150th Chemistry

Berkeley Chemistry: 1868 to the Present

Chemistry has been part of Berkeley since the University's charter was signed on March 23,1868. The chemist Robert Fisher was one of the first ten faculty to be hired.

Richard Edward Powell

March 11, 2020
By George Jura, R. E. Connick, A. E. Hutson, and G. A. Somorjai

Richard Edward Powell

Shortly after the death of Professor Richard Powell, his brother wrote a letter to the department, as follows: “Dick said that the two happiest days of his...

Rollie John Myers

March 11, 2020
By David E. Wemmer

Rollie Myers

Professor Rollie John Myers Jr. was born on July 15, 1924, in Hastings, Nebraska, where his father was also born, and passed away on September 12, 2016, at age 92. His family prospered in Nebraska, thanks to automobiles requiring parts and the development of radio. In 1932 his father...

Stanley G. Thompson- a Chemist's Chemist

February 14, 2022
by Glenn T. Seaborg

Thompson and associates.

The UCLA Gang, Chicago, July 1944. Left to right: Leonard Katzin, Zene Jasaitis, Nathalie and Harlan Baumbach, Glenn Seaborg, Stanley Thompson, Leonard Dreher, Fred Albaugh

In looking back at the discovery of transuranium elements the name Stanley G. Thompson stands out. When he died (July 16,...

http://www.bonestamp.com/sgt/A_Chemists_Chemist/Chemist_Chemist.htm

William Garfield Dauben

March 3, 2020
By Paul A. Bartlett, Rollie Myers, and Andrew Streitwieser

Professor Dauben seated in his office, holding papers.

William Dauben died in his sleep during the night of January 1, 1997. His death was sudden and unexpected. He was born on November 6, 1919, the youngest of three sons of Hyp J. and...

Robert George Bergman

March 20, 2020

Professor Bergman standing in front of a chalkboard.

Robert G. Bergman was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 23, 1942. After completing his undergraduate studies in chemistry at Carleton College in 1963, he received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 1966 under the direction of Jerome A...

Charles Bonner Harris

March 20, 2020
By Jennifer Shanoski (Ph.D. '06, Chem)

Professor Harris in his office

Charles Bonner Harris was born in New York on April 24, 1940, the first child of Charles J. and Brenda Bonner Harris. Six months later, the family moved to Oak Park, Illinois, where his sister, Sally, was born. When Charles was 4 years old...

David Henry Templeton

March 19, 2020
by Alan Templeton and Diana Templeton

Professor Templeton in his office

David H. Templeton was born in Houston on March 2, 1920, the second of six children of David and Miriam Templeton, a Presbyterian minister and a homemaker, respectively. Both parents were college graduates, a relatively...

Leo Brewer

March 4, 2020
By Rollie J. Myers, Gerd M. Rosenblatt, and Herbert L. Strauss

Professor Brewer standing next to chalkboard

Leo Brewer died on February 22, 2005 after several years of declining health. He was a chemist’s chemist always ready to help out fellow chemists, physicists, and materials scientists with his vast chemical knowledge. He is considered to be the founder of modern high-temperature chemistry.

Brewer was born June 13, 1919 in St...

Paul Allan Barlett

March 26, 2020

Smiling man at a work desk with computerEmeritus Professor Paul A. BARTLETT grew up in New England, did his schooling in the Boston area, and graduated with an A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) and an A.M. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1969. As an undergraduate, he did research with...