News

It is with great sadness that the College announces the passing of Chemistry Professor Dick Andersen.

UC Berkeley scientists have published a new study in Nature Chemical Biology that investigates how nimbolide, a natural product derived from the neem tree, may function in impairing cancer pathogenicity.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a new separation method that is vastly more efficient than conventional processes, opening the door to faster discovery of new elements, easier nuclear fuel reprocessing, and, most tantalizing, a better way to attain actinium-225, a promising therapeutic isotope for cancer treatment.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today issued a patent to the University of California (UC), the University of Vienna and French biologist Emmanuelle Charpentier that covers methods of modulating DNA transcription using the CRISPR-Cas9 system.

Instead of synthesizing new biochemicals from scratch, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist puts nature to the task — with astonishing results.

PASADENA, Calif. — The engineer’s mantra, said Frances Arnold, a professor of chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, is: “Keep it simple, stupid.” But Dr. Arnold, who last year became just the fifth woman in history to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is the opposite of stupid, and her stories sometimes turn rococo.

Two talented undergraduate teams, with members from the College of Chemistry and Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, competed in this year's USA national L'Oréal Brandstorm Competition in New York City in April. Both teams made it to the final round, with a third place tie out of approximately 150 teams nationwide.

Exciting ideas come out of interactions between students at UC Berkeley on a regular basis. But some of those good ideas make it a step farther and become "Big Ideas" thanks to support from the Andrew & Virginia Rudd Family Foundation. This year, two teams from UC Berkeley, including students from the College of Chemistry have won first place for their projects.

A research team which include members from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, the lab of John Arnold at the University of California - Berkeley, and the University of South Florida have developed a material that selectively binds dissolved uranium with a low-cost polymer adsorbent. The results, published in Nature Communications, could help push past bottlenecks in the cost and efficiency of extracting uranium resources from oceans for sustainable energy production.

Professor Matthew Francis discusses the new Graduate Life Committee diversity initiative with graduate student founders Emily Hartman and Chrissy Stachl.

Matthew Francis, Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, announces the addition of two new faculty members who will join the College in July. Alanna Schepartz joins the faculty as the T. Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Chair in Chemistry; Michael Zuerch joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry.

Dean Douglas Clark has been awarded the prestigious D.I.C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering for 2019 from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Following a huge manhunt to capture three train robbers, authorities called in an up-and-coming forensic scientist Edward Oscar Heinrich (BS, 1908, Chem), a UC Berkeley lecturer and alumnus, to help solve what became known as the "Last Great Train Robbery." He didn’t know that the case would put him on the map as a pioneer in modern American criminology .

Omar Yaghi, Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry, was announced today as one of a 100 new members, and 25 foreign members, of the National Academy of Sciences. The election is in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

The California Research Alliance (CARA), sponsored by BASF, hosted their spring review meeting at UC San Diego on March 28-29. The program featured two full days of presentations reporting on scientific progress from university researchers.

College of Chemistry graduate student Christiane (Chrissy) Stachl has received the Deans Outstanding Student award for demonstrating remarkable vision, commitment, and success as the President of the Chemistry Graduate Life Committee, and for her contributions to creating opportunities to promote equity and inclusion within the Chemistry Department.