150th Celebration

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...

Ignacio Tinoco Jr.

March 25, 2020

Ignacio Jr. Tinoco

By Kerry Grens

Ignacio (Nacho) Tinoco, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, who pioneered methods to understand the structures of RNA, died last month (...

In Memoriam: alumnus Herbert Alexander Young

November 3, 2022
Celeste T. Wright, Arthur Child, Bruce Glassburner, C. Bickford O'Brien, and Harold G. Reiber

Painting of Herbert Young, undated

Herbert Alexander Young (1906-1965) Professor of Chemistry and Dean, College of Letters and Science UC Davis. (1945, Tennessee Eastman Corporation newsletter photo. This version of the image is a mural at UC Davis.)

Herbert Young son of William Alexander and Aldie Jennings Young, was born October 10, 1906, in San Diego,...

George Claude Pimentel

March 3, 2020

George Claude Pimentel

By Robert E. Connick, Frederick C. Crews, C. Bradley Moore, Kenneth S. Pitzer, and Loy L. Sammet

With the death of George Pimentel (1922-...

The Women Written Out of Nuclear Science

January 10, 2022
by Kit Chapman | Lady Science

Periodic Table graphic

Illustration of the Periodic Table including the heavy elements. (Adobestock)

Margaret Melhase Fuchs, 1941...

In Memoriam Charles Bonner Harris Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus

March 10, 2020
Richard J. Saykally

Charles Harris

A world leader in the field of physical chemistry, Charles Bonner Harris, former Chair of chemistry and Dean of the College of Chemistry at the UC Berkeley, and former Director of Chemical Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, passed away on March 10, 2020. His distinguished career is marked by his many contributions to the field of condensed phase chemical...

Gilbert Newton Lewis

March 25, 2020

Gilbert N. Lewis

Gilbert N. Lewis in his lab at UC Berkeley, 1937.

By Raymond G. Gettell, Joel H. Hildebrand, Wendell M. Latimer, and G. E. Gibson

“Gilbert Newton Lewis was born near Boston, October 23...

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...

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...

Alumna Miriam Elizabeth Simpson

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

Miriam E. Simpson

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...