150th Celebration

Jim Breen has been the campus’s glassblower for 18 years. (UC Berkeley video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Stephen McNally)

To find Room B63 in the nondescript, industrial basement of UC Berkeley’s Hildebrand Hall, it’s best to follow your ears. On a recent afternoon, the Troggs’ 1966 rock hit “Wild Thing” led the way. But once inside the door, don’t expect a party, despite the non-stop music and abundant glassware.

This is the College of Chemistry’s Glass Shop, the busy workspace of scientific glassblower Jim Breen. For the past 16 years, the highly-skilled artisan has...

Samuel Ruben in his lab. Photo from the Seaborg Archive, Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Undated photo, early 1940s.

Samuel Ruben was born in San Francisco, November 8, 1913. He was awarded the B.S. degree in 1935 and the Ph.D. degree in 1938 by the University of California. His death, September 28, 1943, resulted from an accident in the laboratory while he was...

William Lee Jolly (1927-2014), emeritus professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, 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.

Jolly worked as a group leader at...

By David E. Wemmer

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...