Professor Kenichi Soga is one of four UC Berkeley faculty members who have been awarded the Bakar Fellows Program 2022 Bakar Prize. The prize is given annually to former Bakar Fellows to provide additional resources to ensure their promising technology has a successful transition from research to real-world applications.
Soga believes that smart infrastructure is critical to preventing catastrophes, such as the recent condo collapse in Miami and power outages across Texas last winter. He was awarded the Bakar Prize for developing monitoring systems that utilize dynamic distributed fiber optic sensing technology, which help determine the durability of infrastructure as it ages, and ultimately help ensure a safer infrastructure that adapts to the needs of the future.
This year's other Bakar Prize recipients include Steven Conolly, the Montford G. Cook Professor of Bioengineering and a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences; Polina Lishko, associate professor of molecular and cell biology; and Niren Murthy, professor of bioengineering.