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While plastic bags clog the waste stream, recycling them isn’t financially attractive, since they’re usually turned into very low-value products. If polyethylene packaging could be processed into high-value products, more of them would be recycled instead of ending up in landfills. (photo: Adobe Stock)

For Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, the highlight of this most extraordinary Nobel Prize Week was a socially distanced award ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 8, on her patio in Berkeley with 11 people in attendance, followed by takeout. But if the glow surronding her was any indication, she could have been receiving the medal and citation from the King of Sweden on the stage at Stockholm Concert Hall. The traditional celebration has been rescheduled for next year.

Photo: Sanjay Kumar and Peidong Yang. (File photos UC Berkeley)

Image: Michael Zuerch demonstrates the assembly of a cryogenic sample holder. (Photo: Michael Barnes)

Jennifer Doudna talks with Alex Ehrenberg, a graduate student in integrative biology who is helping organize the FAST trial of saliva tests for COVID-19. Photo: UC Berkeley/Irene Yi

Thanks to a generous donation from Rubber and Joy Chen of PMP Tech, an international company based in Taiwan, Professor of Chemistry and Faculty Senior Scientist at Berkeley Lab, T. Don Tilley has been announced as the inaugural PMP Tech Chancellor’s Chair in Chemistry.

Attendees at the California Alliance AGEP Research Conference and Annual Retreat, UC Berkeley 2018. (photo: Research Alliance)

Birgitta Whaley, Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center, presented this year's endowed G.N. Lewis Lecture at the College of Chemistry. Professor Whaley currently serves on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She is a foremost expert in the fields of quantum information, quantum physics, molecular quantum mechanics, and quantum biology. 

Like many other labs, Graham Fleming’s group is focusing on interdisciplinary techniques to make new discoveries and explore the mysteries of fundamental processes. Chemistry graduate student Kaydren Orcutt highlights how researchers can combine physics and biology, generating single photons in a bid to unentangle the mysteries of photosynthesis.

 Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. photo: Keegan Houser

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Nomura in his lab at UC Berkeley. Photo: Elena Zhukova