College of Chemistry Newsjournal, Spring 2003

This academic year brings another large class of new chemistry and chemical engineering students, who arrived to find California in the midst of a chaotic political campaignthe Gray Davis recall election. Our incoming students also find the state experiencing our most serious financial crisis ever. I am sure that the deficit in the state budget was no secret to them, but the 30 percent increase in fees and tuition that was recently imposed by the Board of Regents will still be painful and difficult for many of them to handle.

Budget Issues
The budget woes are on everyones mind, and I have even been called by reporters from national publications for interviews on how these economic challenges will affect our distinguished college. Each July, the college receives an allocation of about $15 million in state funds from the campus for the coming fiscal year. This allocation includes all salaries for our 65 faculty and roughly 200 support staff, funds for graduate student instructors (GSIs) and other temporary academic staff, and relatively small amounts for operating expenses and supplies.

For the 2003-04 fiscal year, I have been instructed to return $778,000 of our $15 million allocation, roughly 5% of our state budgeta significant amount, since our total budget is approximately 80% salaries. This cut is called a temporary spending reduction, as opposed to a permanent budget reduction. Therefore, at the beginning of the 2004-05 budget year, our allocation will again be $15 million. However, we fully expect that the state budget crisis will continue for at least another year; there is likely to be another temporary spending reduction next year, and we must be prepared for the worst.

Budget's Impact
The impending tuition and fee increase will obviously impact our undergraduate students. Thankfully, the Regents did provide expanded financial aid for students from families with annual incomes of less than $60,000. Moreover, our system for funding graduate students protects them from any direct increase in tuition and fees. However, the increase of $1,150 per graduate studenta cost that is usually borne by our faculty, who use their outside research funding to support grad studentswill result in an additional cost to faculty of $500,000 per year.

The campus administration has resolved that none of our budget economies should significantly impinge on our basic educational mission. Therefore, we are still being encouraged to hire exciting new faculty members, and the college has been authorized to make up to four new appointmentstwo in chemistry and two in chemical engineeringduring the coming year.

Faculty Honors

Professor Jeff Reimer has received a Distinguished Teaching Award for 2003

As usual, our distinguished faculty continue to accrue recognition. Awards during the past few months are covered by the chairs, but I am pleased to highlight chemical engineering professor Jeffrey Reimers 2003 Distinguished Teaching Award, an award that has been given annually by the Committee on Teaching of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate since 1959. Past winners from the college are Bruce Mahan (1961), David Lyon (1978), Donald Hanson (1986), Alexander Pines (1986), Michael Williams (1988), Angelica Stacy (1991), Richard J. Saykally (1992), Clayton J. Radke (1994), and Carolyn Bertozzi (2001).

In addition, two distinguished members of the chemistry department faculty, Paul Bartlett and Herbert Strauss, were awarded the Berkeley Citationthe Universitys highest honorupon their retirements this summer. Both have had long and highly productive careers. Bartlett, a faculty member for 30 years, has focused on organic synthesis and the application of novel, designed molecules to the study of biological systems.< He also authored a computer program, CAVEAT, which is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. His administrative responsibilities included service as chair of the chemistry department from 1996 to 2000. Fortunately, he will continue his directorship of our Center for New Directions in Organic Chemistry.

Strauss, who has served on the faculty for 42 years, has conducted research focused on the use of vibrational spectroscopies to elucidate the structure and dynamics of molecules in condensed phases. His best-known work uses Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to gather detailed information about the structure and conformational behavior of a variety of molecules. Also, for the past eight years he has served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the college; in this position he has overseen our undergraduate advising program and helped to create the new chemical biology major. I am pleased to say that he has agreed to remain in this position as Professor Emeritus, and so will continue to ensure that every one of our undergraduates receives the most rewarding and fulfilling education possible.

The Coffee Lab in Hildebrand has been open since the summer and is a hit.

New Hirings and Collaborative Efforts
In addition to their individual achievements, our faculty have contributed significantly to the campuss strategic academic plan. Two years ago, in an attempt to foster new areas of academic excellence, the University called upon the faculty to suggest fields of inquiry that they believed would benefit from increased resources. The initial list was winnowed down to the five most promising; of those five, two initiativesComputational Biology, and Nanosciences and Nanoengineeringinvolve significant participation by college faculty.

New hiring authorizations will enable us to recruit faculty to join our already strong groups in these fields, while the Universitys administrative support of these initiatives will foster inter-disciplinary collaboration throughout the college and across campus.

Adding onto the College

To do their outstanding work, our people must eat and drinkand, to that end, weve had a welcome addition to the college. The Coffee Lab, a café window with outdoor seating located in Hildebrand Hall in the College of Chemistry Courtyard, opened this summer. This new gathering spot has bolstered our sense of community, while providing faculty, staff and students with a convenient source for coffee and snacks. Renovation of the spaceformerly an office and now a sparkling room with espresso machineswas completed by our own wood and electrical shops and was made possible by donations from college faculty.

Across the street, a more major construction project is underwayone that will benefit the college significantly. This April, Stanley Hall was demolished to make way for the new Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility, which will house the UC Berkeley center of the California

Professor Graham Fleming, UC Berkeley director of the new QB3 institute, at the May groundbreaking for the new Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility

Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3). Faculty in bioengineering and in the biological and physical sciences, including some chemists and chemical engineers, will have laboratories in the building, which will also house the most powerful magnet available today for studying the structure and dynamics of biomolecules. The New Stanley, scheduled for completion in 2006, is designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on cutting- edge research, and will include an innovative Bio-Nano Center.

Support the College
In tough budget times, such as we are now experiencing, the philanthropy of our alumni and friends is even more important than usual. Elsewhere in this report, you will find a timeline that shows some of the colleges highlights over the past twenty years. I hope you will take a few minutes to peruse this timeline and to pat yourself on the back if you are one of the hundreds of donors who have made a difference. If you have not yet participated in this manner, please consider including the college in your philanthropic plans for the coming year.

Related sites:

Paul Bartlett profile

Herbert Strauss profile

Stanley Hall press release

QB3 website

2003 College of Chemistry annual report (pdf)

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