BESAC President's Message
Our first event of 2021, the BESAC COVID-19 Vaccines: Science and Facts panel featuring Candia Brown, Dr. Mysheika Roberts and Terrence Satterfield, Ph.D., was excellent and informative!
Miller Allen, Ph.D., led us through a moment of silence to remind us of our loved ones and the thousands lost to COVID-19. Terry Satterfield, Ph.D., provided a very informative explanation of SARS-CoV-2 biology, vaccines, and immunity. Candia Brown both shared her insights and asked Dr. Mysheika Roberts and Dr. Satterfield to provide the answers that I and the audience wanted to hear about COVID-19 vaccines. I left that event relieved and encouraged to take the vaccine as soon as I could.
March 2021 marks BESAC’s two-year anniversary and the end of my term as President. It has been my pleasure to serve. Miller Allen, will be our new BESAC President and I am confident that he will lead our organization to higher heights! Miller has a bold vision for BESAC’s future and I am confident that he will drive us toward lasting success. Elections will be held soon for BESAC leadership roles, if you are interested in participating, look for subsequent communications on the nomination and election process.
Finally, BESAC was birthed after the 2018 celebration of the 50th and 30th anniversaries of BESSA and BGESS. It was a remarkable event. My hope is that it becomes a recurring event and that we come together again for another celebration in 2023!
Kirk Tramble
President, Black Engineering and Science Alumni Club
Cal Alumni Association Update
African American Initiate Scholarship
Sign up to participate in the 2021 African American Initiative Scholarship selections process! Please fill out the volunteer registration form preferably by April 1 to ensure you receive the information in a timely manner.
BESAC 2021 Black History Month Event :
Covid-19 Vaccines Science and Facts
On February 28th 2021, in honor of Black History Month, BESAC proudly presented a virtual panel of experts to discuss the science and facts about COVID-19 vaccines.
(Go here to see this event featured on the Cal Alumni Association website)
In a recent Kaiser Health News poll, 35% of Black adult respondents said that they were "highly unlikely" to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Our panel of experts discussed the science behind the COVID-19 vaccines and their clinical efficacy in an effort to dispel myths, raise awareness, and ultimately reduce disparities in the vaccination rate in the Black community. Distinguished panelists included Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts, Health Commissioner, Columbus Public Health; Candia Brown, Sr. Director for Global Market Development at Thermo-Fisher Scientific; and Terrence Satterfield, Ph.D., Cell Biologist and Senior Scientist at Maze Therapeutics. We express our deep gratitude to our panelists for volunteering their time and expertise!
Miller Allen, Ph.D.
BESAC Vice President
BESAC Highlights
BESAC Nominations and Elections.
Get Involved in BESAC Leadership!
Nominations are happening from March 15, 2021 - April 1, 2021.
Your Current BESAC Board 2018-2021
President - Kirk Tramble
Vice President - Dr. Miller Allen
Secretary - Dr. Nerayo Teclemariam and Dr. Josephine Agbowo
Treasurer - Kevin Jones
Membership Officer - Rori Abernethy
Historian - Dr. Sheila Humphreys
MESA Committee - Dr. Leon Daniels
Scholarship Committee - Kelvin Vivian
BGESS Highlights
Go to the Berkeley Black Graduate Engineering and Science Students Facebook page for highlights and updates.
BESSA Highlights
Go to the Black Engineering and Science Student Association website for highlights and updates.
BESF Highlights
Meet professor Boubacar Kante'
BESAC would like to congratulate
Boubacar Kante is the inaugural Chenming Hu endowed Chaired Associate Professor at UC Berkeley. His multidisciplinary research interests are in the areas of wave-matter interaction from microwave to optics and related fields such as antennas, nanophotonics, novel materials, and quantum optics.
Boubacar Kanté proposed and demonstrated the world first topological laser based on the quantum Hall effect for light, a demonstration selected as one of the top 10 discoveries by Physics World in 2017. He demonstrated the world first bound state in continuum (BIC) laser, where he highlighted the unique scaling of these cavities. He also demonstrated the first single mode valley-Hall topological laser. His group hold the world record for plasmonic nanosensing (immuno-assay nanosensing) using a scheme he proposed for the implementation of singularities of open systems known as exceptional points. He also holds the world record for the bandwidth and efficiency of planar structured lenses, a structure he named “the Fishnet-Achromatic-Metalens (FAM)”. Prof. Kanté demonstrated the first non-magnetic metamaterial invisibility cloak. He introduced the notion of symmetry/parity of ring resonators, an idea used to prove that closed rings, previously believed incapable of producing artificial magnetism, can make ultra-broadband negative index in metamaterials.
Boubacar Kanté is a 2020 Moore Inventor Fellow. He received the 2017 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, the 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award, The best undergraduate teacher award from UC San Diego Jacob School of Engineering in 2017, the 2015 Hellman Fellowship, the Richelieu Prize in Sciences from the Chancellery of Paris Universities for the best Ph.D in France in Engineering, Material Science, Physics, Chemistry, Technology in 2010, the Young Scientist Award from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) in Chicago in 2007, the Fellowship for excellence from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2003 for his undergraduate studies, a Research Fellowship from the French Research Ministry for his Ph.D studies.
Black Engineering and Science Faculty (BSEF)
There is currently a historic number of Black Engineering and Science Faculty at Cal. Learn more about Black STEM faculty by checking out the Black Engineering and Science Faculty slides