Faculty Supporters
Berkeley has a long history of world-changing innovations borne from the research and scholarship of its best-in-class faculty. The faculty members below — some of whom have founded companies of their own — have made the Founders’ Pledge to promote the ethos of supporting Cal’s innovator ecosystem and to inspire the students, postdocs, and researchers with whom they work to make the Pledge too.
Dan Nomura
’03, Ph.D ’08
Professor, Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics, UC Berkeley
Simon Schleicher
Assoc. Professor, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Phillip Messersmith
Professor, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley
Angjoo Kanazawa
Ass't. Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley
James Analytis
Assoc. Professor, Physics, UC Berkeley
Baoxia Mi
Assoc. Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
Wenjun Zhang
Professor, Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley
Liwei Lin
M.S. ’91, Ph.D. ’93
Professor, Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley
Trevor Darrell
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley; Co-founder & President, Prompt AI
Scott Shenker
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley; Co-Founder, Nicira and Databricks
Pledge fulfilled in 2020
Joseph Hellerstein
M.S. ’92
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley; Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Trifacta
Pledge fulfilled in 2022
James Olzmann
Assoc. Professor, Molecular & Cell Biology, UC Berkeley
Randy Katz
M.S. ’78, Ph.D. ’80
Former Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley
Shuonan Chen
’13
Lecturer, College of Engineering, UC Berkeley; Partner, Innovation Overflow
Roya Maboudian
Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley
David Teece
Chairman & Principal Executive Officer, Berkeley Research Group LLC
Pledge fulfilled in 2017
Rebecca Abergel
Ph.D. ’06
Assistant Professor, Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley; Co-founder, HOPO Therapeutics
Boubacar Kante
Associate Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley
N. Cecilia Martinez-Gomez
Assistant Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley
Jay Keasling
Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley; Founder, ResVitaBio
Joseph Gonzalez
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley; Co-founder, Spiral Labs
Michael Yartsev
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley
Junqiao Wu
Ph.D. ’02
Professor, Materials Science & Engineering, UC Berkeley; Co-founder and Chairman, DeepRed Technologies
Steve Conolly
Professor, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley; Co-founder, Magnetic Insight
Richard Lyons
’82
Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, UC Berkeley
Polina Lishko
Professor, Molecular & Cell Biology, UC Berkeley; Co-founder, YourChoice Therapeutics
Rikky Muller
Ph.D. ’13
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley
David Schaffer
Professor, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley; Co-Founder, 4D Molecular Therapeutics and IGNITE Immunotherapy
Gordon Rausser
Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley; Co-Founder, OnPoint Analytics
Pledge fulfilled in 2020
Ming Wu
M.S. ’86, Ph.D. ’88
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley
Amy Herr
Professor, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley; Investigator, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Jaijeet Roychowdhury
M.S. ’89, Ph.D. ’92
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley
Markita Landry
Assistant Professor, Chemistry, UC Berkeley
Maria Paz Gutierrez
Associate Professor, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Homayoon Kazerooni
Professor, Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley; Cofounder, Ekso Bionics and SuitX
Raluca Ada Popa
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley; Co-Founder, PreVeil
Anita Balaraman
M.P.H. ’98, M.B.A. ’08
Adjunct Faculty, UC Berkeley; Founder, Epixego
Arash Komeili
Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley
Niren Murthy
Professor, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley
Alessandra Lanzara
Professor, Physics, UC Berkeley
Kristofer Pister
M.S. ’89, Ph.D. ’92
Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley; Co-founder, Dust Networks
Stephen Torres
’07
Industry Fellow & Lecturer, UC Berkeley; Founder, Sunible (acquired by Domino)
Pledge fulfilled in 2015
Lee Fleming
Faculty Director, Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, UC Berkeley
Ting Xu
Professor, Materials Science & Engineering and Chemistry, UC Berkeley
Kenichi Soga
Ph.D. ’94
Professor, Geomechanics, UC Berkeley
Norman Yao
Assistant Professor, Physics, UC Berkeley
Russell Vance
Ph.D. ’00
Professor, Immunology and Pathogenesis, UC Berkeley