College of Chemistry

Today DayGlo pigments color everything from traffic cones to tennis shoes, but back in the 1930s it was barely used at all. Though Joe and Bob Switzer can lay claim to commercializing fluorescent pigments, they were far from the first people to discover the phenomenon. By the time Joe and Bob created their homemade paint, scientists had already spent years in the laboratory exploring the chemical makeup of glowing substances.

The 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.

Spotlight on SEMI Women is excited to recognize Q4 2018 honoree Ellie Yieh (College of Chemistry Advisory Board member and alumna) from Applied Materials! Spotlight on SEMI Women recognizes and celebrates accomplished women working in the global microelectronics industry. Nominees include women who are beacons of knowledge, leaders of organizations and initiatives, hidden heroes and innovators in our industry. They are volunteers, protectors, intellectual disruptors and activists.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles emit only water vapor from their tailpipes, offering a cleaner alternative to fossil-fuel-based transportation. But for hydrogen cars to become mainstream, scientists need to develop more efficient hydrogen-storage systems. Now, a group of scientists reporting in ACS' Chemistry of Materials have used metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) to set a new record for hydrogen storage capacity under normal operating conditions.