College of Chemistry

Process converts polyethylene bags, plastics to polymer building blocks

October 3, 2022
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

Plastics breakdown illustrationPlastics made from polyethylene (white strands), such as the milk bottle shown in background, can now be broken down into smaller molecules — propylene — that are valuable for making another type of plastic, polypropylene. Click image for more detailed caption. (Illustration: Brandon Bloomer, UC Berkeley)

Polyethylene plastics — in particular, the...

Ashok Ajoy awarded 2022 Caldarelli Prize in Magnetic Resonance

September 22, 2022
UC Berkeley College of Chemistry Press Release

Award ceremony

Photo: Prof. Ajoy receiving the award from Prof. Anne Lesage at Chamonix (4 Sep 2022). (Photo courtesty of Ashok Ajoy.)

The College is pleased to announce the scientific committee of the Alpine Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Solids has awarded Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ashok Ajoy the...

A Day in the half-life; a podcast from the Berkeley Lab

March 13, 2023
News from the Berkeley Lab

Sanitation worker and bails of recycling

Berkely Lab produces a podcast about the surprising ways that science evolves. Through conversations with scientists, they trace the technology, theories, and products we see around us today back to early discoveries in the lab, while also imagining where future breakthroughs could take us.

Why isn’t more plastic actually recyclable? Why don’t...

Michelle Chang awarded the Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in Chemistry

April 28, 2023
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Michelle Chang

The College of Chemistry is delighted to announce that Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Michelle Chang has been chosen as the 2023 recipient of the Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in Chemistry.

The award was announced by Thieme and the...

Omar Yaghi elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

May 26, 2022
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Omar M. Yaghi

The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Omar M. Yaghi, UC Berkeley James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Yaghi joins actor Glenn Close, novelist Salman Rushdie, and mathematician Claire Voisin among...

COVID Stories: Sourdough bread with a purpose

March 24, 2021
Gretchen Kell | UC Berkeley media relations

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...

Richmond Sarpong receives ACS Edward Leete Award for 2021

September 16, 2021
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Richmond Sarpong

The College of Chemistry is delighted to announce that Professor of Chemistry Richmond Sarpong has been announced as the 2021 Edward Leete awardee from the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American...

The Periodic Table Is Turning 150. Please Clap!

October 2, 2019
By Barry Bergman | California Magazine

Periodic table

Dmitri Mendeleev in front of a section of the Periodic Table

This article originially appeared in the Fall 2019 California magazine>

In 1669, Hennig Brand, a German merchant and alchemist, tried a novel experiment he hoped would yield the mythical “...

Bacteria for blastoff: Using microbes to make supercharged new rocket fuel

July 1, 2022
By Aliyah Kovner | Berkeley Lab

Illustration of rocket fuel from bacteria

Scientists turned to an oddball bacterial molecule that looks like a jaw full of sharp teeth to create a new type of fuel that could be used for all types of vehicles, including rockets. (Credit: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab)

Converting petroleum into fuels involves crude chemistry first invented by humans in the 1800s. Meanwhile, bacteria have been...

Rules for element discovery get superheavy revamp

November 16, 2018
by Kit Chapman | Chemistry World

The criteria for whether a new chemical element has been discovered are set to change, a provisional report by the International Unions for Pure and Applied Chemistry (Iupac) and Physics (Iupap) has announced.

Historic Periodic Chart

The upper end of the periodic table. For each known isotope the element name, mass number and half-life are given. Colours are attributed to their decay mode: α-...