UC Berkeley’s flagship institute for social science research

Our purpose is captured in our name: we provide an organizational framework—a “matrix”—that supports cross-disciplinary research pursued by social scientists across the University of California, Berkeley campus and beyond.

Matrix News

Article

Published July 10, 2026

Matrix Welcomes Eight Research Teams for 2026-2027

Social Science Matrix is pleased to welcome eight new Matrix Research Teams — three faculty-led teams and five graduate student-led teams — for the 2026-2027 academic year. The teams will address topics such as the political economy of wildfire risk, the global politics of declining fertility, and the use of digital tools for governance and development in South Asia.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published December 20, 2014

Brain Exercise and Alzheimer’s

A postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley investigated whether a lifetime of cognitive exercise could mitigate the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published December 17, 2014

Africa’s AIDS Industry

Efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS in Africa tend to follow the same script, even though the methods are largely ineffective, according to a paper co-authored by a UC Berkeley sociologist.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published December 9, 2014

A New World of Mapping

UC Berkeley cartographer Darin Jensen is exploring novel ways to detail information about the world around us.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published December 8, 2014

From Oil to Soil

Research by UC Berkeley geographer Adam Romero exposes how the toxic byproducts of petroleum have transformed agricultural production in California and around the world.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published December 7, 2014

Solving the Mysteries of Brain Waves

In laboratories across the UC Berkeley campus, researchers are unlocking some of the mysteries surrounding "neural rhythms," the pulses, bursts, and waves of electricity that continually surge through our brains.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published November 30, 2014

Flying Forward

Investing in airports and other transportation infrastructure is a major driver of economic growth, according to new research by a UC Berkeley economics graduate student.

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