Awards and Honors

College of Chemistry awards and honors featured in the news.

Professors Omar Yaghi and Michael O’Keeffe receive award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

September 19, 2018
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Array of Lithium Ion batteries stacked side by side.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2019 Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography to Michael O’Keeffe, Arizona State University, and Omar M. Yaghi, University of California, “for their fundamental contributions to the development of reticular chemistry”.

Chemistry Ph.D. Candidate Wojciech Osowiecki named 2019 Siebel Scholar

October 1, 2018
College of Chemistry

Wojciech OsowieckiDoctoral candidate Osowiecki is among 8 UC Berkeley graduate students named 2019 Siebel Scholars.

Jennifer Doudna to receive the 2018 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize

September 14, 2018
Katherine Fenz | The Rockefeller University

Jennifer DoudnaThe Rockefeller University has announced that Jennifer Doudna will receive this year's Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, a major international accolade honoring outstanding women scientists.

Paul Alivisatos announced as 2019 Welch Award in Chemistry recipient

September 13, 2019
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Paul Alivisatos and Charles Leiber

The Welch Foundation, one of the nation’s largest sources of private funding for basic chemical research, has announced that Drs. Armand Paul Alivisatos and Charles M. Lieber are the 2019 recipients of the prestigious Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry. Highly-respected and influential leaders in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, Drs. Alivisatos and Lieber are being recognized for their important research contributions which have had a significant, positive impact on humankind.

John Hartwig: The 2019 Wolf Prize and the importance of fundamental research in the discovery of synthetic catalysts

March 9, 2019
Marge d'Wylde | College of Chemistry

John Hartwig (Ph.D.’90, Chem), is the Henry Rapoport Professor in Organic Chemistry at UC Berkeley. He joined the senior faculty at the College of Chemistry in 2011. His research group is focused on the discovery and understanding of new reactions of organic compounds catalyzed by transition metal complexes and artificial metalloenzymes. Among the many potential applications are catalysts for pharmaceuticals, renewable chemicals, and fuels.

Hartwig did his graduate research at UC Berkeley with advisors Robert Bergman...

QB3 director David Schaffer elected to National Academy of Inventors

December 7, 2021
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

David Schaffer

David Schaffer, newly elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in his lab.

David Schaffer, a UC Berkeley chemical engineer who pioneered the use of engineered viruses to deliver gene therapies — nine of his therapies are currently in clinical trials — has been named a fellow of the...

Nobel Prize award ceremony to be streamed live December 10

December 3, 2018

Nobel Laureate ceremony December 10th

This year's Nobel Laureates in science and medicine will take center stage in Stockholm on December 10th, when they receive the Nobel medal and diploma from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. This year's awardees include UC Berkeley Alumna Professor Frances Arnold of Caltech.

Naomi Ginsberg receives ACS early-career award in experimental physical chemistry

February 26, 2020
College of Chemistry Press Release

Naomi Ginsberg

The American Society of Chemistry (ACS) has announced Naomi S. Ginsberg is a recipient of the 2020 early-career award in experimental physical chemistry. She is being recognized "For the development of new time- and space-resolved imaging and spectroscopy methods to study dynamical phenomena in heterogeneous materials". The Physical Chemistry Division of ACS annually sponsors senior and early-career awards in theoretical and experimental physical chemistry that are intended to recognize the most outstanding scientific achievements of members of the Division. The recipients will be honored at the the Fall ACS National Meeting in San Francisco.

Dr. William Lester Jr selected as Top Chemist Educator of the Year by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP)

September 10, 2018
PR Distribution

Portrait photo of a manDr. William Alexander Lester, Jr, Chemist & Educator for University of California, Berkeley was selected as Top Chemist Educator of the Year for 2018 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for his outstanding leadership and commitment to the field.

While inclusion with the International Association of Top Professionals is an honor in itself,...

David Schaffer appointed Hubbard Howe Jr Distinguished Chair in Biochemical Engineering

December 26, 2018
by Marge d'Wylde | College of Chemistry

David SchafferThe department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) has announced the appointment of David Schaffer as the Hubbard Howe Jr. Distinguished Chair in Biochemical Engineering. Schaffer is a professor of Chemical and Biolmolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, Molecular & Cell Biology, and the Director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center.