Professor Balsara discusses ways to make better batteries through development, education and listening to students in this portrait for the Clean Energy Project produced by renowned photographer Rick Chapman whose work has been seen at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
January 18, 2019
January 16, 2019
It was announced today that the 2019 Wolf Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to professors John F. Hartwig from University of California at Berkeley and Stephen L. Buchwald from MIT, for the development of efficient transition-metal catalysts that have revolutionized drug manufacturing, leading to breakthrough in molecule and synthetics design.
Zinc-zinc bonds are rare in chemistry. So are linear four-metal compounds. Nevertheless, Trevor D. Lohrey, a member of John Arnold’s group at the University of California, Berkeley, has made the first molecule with a Re-Zn-Zn-Re core. Lohrey used a rhenium(I) salt to reduce ZnCl2 and make a zinc cation to which anionic rhenium compounds coordinated.
January 15, 2019
Professor Enrique Iglesia of the University of California at Berkeley is the recipient of the 2019 Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis. The award is presented jointly by the North American Catalysis Society and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies.
January 13, 2019
The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation announced its new class of fellows for 2018 in the spring, naming alumna Alexandra Brown (B.S. Chem, ’17) one of ten newly minted graduate students as a recipient. As an undergraduate at Berkeley, Brown worked in the research group of Professor John Arnold studying titanium-aluminum heterobimetallics supported by bridging hydride ligands.
January 9, 2019
With the help of sponges inserted in the bloodstream to absorb excess drugs, doctors and scientists are hoping to prevent the dangerous side effects of toxic chemotherapy agents or even deliver higher doses to knock back tumors, like liver cancer, that don’t respond to more benign treatments.
Dimitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist who in 1869 wrote out the known elements (of which there were 63 at the time) on cards and then arranged them in columns and rows according to their chemical and physical properties is considered the father of the Periodic Table. In celebration of the 150th anniversary of this pivotal moment in science, the UN has proclaimed 2019 the International year of the Periodic Table. Seen here is the element 104 discovery team in 1969.
January 2, 2019
In celebration of Andersen's research and teaching at Berkeley, the Royal Society of Landon has published a special web issue on the contributions of Richard Andersen to inorganic and organometallic chemistry in honor of his 75th birthday.
December 26, 2018
The department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) has announced the appointment of David Schaffer as the Hubbard Howe Jr. Distinguished Chair in Biochemical Engineering. Schaffer is a professor of Chemical and Biolmolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, Molecular & Cell Biology, and the Director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center.
Robin Padilla earned his PhD in chemistry in 2010. He worked as a postdoc and scientific editor before assuming his current role as a product manager with Springer Nature. In this position, he applies his analytical skills to developing databases that help researchers to find the information they need faster.
Spotlight on SEMI Women is excited to recognize Q4 2018 honoree Ellie Yieh (College of Chemistry Advisory Board member and alumna) from Applied Materials! Spotlight on SEMI Women recognizes and celebrates accomplished women working in the global microelectronics industry. Nominees include women who are beacons of knowledge, leaders of organizations and initiatives, hidden heroes and innovators in our industry. They are volunteers, protectors, intellectual disruptors and activists.
December 20, 2018
Kwabena Bediako has been named a recipient of The Office of Naval Research (ONR) 2019 Young Investigator Award for his research in Van der Waals engineering for electrochemically tunable quantum materials.
December 7, 2018
At this year's induction ceremony for the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies founder Richard Houghten and optometry pioneer Herbert Wertheim — two individuals of unquestionable genius — shared a surprising fact about themselves: Growing up, they each struggled with severe learning challenges that easily could have sent them on a different path.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles emit only water vapor from their tailpipes, offering a cleaner alternative to fossil-fuel-based transportation. But for hydrogen cars to become mainstream, scientists need to develop more efficient hydrogen-storage systems. Now, a group of scientists reporting in ACS' Chemistry of Materials have used metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) to set a new record for hydrogen storage capacity under normal operating conditions.
Professor Alexis T. Bell is the recipient of the 2018 NACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Catalysis sponsored and administered by The North American Catalysis Society. It is awarded biennially in even-numbered years. Bell will be honored at the closing banquet ceremonies at the 2019 North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society.
December 5, 2018
In 2018, the Nobel Prize for chemistry went to one British and two American scientists. Professor Frances Arnold is an American chemical engineer who was awarded for her pioneering work on the “directed evolution of enzymes.” In this edition of "The Interview", Fair Observer talks to Arnold about her scholarly work, her path to success and her life after being awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Alum David Oxtoby (Ph.D. Chem, ’75) has been elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. One of the oldest institutions in America, the Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and 60 other individuals who anticipated that the then young republic would need to gather knowledge and promote learning to succeed in an uncertain future.
December 4, 2018
Alumnus John E. Adams, (Ph.D. Chem, '79) has been re-elected chair of the board of directors of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. Adams will begin his second one-year term on Jan. 1, 2019.
December 3, 2018
This year's Nobel Laureates in science and medicine will take center stage in Stockholm on December 10th, when they receive the Nobel medal and diploma from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. This year's awardees include UC Berkeley Alumna Professor Frances Arnold of Caltech.
November 29, 2018
Researchers have pinpointed the strong acid site of a sulfated-zirconium MOF catalyst by identifying a specific molecular decoration within its structure. The work could aid studies into solid acid-catalysed reaction mechanisms as well as the development of next-generation solid acid catalysts for many industrial applications. (image: MOF 808 and MOF 808-SO4