve real lives and solve problems such as poverty and climate change.
- Ida Jackson ’22, M.A. ’23, one of California’s first African American women to be certified as a teacher and the first black teacher in the Oakland public schools.
The site also contains a section called Connections that pairs alumni in unusual ways. For example, both George Takei (who attended Berkeley) and John Cho ’96 played Mr. Sulu on Star Trek about 40 years apart. Chief Justice Earl Warren 1912, J.D. 1914 overturned the infamous “separate but equal” ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. His Connections counterpart, actor Gregory Peck ’39, became synonymous with Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, movie history’s most enduring fictional character of racial heroism.
“There’s an undeniable pride that runs thick in the blood of Cal alums,” said Brooks. “I offered up Lightray’s expertise and push Berkeley into new territory in terms of recognizing fellow alums and dribbling it across the web and key social media– facebook, twitter and beyond. These are Alumni that deserve to be celebrated and inspire other alumni to make waves and reach new heights in what they do as well.”
The site integrates social media to enable visitors to share, “like,” and comment on posts; participate in online quizzes and other fun activities; and follow inductees who are active on Twitter and Facebook.
“Beyond showcasing Cal’s incredible alumni, the site connects visitors to them whenever possible, helping to strengthen the ties from one alum to the next and across generations,” said Blinder
Visit berkeleywalloffame.org to see who is part of Cal’s amazing family.
