Dr. Robert Birgeneau, is the Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, as well as being an internationally distinguished physicist. He is highly respected for his commitment to diversity and equity in the academic community, and has introduced many important initiatives at the university focused around challenging issues such as global poverty and climate change. The Chancellor is dedicated to supporting public service and is well loved by the community as both a leader and an advocate for social change. In June 2009, the Chancellor was honored with a Pathfinders to Peace Award for his tireless work to instill in young people the importance of serving the greater good through volunteerism and service learning in all challenges facing the world. We sat down with him after the ceremony.

As a recepient of the Pathfinders to Peace Award, please let us know what does it mean to be a Pathfinder to Peace?

Of course, I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to the Shinnyo-en Foundation for this incredible recognition. Interestingly, because much of my life has been as a scientist and I’ve frankly been very fortunate in my science and received many recognitions in my science for contributions to very abstract knowledge, so it’s very nice to be honored for what I think every person should do, which is to do their best to make the world a better place for everyone around them.

Did you think of yourself as a Pathfinder to Peace before this award came up?

No. And in fact, the title itself is so uplifting. I have thought of myself as I was once described in a newspaper, as a scientist with a social conscience, someone who has always been really offended, I would say, by injustice in society. In limited ways I’ve been able to do something, throughout my whole life to remedy injustice.  I’ve always tried to work on that. It’s something that I’ve always done because I’ve always thought, that as a member of society, its something that you should do, but not something I even sought recognition for.

What is your personal path to peace?

My personal path to peace is through working as hard as I can and bringing the people around me, as much as possible, towards an inclusive society. I feel very deeply that every person should feel as if the world they occupy belongs as fully to them as to anyone else.

In your role as Chancellor you are a leader. How does being a leader in that kind of public way different from being a leader on a Pathway to Peace which has a connotation of being at a more personal level?

It’s a privilege being the Chancellor of Berkeley. It’s not without its challenges, especially these days. The privilege that it provides enables me to promulgate my personal philosophy and to try to lead the entire Berkeley community in that direction. Berkeley, like other great American universities has an unrelenting commitment to excellence, but we have put access and inclusiveness on a par with excellence.  We believe that they’re concordant, not discordant. It gives me the opportunity, being Chancellor of Berkeley, to try to move society in the direction that enables people to understand that the way you achieve excellence is by inclusion, not exclusion.

How does the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s mission mesh with your own or with UC Berkeley’s?

Well, you know, it’s been one of the real special pleasures on my part in the last couple years to be introduced to the Shinnyo-en Foundation, to its people, and to their philosophy. It could not be more consonant both with my personal goals and the goals of UC Berkeley. And I’m very taken, as we heard today from Bishop Ito, about this concept of Buddha Nature, or recognizing in oneself one’s own Buddha Nature, but probably more importantly seeing the Buddha Nature in other people. It gives a very sophisticated framework to what for me has always been instinct. An instinct probably taught to me by mother, actually. People deserve to be treated with dignity.

Could you tell us what your personal path to peace is?

My own personal path to peace is, first of all, through my family and then through the community and all of the wonderful people around me.

Thank you for being such an inspiration to many others.