150th Chemistry

George Ernest Gibson

March 12, 2020

George Ernest Gibson

By W. F. Giauque, J. H. Hildebrand, and G. T. Seaborg

George Ernest Gibson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, November 9, 1884, the son of John Gibson and Karolina...

Charles William Tobias

March 30, 2020

Charles Tobias

By D. N. Hansen, H. C. Mel, R. H. Muller, and J. S. Newman

Charles William Tobias, a beloved and internationally honored member of the chemical engineering department at Berkeley, died on March 6, 1996, at his home in Orinda...

College of Chemistry 150th Celebration

Lester Andrews (Ph.D. ’66, Chem) reminisces about his experience in George Pimentel’s lab

October 1, 2021
Professor Emeritus Lester Andrews |University of Virginia

George Pimentel, 1960sGeorge Pimentel in the 1960s. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Pimentel.

In 1963, the last Sunday in September, I flew from my home in Starkville, Mississippi to SFO and took ground transportation to the I-House where I would live for three semesters. Qualifying exams were given the next day, Monday, and on Tuesday we were given the results and told to interview...

The cyclotron's history at Berkeley

July 22, 2021
Lynn Yarris | Berkeley Lab

Ernest O. Lawrence, Glenn T. Seaborg, and J. Robert Oppenheimer in early 1946 at the controls to the magnet of the 184-inch cyclotron

(l to r) Physicist Robert Oppenheimer, chemist Glenn Seaborg and, physicist Ernest Lawrence in 1946 at the control panel of the...

John Gofman: Medical school to nuclear chemistry at UC Berkeley

August 5, 2021
Harry Blackburn, Ph.D.

Excerpt from "John ‘Jack’ Gofman. Researcher and Social Activist. ‘Fair-haired Boy’ and ‘Enemy Within’" American Journal of Cardiology,

John Gofman at Berkeley Lab

John Gofman circa 1950 at the...

In honor of Ahmed Zewail (1946-2016)

August 8, 2016

Charles Harris with Ahmed Zewail (left to right)To appreciate the magnitude of the advance that Zewail introduced to chemistry, one has to ponder the minuteness of the time intervals that he could routinely employ with his special lasers: a femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second. It is one second divided by ten to the power of fifteen.

In Memoriam: Norman Edgar Phillips

July 20, 2021
by C. Judson King

Norman E. PhillipsNorman's photo for the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation award, 1963.

Norman Phillips, Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, (1928-2019) was born December 20, 1928 in Detroit, Michigan. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of British Columbia in 1949 and 1950, followed by the Ph.D., also...

Plutonium: The scary element that helps probe space's secrets

June 28, 2021
By Justin Rowlatt | BBC News

Atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki, WWII

Plutonium may be the most feared and fearsome substance in the entire periodic table. Photo: via BBC News

This story first appeared in the BBC News Magazine September 20, 2014.

It's best known as the main ingredient of atomic bombs like the infamous Fat Man, dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945,...

Ernest Lawrence's cyclotron:
 Invention for the ages

May 26, 2021
By Lynn Yarris |Berkeley Lab

Ernest O. Lawrence, Glenn T. Seaborg, and J. Robert Oppenheimer in early 1946

Ernest O. Lawrence, Glenn T. Seaborg, and J. Robert Oppenheimer in early 1946 at the controls to the magnet of the 184-inch cyclotron, which was being converted from its wartime use to its original purpose as a cyclotron. (archive...