Alumni News

Meet alumna Dawn Shaughnessy, a real-life alchemist

November 27, 2018

Alumna Dawn Shaughnessy

The periodic table is chemistry’s holy text. Not only does it list all of the tools at chemists’ disposal, but its mere shape – where these elements fall into specific rows and columns – has made profound predictions about new elements and their properties that later came true. But few chemists on Earth have a closer relationship with the document than Dawn...

Designer Materials to Keep Plastic Out of Landfills

July 28, 2022

mound of plastic garbage

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a material system that could keep plastic out of landfills by enabling a much broader range of fully recyclable plastic products. photo: Adobe Stock

A group of scientists from the labs of Brett Helms, the Joint...

COVID Stories: Sourdough bread with a purpose

March 24, 2021

Brendan Huang, Carolyn Hong

Seniors Brendan Huang and Carolyn Hong, who both have received the COVID-19 vaccine and are in the same social bubble, met in an organic chemistry lab as sophomores, became fast friends and wound up baking sourdough bread together. It’s an adventure that Hong calls “our sourdough journey.” (Photo by Talia Patt)

Friends Carolyn Hong and Brendan Huang had a delicious...

College startups featured at SkyDeck’s annual Demo Day

February 11, 2020

SkyDeck demo day

Investors and academics came from around the world to watch presentations from Berkeley SkyDeck startups last week. It is the fourth annual demo day held on UC Berkeley’s campus. Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small, UC Berkeley.

UC Berkeley is not just one of the best research universities in the world, but also a unique place for entrepreneurs, students and alumni to grow and build...

Alumna Spotlight with Cheri Ackerman of Concerto Biosciences

October 12, 2021

Cheri Ackerman, alumna

Photo: courtesy of Concerto Biosciences.

Cheri Ackerman (Ph.D. '17, ChemBio) is a co-founder & CEO @ Concerto Biosciences, an MIT/Harvard spinout that develops microbial “ensembles” as revolutionary new disease treatments. To discover ensembles, Concerto uses a novel screening...

Gordon E. Moore ’50: Scientist, philanthropist, fly fisherman

March 24, 2023

Gordon Moore with a Cal umbrella

“Gordon Moore matched scientific insight and business acumen with a genuine concern for the well-being of the natural world and the human beings who steward it. Throughout his brilliant career, he remained dedicated to developing common-sense, scientifically verifiable approaches to the challenges of our...

ChemE alumnae honored by AIChE

October 12, 2020

The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Professor Karen Gleason (MIT) and Sarika Goel (Honeywell UOP) have been recently awarded honors from AIChE.

Karen Gleason (Ph.D. ’87, ChemE) invited as the 2019 John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer

Karen Gleason, MIT

Karen Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associated...

Geraldine Richmond sworn in as Under Secretary of Science and Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy

November 9, 2021

Geraldine Richmond swarn in as Under Secretary of Science and Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy

Professor Geraldine Richmond (Ph.D. '80, Chem) during swearing in ceremony with U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on November 9, 2021. (Photo via ZOOM)

In a short but...

Advisory Board member Sunney Chan receives Taiwan's Presidential Science Prize

October 12, 2021

Sunney Chen receives the Presidential Science Prize from Taiwan President 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen

Sunney Chan receives the Presidential Science Prize on November 1, 2021 from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Photo courtesy Shie-Ming Peng (彭旭明) .

The Presidential Science Award Committee announced...

Are heavy metals toxic? Scientists find surprising clues in yeast

June 7, 2021

Rare earth elements

Elements on the periodic table that make up the lanthanides, or rare-earth heavy elements.

Lanthanides are rare-earth heavy metals with useful magnetic properties and a knack for emitting light. Researchers had long assumed that lanthanides’ toxicity risk was low and therefore safe to implement in a number of high-tech breakthroughs we now take for...