150th Celebration

In memoriam: Alum Harvey Itano and the journey to sickle cell research

July 13, 2021
Jackie Carr | UC San Diego

Harvey Itano photographed by Dorethea Lange

Image: Harvey Akio Itano, 21, 1942 graduate from the University of California where he received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry degree. He was chosen by the faculty as University Medalist for 1942 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. Mr. Itano went to the Japanese Assembly center prior to the commencement exercises at which President...

The lost tale of a nuclear scientist's death in a secret San Francisco hospital room

October 24, 2020
By Katie Dowd | SF Gate

Black and white photo of two men working on a joint.

Image: (l to r) Bill Brower and William C. Twitchell with brazing machine making joint for 184-inch cyclotron coils at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, taken March 8, 1942. Photograph: Donald Cooksey.

William Curtis Twitchell was a genius. Born in Minnesota in 1917, he got his...

Wade Kornegay: Physicist Engineer

February 4, 2021
by Marge d'Wylde

wade Kornegay, alumnus, 1966 portrait, MIT Lincoln Lab

Dr. Wade Kornegay, MIT Lincoln Lab, 1966. Photo courtesy of MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Wade Kornegay1 (b. 1934) B.S. 1956 (chemistry and mathematics) North Carolina Central University, Ph.D. 1961 (physical chemistry) University of California at Berkeley; from...

Agnes Fay Morgan, Home Economics: Berkeley

February 22, 2021
By Ruth Okey, Barbara Kennedy Johnson, and Gordon Mackinney

Black and white photo of woman in lab

Agnes Fay Morgan (1884-1968)

Professor Emeritus of Nutrition Biochemist Emeritus, Agricultural Experiment Station

“There were giants in the earth in those days,” and time will...

George Jura

March 12, 2020

George Jura

Chemistry Professor

By Paul A. Bartlett, Rollie J. Myers, and Andrew Streitwieser, Jr.

George Jura died...

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...

Happy 100th Birthday Gilman Hall

sketch of building

image: 1909 conceptual sketch of Gilman Hall by John Galen Howard, campus supervising architect, 1901-1922

Berkeley 150 logoAs we celebrate the campus sesquicentennial, Gilman Hall will officially turn 100 on March 22...

Frederick Richard Jensen

March 3, 2020

Frederick Richard Jensen

By James Cason, Bruce Rickborn, and Andrew Streitwieser

Frederick Richard (Fritz) Jensen, a long-time member of the Chemistry Department at Berkeley, died after a long and painful illness on February 14, 1987....

Earl Leonard Muetterties

March 20, 2020

Earl Muetterties

By K. N. Raymond, R. A. Andersen, R. G. Bergman, and A. M. Stacy

Earl Muetterties died of cancer on January 12, 1984, at the age of 56. Although he had been at Berkeley for only six years, his contributions to the Berkeley Chemistry Department were important and lasting. His lifetime contributions to the science of chemistry, first as a research worker and later as a teacher, have an...

In Memoriam: Alumna Marjorie (Young) Vold

August 3, 2021
Marge d'Wylde | College of Chemistry

Alums Marjorie Young Vold and Robert Vold

Alumni Robert Vold (Ph.D. '35, Chem) and Marjorie Vold née Young (Ph.D. '36, Chem). Unknown photographer and date. Photo courtesy Tom Aiken.

Marjorie Jean Young (1913 – 1991) was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She moved to the United States in 1918 and became...