Jay Atherton is a lecturer in the Architecture Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches undergraduate and graduate studio courses that focus on the conceptualization and development of architectural design. Atherton works in the fields of art and architecture, often coalescing the two in his projects. 

His large-scale, site-specific art installations and sculpture have been exhibited at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas, El Paso; Suyama Space, Seattle, WA; and Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ. Atherton has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Eisner Prize in the Creative Arts at UC Berkeley.

Atherton has worked for architectural studios including: Studio Daniel Libeskind, Berlin; Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, San Francisco; Will Bruder + Partners, Phoenix; and Marlene Imirzian Associates and Architects, Phoenix. He received an M.Arch. from UC Berkeley, and a B.S. in Architectural Design with a minor in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe.