Nobel Prize in Chemistry
David MacMillan awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Light-initiated radical reaction
Using light-initiated radical reaction to break the carbon-heteroatom bond
TETRAAMINE-FUNCTIONALIZED METAL ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS
Discovery of a new material that could capture more than 90 percent of CO2 emitted from industrial sources
BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS
New process makes ‘biodegradable’ plastics truly compostable
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Paul Alivisatos awarded Priestley Medal
CRISPR for Sickle Cell Correction
FDA approves first test of CRISPR to correct genetic defect causing sickle cell disease
ARTHUR C. COPE AWARD
John Hartwig receives the Arthur C. Cope Award
EINSTEINIUM
First measurements of Einsteinium
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Jennifer Doudna awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry
2020 Global Energy Prize
Peidong Yang awarded 2020 Global Energy Prize
Discovery
Creation of blue light-emitting diode (LED) from valid perovskite.
Scientists finally crack nature’s most common chemical bond
John Hartwig and colleagues determine how to break the carbon-hydrogen bond
Biohybrid
Hybrid system covers C0s into building blocks for organic molecules
Helmholtz Medal
Gabor Somorjai awarded the Helmholtz Medal
German Chemical Society Gold Medal
Yaghi awarded German Chemical Society Gold Medal
New ways to pluck water from desert air
Yaghi advances patents for water harvesting systems from the air.
Wolf Prize in Medicine
Jennifer Doudna receives 2020 Wolf Prize in Medicine
New discovery facilitates design of synthetic proteins
of synthetic material that is as effective as naturally occurring proteins in transporting molecules through membranes
Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering
Jean Fréchet awarded Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering
$25 million for new College of Chemistry building
Alumnus Terry Rosen, the CEO of Arcus Biosciences, and his wife, Tori, have donated $25 million for a building to be named in honor of Terry Rosen’s beloved mentor and former chemistry dean, Clayton Heathcock.
UC BERKELEY GENE THERAPY SPINOUT TARGETS $100 MILLION IPO
4D Molecular Therapeutics Inc., founded by David Schaffer and David Kirn wants to raise $100 million in the latest Bay Area biotech initial public offering.
MSSE Program
New Master of Molecular Science and Software Engineering program launched.
UC holds largest CRISPR-Cas9 patent portfolio
Ever growing and extensive portfolio covers compositions and methods for the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, including targeting and editing genes and modulating transcription in any setting, such as within plant, animal and human cells.
Welch Award
The Welch Foundation has announced that Drs. Armand Paul Alivisatos and Charles M. Lieber are the 2019 recipients of the prestigious Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry.
Ruben Medal
Clayton Radke awarded the Ruben Medal.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor William Lester awarded the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019 for his outstanding leadership and commitment to the field of chemistry.
Nano Research Award
Omar M. Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair receive the award for pioneering a new field of research known as reticular chemistry
Artificial photosynthesis framework
UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Lab has uncovered new insight into how to better control cobalt oxide, one of the most promising catalysts for artificial photosynthesis.
Frontier Medicine 67M launch
Frontier Medicines has announced the launch of a new startup with Dan Nomura to actively develop medical treatments for currently “undruggable” diseases.
Graduate Life Committee Diversity Initiative
Chem graduate students launch Graduate Life Committee diversity initiative.
DIC Wang Award
Douglas Clark receives DIC Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering
MOF water harvesting technology
Research from the lab of Omar Yaghi at UC Berkeley on water harvesting from desert air technology has been featured as one of the top 10.
Drug Sponge
A drug sponge developed by Nitash Balsara and fellow UC Berkeley chemical engineers could sop up the residual drug, lessening side effects.
Wolf Prize
John Hartwing awarded the 2019 Wolf Prize.
King Faisal Prize in Science
Professor Jean M. J. Fréchet professor emeritus and Allen Bard, Professor of Chemistry at UT Austin have been named co-Laureates of the 2019 King Faisal Prize in Science.
Sacker Prize in Chemistry
Christopher Chang, Professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology awarded the 2019 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Chemistry from Tel Aviv University.
150TH ANNIVERSARY OF PERIODIC TABLE
Periodic table turns 150 years old.
AAAS FELLOW
Sung Hou Kim named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
WILHELM EXNER MEDAL
Paul Alivisatos awarded 2018 Wilhelm Exner Medal for pioneering research in nanoscience.
CHAN ZUCKERBERG BIOHUB INTERCAMPUS RESEARCH AWARD
David Schaffer receives Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Intercampus Research Award.
NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
Chemistry Nobel goes to UC Berkeley Ph.D. Frances Arnold.
TETRAHEDRON PRIZE
John Hartwig awarded 2018 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry.
CREATION OF QUANTUM BLUE
Professor Paul Alivisatos along with Ph.D. chemistry students Arunima Balan, Joseph Swabeck, and artist Olga Alexopoulou create new pigment color using quantum dot technology.
CRACKING THE CODE TO SOOT FORMATION
Martin Head-Gordon and colleagues discover mechanism for soot formation, solving longstanding scientific mystery.
AICHE WILLIAM H. WALKER AWARD
Enrique Iglesia receives 2018 AIChE William H. Walker Award
KAVLI PRIZE IN NANOSCIENCE
CRISPR-Cas9 inventor Jennifer Doudna awarded the 2018 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience.
HELMHOLTZ INTERNATIONAL FELLOW AWARD
Richard Saykally receives Helmholtz International Fellow award.
TURNING CHEMICAL BONDS INSIDE OUT
The Richmond Sarpong Research Group develops new approach to the deconstructive functionalization of cyclic amines.
ENI ENERGY AWARD
Omar Yaghi wins 2018 Eni Energy Transition Award.
2018 DARPA YOUNG FACULTY AWARD
Markita Landry awarded DARPA Award for her project: Brain Chemical Signaling: A New Input Signal for Brain-Computer Interfaces.
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING HUB DEVELOPMENT
BASF donates $7 million toward construction of new UC Berkeley science and engineering hub.COPPER REGULATES SLEEP IN ZEBRAFISH
The Chris Chang research team shows metal may play sleep role through an enzyme responsible for synthesis of norepinephrine.
CLARK KERR AWARD
C. Judson King recognized with the 2018 Clark Kerr Award.
ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Professors Dean Toste and Birgitta Whaley elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY AWARD
Chemistry Professors Christopher Chang, John Hartwig, Daniel Neumark, and Dean Toste named winners of the 2018 Royal Society of Chemistry Awards.
ACTINIDE ACTS AS ELECTRON DONOR
The Arnold Research Group develops thorium-aluminum complex in which for the first time an actinide element donates electrons when bonding with a metal.
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE
Kristie Boering elected to NAS
SCIENTISTS PRINT ALL-LIQUID 3-D STRUCTURES
Professor of Chemistry Phillip Geissler develops a way to print 3D constructs using water and oil.WOLF PRIZE
The Wolf Prize in Chemistry awarded to Omar M. Yaghi for “pioneering reticular chemistry via metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs).”
NEW MATERIAL FOR SMART PHOTOVOLTAIC WINDOWS
Peidong Yang and colleagues make thermochromic windows with perovskite solar cell.Novartis-Berkeley Center for Proteomics and Chemistry Technologies
Novartis/UC Berkeley pact betting Berkeley scientists like Daniel Nomura will speed its search for the Achilles’ heels of hard-to-treat diseases.
Copper is key in burning fat
Chris Chang and Sumin Lee carry out experiments to find proteins that bind to copper and potentially influence the storage and burning of fat.MacArthur Fellow
Peidong Yang
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE AWARD
Jennifer Doudna
FE. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Carolyn Bertozzi Peidong Yang
QUANTUM SPEED LIMIT
K. Birgitta Whaley establishes quantum speed limit.
BERKELEY CATALYST FUND (BCF)
Berkeley Catalyst Fund to benefit entrepreneurial startups begins.
NEW ADVISING CENTER
Que Family Undergraduate Advising Center is established.
ENI AWARD
Jay Keasling
HEVESY MEDAL
Heino Nitsche
CARA
California Research Alliance (CARA) by BASF is founded.
ENRICO FERMI AWARD
Charles Shank
WELCH AWARD
Robert BergmanENI AWARD
Frances Arnold (Alumna)
SYNTHETIC ANTIMALARIAL DRUG
Jay Keasling’s 2001 discovery leads to first synthetic antimalarial drug on the market.
JAPAN PRIZE
Jean FréchetNATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
Frances Arnold (Alumna)
EINSTEIN PROFESSORSHIP, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Alexis T. BellHEINZ AWARD
Jay KeaslingENI AWARD
Enrique IglesiaCRISPR
Jennifer Doudna discovers CRISPR, revolutionary method for splicing DNA.WOLF PRIZE
A. Paul Alivisatos
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Ahmed Zewail (pdoc)ENI AWARD
Gabor Somorjai
BCGC
Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry is founded.
HEVESY MEDAL
Darleane Hoffman
DEPARTMENT OF CBE
ChemE department is renamed the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Gabor A. Somorjai
LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LAB
A. Paul Alivisatos is named Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
WELCH AWARD
William H. MillerE. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
EA. Paul Alivisatos
BP & BERKELEY BIOFUELS
BP selects Berkeley to lead $500M biofuels effort.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Susan Solomon (alumna)
WELCH AWARD
Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. (alumnus)
ANTI-MALARIA DRUG
Jay Keasling engineers the production of artemisinic acid.FE. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Richard Saykally
CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
Chemical Biology program is founded.PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Darleane C. HoffmanNANOPLASMONIC STRUCTURES
Peidong YangNOBEL PRIZE
Ahmed Zewail (pdoc)Wolf Prize
Gabor Somorjai
KYOTO PRIZE
Kurt Wüthrich (pdoc)
TAN KAH KEE HALL
Named in honor of the late Tan Kah Kee (1874-1961), a pioneering industrialist and philanthropist in China and Singapore who devoted his wealth to promoting education.
NOBEL PRIZE
Mario Molina (alumnus)
MACARTHUR FELLOW
Michael Marletta
HEINZ AWARD
Andrew Grove (alumnus)
NOBEL PRIZE
Robert F. Curl, Jr. (alumnus)
WOLF PRIZE
Peter G. SchultzE. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Robert BergmanWOLF PRIZE
Ahmed Zewail (pdoc)
NATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
Gordon Moore (alumnus)
WOLF PRIZE
Alexander Pines1990’s
OPTIMIZED DYES FOR DNA SEQUENCING Richard A. Mathies and Donald Glaser UNNATURAL AMINO ACID INCORPORATION Peter Schultz QUANTUM DOTS A. Paul Alivisatos #b0c5de Alivisatos
NOBEL PRIZE
Thomas Cech (alumnus)
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
George C. PimentelE. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Alexander Pines
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Sung-Hou KimORGANOMETALLIC CHEMISTRY
Robert Bergman helps develop field of organometallic chemistry, C-H bond activation
NOBEL PRIZE
Yuan T. LeeWELCH AWARD
George Pimentel
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
C. Bradley Moore
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Henry Taube (alumnus)
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
William H. Miller
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Kenneth Raymond
WELCH AWARD
Kenneth S. PitzerNOBEL PRIZE & WELCH AWARD
Henry Taube (alumnus)
WOLF PRIZE
George PimentelE. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Yuan Tseh Lee
CHIRON
Chiron is co-founded by Berkeley professor Edward Penhoet.1980’s
JOHN PRAUSNITZ Molecular thermodynamics DAVID GRAVES AND DENNIS HESS Establish plasma processing of materials JEAN FRÉCHET Polymer formation, photolithography C. JUDSON KING Separation processes
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Glenn T. Seaborg
FIRST FEMALE FACULTY MEMBER
Judith Klinman becomes the first woman faculty member in the physical sciences at UC Berkeley.
