Awards and Honors

College of Chemistry awards and honors featured in the news.

T. Don Tilley named inaugural PMP Tech Chancellor's Chair in Chemistry

November 4, 2020
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

T. Don TilleyThanks to a generous donation from Rubber and Joy Chen of PMP Tech, an international company based in Taiwan, Professor of Chemistry and Faculty Senior Scientist at Berkeley Lab, T. Don Tilley has been announced as the inaugural PMP Tech Chancellor’s Chair in Chemistry.

PMP Tech was founded in 1978 in Taiwan...

Enrique Iglesia receives 2021 NACS award

July 2, 2020
North American Catalyst Society Press Release

Enrique Iglesia

Jingguang Chen, President of the North American Catalysis Society, has announced that Enrique Iglesia, Theodore Vermeulen Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley has been named the recipient of the 2021 NACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Catalysis.

Paul Alivisatos Wins Priestley Award­

July 6, 2020
Theresa Duque | Berkeley Lab

Paul Alivisatos

Paul Alivisatos, an internationally renowned chemist who holds joint appointments with the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley, has been awarded the 2021 Priestley Medal, the highest honor of the American Chemical Society. Alivisatos is the eighth College of Chemistry scientist to win the award.

Markita Landry announced as 2020 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy

April 24, 2020
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Markita Landry

Spectroscopy announced this week that Markita Landry, UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been named the winner of the 2020 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award. The award will be presented to Landry at the 2020 SciX 2020 conference in October in Sparks, Nevada, where she will give a plenary lecture and be honored in an award symposium.

Professor Emeritus William Lester inducted into the IAOTP hall of fame

April 14, 2020
College of Chemistry Press Release

William Lester

Professor Emeritus William Lester, a chemist, and educator at the University of California, Berkeley, was recently inducted into the exclusive Hall of Fame for 2020 by the International Association of Top Professionals. He will be recognized at a ceremony in December, 2020.

Jean Fréchet awarded Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering

January 7, 2020
National Academy of Engineering press release

Jean Fréchet and C. Grant Willson

The National Academy of Engineering has announced today that the 2020 Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering will be awarded to Jean Fréchet, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and C. Grant Willson, Professor Emeritus at UT Austin “for the invention, development, and commercialization of chemically amplified materials for micro- and nanofabrication, enabling the extreme miniaturization of microelectronic devices.”

Professor David Schaffer elected to AAAS

November 26, 2019
Robert Saunders | UC Berkeley

David Schaffer

Professor David Schaffer joins four other Berkeley faculty members who have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed upon the society’s members by their peers. Schaffer has been elected “for pioneering contributions to biomolecular engineering, with particular attention to directed evolution to create viruses for the efficient, targeted and safe delivery of gene medicines.”

Meet our faculty: A conversation with 2019 D.I.C. Wang Award Winner Douglas S. Clark

November 19, 2019
By Hailey Murphy | AIChE ChEnected

Douglas Clark

Douglas S. Clark was presented the 2019 D.I.C. Wang Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering at the Annual Meeting in Orlando on November 11, 2019, where he delivered his award lecture titled “From Artificial Cofactors to Synthetic Arrays: Teaching Old Enzymes New Tricks.”

Alumni Klaas Bergmann and Lisa Onishi awarded industry prizes

November 4, 2019
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Alumni in the news

Professor Emeritus Klaas Bergmann has been awarded the 2020 Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics by APS Physics “for the invention of Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) that became universally used for coherent transfer in quantum systems with unprecedented efficiency and robustness."

Dr. Lisa Onishi, Chemical Engineer, Researcher and Senior Process Engineer at Intel, has been recognized with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for her "dedication, achievements, and leadership as a professional engineer".

Distinguished European Academy elects new faculty member Polly Arnold

September 24, 2019
Berkeley Lab Press Release

Polly Arnold

Prominent heavy-element chemist Polly Arnold has been elected a member of Academia Europaea. Her research focuses on advancing our understanding of the bonding and reactivity of heavy elements, the elements of the f-block of the periodic table. Arnold was recently appointed Chemical Sciences Division Director at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Concurrent with her role at Berkeley Lab, she will also join the Chemistry Department faculty at UC Berkeley in January 2020.