College of Chemistry

A research team which include members from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, the lab of John Arnold at the University of California - Berkeley, and the University of South Florida have developed a material that selectively binds dissolved uranium with a low-cost polymer adsorbent. The results, published in Nature Communications, could help push past bottlenecks in the cost and efficiency of extracting uranium resources from oceans for sustainable energy production.

Matthew Francis, Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, announces the addition of two new faculty members who will join the College in July. Alanna Schepartz joins the faculty as the T. Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Chair in Chemistry; Michael Zuerch joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry.

Following a huge manhunt to capture three train robbers, authorities called in an up-and-coming forensic scientist Edward Oscar Heinrich (BS, 1908, Chem), a UC Berkeley lecturer and alumnus, to help solve what became known as the "Last Great Train Robbery." He didn’t know that the case would put him on the map as a pioneer in modern American criminology .

College of Chemistry graduate student Christiane (Chrissy) Stachl has received the Deans Outstanding Student award for demonstrating remarkable vision, commitment, and success as the President of the Chemistry Graduate Life Committee, and for her contributions to creating opportunities to promote equity and inclusion within the Chemistry Department.