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Melvin Calvin
WELCH AWARD
Neil Bartlett
PERIODIC TABLE
Seaborgium Identified
QUANTUM MECHANICAL & SEMICLASSICAL THEORIES
William Miller develops quantum mechanical and semiclassical theories
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Joseph Cerny
NOBEL PRIZE
Geoffrey Wilkinson (pdoc)
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Harold C. Urey (alumnus)
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
David Shirley. Shirley becomes director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1980 to 1989, and spearheads the Advanced Light Source Facility.
CETUS
Cetus, first biotech company, is co-founded by Berkeley professor Donald Glaser.71
OZONE LAYER
Harold Johnston shows that supersonic transport can deplete Earth’s ozone layer.
ELECTROCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Charles Tobias makes advances in electrochemical engineering.CHEMICAL KINETICS
Yuan Tseh Lee discovers chemical kineticsPRIESTLEY MEDAL
Kenneth S. Pitzer
INTEL
Intel Corporation is co-founded by alumni Gordon Moore and Andrew Grove.
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
John Rasmussen
HILDEBRAND HALL
Named in honor of Joel H. Hildebrand.
PRIESTLEY MEDAL
Joel H. Hildebrand
LATIMER HALL
Latimer Hall replaces Chemistry Auditorium. Latimer Hall is where Seaborg and colleagues discover transuranium elements and more than 100 isotopes. PSL HALL (renamed Pimentel Hall in 1994)
E. O. LAWRENCE AWARD
Leo BrewerNOBEL PRIZE
Melvin Calvin
NOBEL PRIZE
Willard F. Libby (alumnus)CHEMICAL LASER
George PimentelHIGH-TEMPERATURE CHEMISTRY
Leo BrewerSTATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS
Kenneth Pitzer
GIAUQUE HALL
Named in honor of Nobel Prize winner William F. Giauque.
NOBEL PRIZE
Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin McMillan
CALIFORNIUM
Californium, useful for medical diagnostics, is identified.NOBEL PRIZE
William F. Giauque
LEWIS HALL
Named in honor of G. N. Lewis.NOBEL PRIZE
Nobel in Chemistry is awarded to Berkeley professors John Northrop and Wendell Stanley.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Chemical Engineering program is founded.PLUTONIUM
Glenn Seaborg and colleagues produce plutonium using the cyclotron.CALVIN CYCLE: PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Melvin Calvin discovers Calvin Cycle in photosynthesis, using carbon-14 as molecular tracer.
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
Nuclear medicine field is founded by John Lawrence, director of Donner Lab.NOBEL PRIZE
Harold C. Urey (alumnus)CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS
William Giauque develops chemical thermodynamics.DEEP SEA DIVING
Joel Hildebrand formulates mixture of helium and oxygen for deep-sea diving.ACIDS AND BASES
G. N. Lewis makes breakthroughs in acids and bases.
HYDROGEN BONDING
Wendell Latimer discovers hydrogen bonding.GILMAN HALL
icon name=”building” prefix=”fas”] Named for Daniel Coit Gilman, president of the University of California from 1872 to 1875.CHEMICAL BONDING
G. N. Lewis discovers chemical bonding.
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR
Frederick Cottrell invents the electrostatic precipitator.
THE OLD CHEMISTRY BUILDING
In 1890 a handsome, dedicated brick building was constructed for the college on what is now the site of Hildebrand Hall. In time it came to be known as “The Old Chemistry Building,” and when it finally fell to the wrecker’s ball to make room for more modern facilities in 1966, its cupola was preserved.
FOUNDING OF THE COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY
Chemistry has been part of Berkeley since the University’s founding in 1868.