College of Chemistry

With drop in LA’s vehicular aerosol pollution, plants emerge as major source

March 23, 2021
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations
Restrictions on vehicle emissions have been so effective that in Los Angeles that the most concerning source of dangerous aerosol pollution may well be trees and other green plants.

Meet our faculty: Alexis T. Bell

August 10, 2020
Roger Eardley-Pryor | UC Berkeley Oral History Project
Alexis T. Bell: A Career in Catalysis and University Administration at UC Berkeley

Black and white portrait of a man in front of blackboard.

Alexis T. Bell in UC Berkeley classroom, circa 1990.

Alexis T. Bell is the Dow Professor of Sustainable Chemistry in the Department of...

Bediako and Zuerch awarded grant to research control of 2D magnetic solids with ultrafast light waves

February 15, 2021
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Portraits of two men

Kwabena Bediako and Michael Zuerch in the lab.

The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Assistant Professors of Chemistry Kwabena Bediako and Michael Zuerch have been awarded a $1M Science and Engineering research grant from...

UC Berkeley grad takes a closer look at nuclear forensics chemistry

January 14, 2021
Los Alamos National Lab

In 2017, radiochemistry graduate student Mark Straub left the comfortable academic environs of UC Berkeley and moved to the middle of New Mexico, where he spent his summer working full time at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the birthplace of the Manhattan Project. There, Mark teamed up with LANL scientists Jaqueline Kiplinger and Julianna Fessenden to study the impact and evolution of nuclear forensics, a process in which nuclear material can be examined to determine its source and history.

Mark’s interest...

A protein voyage into cells enabled by a short helical protein

April 16, 2021
By Xizi (Kelsey) Zhang | QB3

Drawing of three pathways of endocytosis

Three common pathways of endocytosis in a cell to internalize outside substances. Figure credit: scientificanimations.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Schepartz lab at UC Berkeley recently reported a way to efficiently deliver therapeutic proteins into live cells and...

Terry and Tori Rosen donate $25 million for new College of Chemistry building

October 16, 2019
by Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley Media Relations
University of California, Berkeley, alumnus Terry Rosen, the CEO of Arcus Biosciences, and his wife, Tori, have donated $25 million to the College of Chemistry for a building to be named in honor of Terry Rosen’s beloved mentor and former chemistry dean, Clayton Heathcock.

Big thanks to all our donors

March 12, 2018
Thanks to 173 donors worldwide, we received almost $1.7 million during last Thursday's 24 hour Big Give campaign.

Turning chemical bonds inside out

July 23, 2018


Richmond Sarpong research teamImagine a future where chemists could restructure the morphine molecule to have the opiate pain management value but not the addictive side effect. That is one possible outcome of an exciting new process being reported in Science magazine from the chemistry lab of Richmond Sarpong at UC Berkeley.

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

March 2, 2023
German Society for Crystallography Press release

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 inauguration of the...

A mouth full of microbes: UC Berkeley researchers discover compound that can cause tooth decay

August 3, 2021
By Di Gu | Berkeley QB3

Xray photo of tooth decay

UC Berkeley researchers have discovered a compound that promotes bacterial adhesion on teeth, which can lead to dental plaque and cavities. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Borba (Unsplash)

Oral diseases pose a major health burden to people in many countries. A...