150th Celebration

Alumna Miriam Elizabeth Simpson

September 2, 2022
C. Willet Asling and Herbert H. Srebnik | Faculty Senate

Miriam E. Simpson in a lab.

Undated photograph of Miriam Elizabeth Simpson. Photo: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image No. SIA2009-3384

Summary: Miriam Elizabeth Simpson (1894-1991) attended the University of California at Berkeley, earning the A.B. in chemistry in 1915 and the M.A. in 1916....

William L. Jolly

February 11, 2014

William Jolly with Retorts to Lasers

William Lee Jolly (1927-2014), emeritus professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, (Ph.D. '52, Chem with Latimer) whose work helped facilitate the renaissance of inorganic chemistry in the United States during the middle of the 20th century, died of heart failure on January 10, 2014, at Kaiser Medical Center in Richmond, CA. He was 86....

Willard Frank Libby

January 1, 2020
George B. Kauffman | www.britannica.com

Willard Libby

By George B. Kauffman, Professor of Chemistry, California State University Fresno

Willard Frank Libby (1908 - 1980) American chemist whose technique of carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) dating provided an extremely valuable tool for archaeologists, anthropologists, and earth scientists. For this development he was honored with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1960.

Libby, the son of farmer Ora Edward...

Glenn Theodore Seaborg

March 29, 2020

Glenn Theodore Seaborg

By Les Prix Nobel edited by Nobel Lectures

Glenn Theodore Seaborg was born in Ishpeming, Michigan, on April 19, 1912. At the age of 10 he moved with his family to California, in 1929 he graduated at David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles as...

In Memoriam: Richard Andersen

September 10, 2019
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release
The field of inorganic chemistry has lost one of its most passionate practitioners; Professor Richard Andersen passed away in Oakland, California, on June 16, 2019, at the age of 76.

James Andrew Harris and element discovery at Berkeley Lab

February 1, 2021
by Darryl Boyd | C&EN

Element 104 discovery team

The Berkeley lab team that discovered elements 104 and 105, April 1969. From left: Matti Nurmia, James Harris, Kari Eskola, Pirkko Eskola, and Albert Ghiorso. (Photo: Berkeley Lab)

The discovery of an element is a rare occurrence. Defying racial and academic expectations, James A. Harris played a prominent role in the discovery of two elements.

...

William Francis Giauque

January 1, 2020
College of Chemistry News

Giauque, William Francis

By D. N. Lyon, K. S. Pitzer, and D. A. Shirley

The death of William Francis Giauque, 1949 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, on March 28, 1982, ended the career of...

In memoriam: Willard B. Rising

January 14, 2023
by John Maxwell Stillman, Bernard Moses, and Edmond O'Neill

Undated portrait Willard B. Rising. Collection Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.Willard B. Rising

Summary of Prof. Rising's career from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography

Willard Bradley Rising, chemist, b. 26 sept 1839, Meckleenburg, New York. D. 9 Feb 1910, Berkeley, CA. Lived at 2203 Bancroft, Berkeley, CA (now the edge of the University on Bancroft.) Wife Frances;...

Berkeley Chemistry: 1868 to the Present

Berkeley 150th Anniversary 1868-2018; Original Chemistry Building 1897 between mining and the library

Photo: Berkeley 150 1868-2018 logo over photo of the first dedicated chemistry building (in the middle) between the first mining building on the left and the library on the right; c. 1897 photo by William Letts Oliver, or his son. Courtesy Bancroft Library.

Chemistry has...

Robert Andrews Fisher

May 2, 2023
Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1894

Robert Fisher

Robert Andrews Fisher (1832-1893) was in the early fiftes, the assistant to Prof. John A. Porter, of Yale College, and at one time was Professor of Chemistry at Brown University, which conferred upon him an honorary degree. In those days, no facilities were offered in this country to chemists who were desirous of pursuing advanced courses in their science. He accordingly went to...