Now, with almost $100 million still unspent, BP is exercising its contract option to pull nearly a third of its funding for 2015, and more in the remaining two years (of the original 10 year funding).

At Berkeley, that means ending some key research, the early elimination of up to 20 current post-doctorate positions, the layoff of more than half the support staff—and a search for other energy companies to fund its biofuel research.