Thomson Reuters

Media group Thomson Reuters picked UC Berkeley physics professor Marvin Cohen as a 2016 Citation Laureate — a recognition given to scientists predicted to win the Nobel Prize.

March, it turns out, is about more than college basketball: UC Berkeley’s reputation as a top research institution was reaffirmed Monday, when the campus was crowned champion of the Thomson Reuters Metrics Mania tournament for a second time.

The Intellectual Property and Science division of Thomson Reuters has named UC Berkeley chemistry and molecular and cell biology professor Jennifer Doudna as a citation laureate for her development of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing method.

King Abdulaziz University, a little-known university in Saudi Arabia, ranks seventh in the world in mathematics, edging out other universities with reputable math departments. But their newfound prestige is a product of an aggressive recruitment program targeting some of the world's top scientists.

Geoff Marcy says he has spent his career chasing the "stuff of science fiction." Marcy, a campus astronomy professor, is one of four UC Berkeley researchers who may have a shot at this year's Nobel Prize, according to Thomson Reuters, a firm that annually predicts contenders for the award.

UC Berkeley took the crown in Thomson Reuters’ Metrics Mania competition, an NCAA bracket style contest that ranked universities based on their research impact.