Awards and Honors

College of Chemistry awards and honors featured in the news.

Kranthi Mandadapu recipient of 2025 Distinguished Teaching Award

April 3, 2025
Mandadapu is among five UC Berkeley instructors selected to receive the 2025 Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award, the campus's highest honor for teaching excellence.

Chemistry Nobel goes to UC Berkeley Ph.D. Frances Arnold

October 3, 2018

Scientist in lab

Photo: Frances H. Arnold, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at Caltech, is one of three winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (Photo by Caltech)

When Frances Arnold first came to UC Berkeley as a graduate student in 1980, she was focused on biofuels — at that time a promising new technology and, for Arnold, a way to benefit...

John Hartwig awarded Frontiers of Knowledge Award

March 25, 2025
The BBVA Award recognized key advances in catalysis that enable "control and acceleration of chemical reactions," improving efficiency and reducing energy consumption across various industrial processes.

Kwabena Bediako honored at third annual Philomathia Day

February 11, 2025
The third annual Philomathia Day took place on Jan. 31, and honored 2024 Philomathia Prize recipient Professor Kwabena Bediako.

Watch Jennifer Doudna's Nobel Prize award ceremony

December 4, 2020

For Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, the highlight of this most extraordinary Nobel Prize Week was a socially distanced award ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 8, on her patio in Berkeley with 11 people in attendance, followed by takeout. But if the glow surronding her was any indication, she could have been receiving the medal and citation from the King of Sweden on the stage at Stockholm Concert Hall. The traditional celebration has been rescheduled for next year.

A videographer and photographer captured the intimate gathering with the highlight being the presentation of the Nobel gold...

Jennifer Doudna awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 7, 2020

Portrait of Jennifer Doudna

Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. photo: Keegan Houser

For immediate release

The College of Chemistry is delighted to announce that biochemist Jennifer Doudna was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today, sharing it with colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier...

Alumna Danna Freedman awarded MacArthur Fellowship

November 7, 2022

Danna Freedman

Alumna Danna Freedman, Professor MIT (Ph.D. '09, Chem with Professor Jeffrey Long). Photo courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation.

Danna Freedman, the F.G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT, has been named a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship recipient by the...

Graduate Student Instructor Awards announced

April 28, 2020
The College of Chemistry is proud to announce the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) awardees for 2019-2020.

Undergraduate students compete in national L'Oréal Brandstorm competition

May 24, 2019

Two talented undergraduate teams, with members from the College of Chemistry and Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR), competed in this year's USA national L'Oréal Brandstorm competition in New York City in April. Both teams made it to the final round, with a third place tie out of approximately 150 teams nationwide. The first and second place winners will go onto France to compete in the finals later this year.

Jeffrey Reimer, Professor and Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) commented, “I am not surprised to see our students do so...

Doudna receives National Medal of Technology and Innovation

January 7, 2025
President Biden awarded Jennifer Doudna the National Medal of Technology and Innovation as a pioneer of CRISPR gene editing.