The University of California made history this week, as its faculty and alumni won five Nobel Prizes across medicine, physics and chemistry — the most ever awarded to a single institution in one year.
On Monday, Frederick Ramsdell, a UC San Diego and UCLA alumnus, shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for identifying immune system cells that prevent the body from attacking itself — a breakthrough that transformed understanding of autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes and lupus.
A day later, UC Berkeley emeritus professor John Clarke, UC Santa Barbara professor Michel H. Devoret and UC Santa Barbara emeritus professor John M. Martinis won the Nobel Prize in physics…