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.

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...

Edmond O'Neill

March 17, 2020
by C. W. Porter | Industrial and Engineering Chemistry

Edmond O'Neil

After forty-five years of service in the department of chemistry of the University of California, Edmond O’Neill retired with a Carnegie pension on June 30, 1925. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1858, but the San Francisco Bay region has been his home since 1864. He was graduated from the University of California in 1879 and was appointed instructor in chemistry the same year. His graduate...

Samuel Benedict Christy, first dean of mining and metallurgy

September 15, 2021

Hearst Mining Building, UC Berkeley

Interior, Hearst Mining Building. (Photo: Joe Parks via Wikimedia Commons)

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Paul Allan Bartlett

March 26, 2020

Paul A. BartlettEmeritus 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 David Dolphin on the synthesis of the alkaloid...

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...

Henry Chalmers Biddle

March 3, 2020
Henry C. Biddle was appointed to the chemistry department at Berkeley in 1901. He did research in biochemistry and taught organic chemistry.

Alum Kaoru "Kay" Inouye's internment and military story

July 13, 2021
Kaoru Inouye | discovernikki.org

Kaoru Inouye teaches chemistry at Heart Mountain, World War II

Scene in the Chemistry class at the Heart Mountain High School, as Kaoru Inouye, instructor, is showing student Sumi Tam[...] a step in one of the Chemistry experiments. Photographer: Iwasaki, Hikaru; Heart Mountain, Wyoming. War Relocation Authority...

In Memoriam: Harold S. Johnston

July 19, 2021
By Ronald C. Cohen

Two scientists in a lab

Harold Johnston circa 1970s. (Photo: Dennis Galloway collection, Bancroft Library)

Pioneering atmospheric chemist and UC Berkeley Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Harold S. Johnston, was born in Woodstock, Georgia, on October 11, 1920, and died on Oct 20, 2012. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, with a minor in English literature, from Emory University...

Peter Armentrout

March 26, 2020

Peter Armentrout

Professor Armentrout (at the College of Chemistry from 1981 to 1986 before moving to University of Utah) was born in Dayton, Ohio on March 13, 1953. He received a B.S. degree with highest honors in 1975 from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. While at Case, Prof. Armentrout conducted research with Prof. Rob Dunbar on photodissociation...