Berkeley Physics is delighted to report that postdoctoral associate Charles Brown II has been awarded the 2021-2022 Chancellor's Award for Civic Engagement. This award recognizes Charles for his contributions to the public good outside the scope of his current campus role as a postdoctoral associate at U.C. Berkeley.
Charles included the following in his short speech in acceptance of the award:
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” – Alexander Den Heijer. As a physicist, part of my life’s work will involve solving mysteries that describe how our universe functions in its many capacities. Another part of that work involves engaging the public, in a variety of ways – after all, science is a wonderful and cultural human endeavor, which not only affects its practitioners but also the greater society in which we all live. It’s thus import for us, as scientists, to actively inform and engage the public about our work, particularly in ways that relate to the improvement of everyone’s quality of life, and the protection of that life, be that an improvement in one’s safety and health, socioeconomic mobility, or in one’s sense of belonging to something important through the comradery and deep satisfaction of discovery. In so doing it’s crucial that we ensure everyone willing and able to participate in the human cultural endeavor that is science is offered the opportunities to do so, and to actively fight notions that science is for, or done by, a select few.