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.

Learn More >

Research Highlights

Article

Published August 1, 2014

Seeking New Models for Clinical Medicine

A new Social Science Matrix seminar is focused on finding radical new approaches to clinical health care.

Learn More >

Research Highlights

Article

Published August 1, 2014

Waging War on Inequality

Minimum wage increases in cities have significant benefits and fewer costs than expected, according to a team of UC Berkeley economists.

Learn More >

Workshop/Symposium

Published August 1, 2014

Phonological Phenomenon

A recent Social Science Matrix brought together linguists and other researchers to explore "agreement by correspondence," or ABC.

Learn More >

Research Highlights

Article

Published August 1, 2014

Lie Detector

Recent research by a psychologist at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business suggests that our unconscious mind can detect lies.

Learn More >

Research Highlights

Article

Published July 29, 2014

Social Networks from History

A new tool developed by a team at UC Berkeley can help build “prosopographies,” social networks based on names, affiliations, and other historical data.

Learn More >

Science

Article

Published July 29, 2014

Mind Readers At Work

A team of researchers led by UC Berkeley neuroscientists are getting closer to decoding imagined speech from the brain.

Learn More >