College of Chemistry

Tiny microbes could brew big benefits for green biomanufacturing

May 10, 2023

Green industrial illustration

A team of scientists from the College of Chemistry and Berkeley Lab find a new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals. Specifically, the team is looking at a metabolic process in bacteria that could be a sustainable source of carbon-based...

Dean Toste named next chair of the Chemistry Department

April 27, 2023
Dean Toste

The College is pleased to announce that Dean Toste will serve as the next chair of the Department of Chemistry in the College of Chemistry, effective July 1, 2023.

Dean has been a member of the chemistry faculty since 2002, when he was appointed as an assistant professor by then-chair Judith Klinman. As a world-renowned synthetic organic chemist,...

Jeffrey Long and Don Tilley elected to the National Academy of Sciences

May 3, 2023

Jeffrey Long and Don Tilley

(l to r) Professors Jeffrey Long and T. Don Tilley. Photos College of Chemistry

Jeffrey Long, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and T. Don Tilley,...

German Society for Crystallography celebrates Lieselotte Templeton with inauguration of student prize

March 2, 2023

Crystallographer Liselotte Templeton in front of her hometown Breslau

Early photograph of Lieselotte Templeton in front of her hometown Breslau. Photo edited by Constantin Buyer.

The German Society for Crystallography (DGK) announced last year the...

Gordon E. Moore ’50: Scientist, philanthropist, fly fisherman

March 24, 2023

Gordon Moore with a Cal umbrella

“Gordon Moore matched scientific insight and business acumen with a genuine concern for the well-being of the natural world and the human beings who steward it. Throughout his brilliant career, he remained dedicated to developing common-sense, scientifically verifiable approaches to the challenges of our...

Can synthetic polymers replace the body’s natural proteins?

March 20, 2023

Illustration of biological fluids are made up of hundreds or thousands of different proteins

Biological fluids are made up of hundreds or thousands of different proteins (represented by space filling models above) that evolved to work together efficiently but flexibly. UC Berkeley polymer scientists are trying to...

Probe reveals nanometer-scale chemical environment of cell membranes

August 27, 2019

Nanoscopic mapping of lipid order in cell membranes with NR4A.

When scientists use superresolution microscopy methods on cells, they usually get just structural information like the sizes and shapes of cellular compartments. By using a new derivative of a conventional dye, researchers can now get specific nanoscale information about the chemical environment of cell plasma membranes. Such information could tell scientists about the order and disorder of the cell membranes, including about highly ordered “lipid rafts.”

ChemE alumnae honored by AIChE

October 12, 2020

The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Professor Karen Gleason (MIT) and Sarika Goel (Honeywell UOP) have been recently awarded honors from AIChE.

Karen Gleason (Ph.D. ’87, ChemE) invited as the 2019 John M. Prausnitz AIChE Institute Lecturer

Karen Gleason, MIT

Karen Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associated...

UC Berkeley researchers illuminate material complexity with nonlinear x-ray spectroscopy

August 10, 2021

Nano letters cover art from the lab of Michael ZuerchOn the Cover: Artist rendering of second harmonic generation spectroscopy in the extreme ultraviolet state. Illustration by Ella Marushenko. (Nano Letters, Vol 21, No 14)

(SHG) spectroscopy in the extreme...

Stephanie Espy discusses importance of women in STEM during Berkeley Forum event

November 23, 2020

Girls at a STEM Gem club event

UC Berkeley alumna Stephanie Espy (M.S. '04, ChemE) started the STEM Gems Club, which has grown to about 80 clubs across the United States for girls in fifth grade and above to learn about different careers in STEM through the club curriculum. (Photo Jasmine Lee, The Daily Californian)

On Thursday, the Berkeley Forum hosted author...