The UC Berkeley College of Chemistry is one of 14 schools and colleges at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. It houses the departments of

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and

Chemical Biology Chemical biology is a scientific discipline spanning the fields of chemistry and biology. The discipline involves the application of chemical techniques, analysis, and often small molecules produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and ...

and occupies six buildings flanking a central plaza. The College of Chemistry has been listed as the best global university for chemistry in the 2020 '' U.S. News & World Report'' Education rankings. The college's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering program was ranked number two in a tie with

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

among U.S. News Best Chemical Engineering Graduate Programs in the United States in 2021. Its faculty and graduates have won numerous awards, including the

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...

, the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

, the

National Medal of Technology The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

, the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

, as well as eighteen

Nobel Prizes The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

. The Department of Chemistry is one of the largest and most productive in the world, graduating an average of 80 doctoral students per year. As of July 2020, the College hosts 48 recognized world-class researchers by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. Scientists affiliated with the department and the nearby

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, the United States Department of Energy. Located in ...

are responsible for the discovery of sixteen elements, including

berkelium Berkelium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Bk and atomic number 97. It is a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the Lawrence B ...

, named after the city, and

seaborgium Seaborgium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Sg and atomic number 106. It is named after the American nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg. As a synthetic element, it can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature. It is al ...

, named after Nobel laureate and former department chair

Glenn Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work i ...

. First established in 1872, the college awarded its first Ph.D. in 1885 to

John Maxson Stillman John Maxson Stillman (1852-1923) was a pioneer of the history of science in the United States. He was also the first head of the chemistry department at Stanford University, as well as its first Chemistry Professor. His most enduring work was the p ...

, who later founded the chemistry department at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. A Division of Chemical Engineering was established in 1946, becoming a department in 1957. The Department of Chemical Engineering changed its name to Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2010 to reflect the research focus of its faculty in the 21st century. The College will turn 150 in 2022.

Students

The College offers three undergraduate degrees: chemical engineering, chemistry, and chemical biology. Chemistry undergrads in the College of Chemistry also have the option to earn a B.A. in chemistry from the College of Letters and Science, or to specialize in a materials chemistry concentration. Two double major programs with the

College of Engineering Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...

exist: chemical engineering and materials science and engineering, and chemical engineering and nuclear engineering. Popular undergraduate courses such as Chem 4A (general chemistry) and Chem 12A (organic chemistry) are taught by College of Chemistry faculty. Graduate programs include the M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering and Ph.D. in chemistry.

Faculty

As of 2020, the faculty at the College includes twelve members of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

; 37 members of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

; 32 members of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. Eleven members of the faculty have been awarded the

, and nine have been awarded the

Campus

The College of Chemistry is located on the east side of the UC Berkeley campus. It includes

Gilman Hall Gilman Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Room 307 was where Glenn T. Seaborg and his coworkers identified plutonium as a new element on February 23, 1941 and as such, is designated a National Historic La ...

, a National Historic Landmark, where plutonium was first identified in 1941. Pimentel Hall is one of the largest lecture halls on campus, and features a revolving stage to allow for setup of chemistry demos. The buildings of the college are linked by a network of underground hallways and laboratories.

Notable faculty

Paul Alivisatos Armand Paul Alivisatos (born November 12, 1959) is an American chemist who serves as the 14th president of the University of Chicago. He is a pioneer in nanomaterials development and an authority on the fabrication of nanocrystals and their use i ...

- Professor Emeritus, National Medal of Science (2015); Priestley Medal (2020) * Neil Bartlett - Professor (1969) *

Carolyn Bertozzi Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi (born October 10, 1966) is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with ...

(Ph.D. 1993)- Professor (1996-2015), Nobel Prize (2022) * Melvin Calvin (B.S. 1931, Ph.D. 1935) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1961) * Robert E. Connick (Ph.D. 1942) - Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Dean *

Jennifer Doudna Jennifer Anne Doudna (; born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who has done pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. Doudna was one of the first women to share a ...

- Professor, Wolf Award (2020), Nobel laureate (2020) *

William F. Giauque William Francis Giauque (;''The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia'', 2004. May 12, 1895 – March 28, 1982) was a Canadian-born American chemist and Nobel laureate recognized in 1949 for his studies in the properties of matter at temperatures cl ...

(B.S. 1920, Ph.D. 1922) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1949) * John F. Hartwig - Professor, Wolf Award (2019) * Martin Head-Gordon (B.S. 1983, Ph.D. 1989) - Professor (1992), Medal of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences (1998) * Dudley R. Herschbach - Assistant Professor, Nobel laureate (1986) *

Joel Henry Hildebrand Joel Henry Hildebrand (November 16, 1881 – April 30, 1983) was an American educator and a pioneer chemist. He was a major figure in physical chemistry research specializing in liquids and nonelectrolyte solutions. Education and professor ...

(Ph.D. 1906) - Dean (1949–1951), Chairman of the Dept. of Chemistry (1941–1943), Professor * Darleane Hoffman - Professor, National Medal of Science (1997) * Judith Klinman - Professor, National Medal of Science (2012) * Yuan T. Lee (Ph.D. 1965) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1986) *

Gilbert Newton Lewis Gilbert Newton Lewis (October 23 or October 25, 1875 – March 23, 1946) was an American physical chemist and a Dean of the College of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. Lewis was best known for his discovery of the covalent bond a ...

- Dean (1912–1941), Professor *

Willard F. Libby Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions ...

(B.S. 1931, Ph.D. 1933) - Professor (1933-1941), Nobel laureate (1960) * Jeffrey R. Long - Professor, National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award *

David MacMillan Sir David William Cross MacMillan (born 16 March 1968) is a Scottish chemist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, where he was also the chair of the Department of Chemistry from 20 ...

- Professor (1998-2000), Nobel Prize (2021) *

George C. Pimentel George Claude Pimentel (May 2, 1922 – June 18, 1989) was the inventor of the chemical laser. He also developed the technique of matrix isolation in low-temperature chemistry. In theoretical chemistry, he proposed the three-center four-electron b ...

(Ph.D. 1949) - Professor (1949-1989), National Medal of Science (1985) *

Kenneth Pitzer Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer (January 6, 1914 – December 26, 1997) was an American physical and theoretical chemist, educator, and university president. He was described as "one of the most influential physical chemists of his era" whose work "s ...

(Ph.D. 1937) - Dean (1951–60), Professor, President of

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

and

* John Prausnitz - Professor, National Medal of Science (2003) * Glenn T. Seaborg (Ph.D. 1937) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1951) * Gabor Somorjai Professor, National Medal of Science (2002) * Andrew Streitwieser - Professor, National Academy of Science * Peidong Yang - Professor, MacArthur Genius Award (2015) *

Omar Yaghi Omar M. Yaghi ( ar, عمر مونّس ياغي; born February 9, 1965) is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and ...

- Professor, Wolf Award (2018)

Notable alumni

* Jan Anderson (Ph.D. 1959 Chemistry) - investigation of photosynthesis * Frances Arnold (Ph.D. 1985 Chemical Engineering) Nobel laureate (2018) *

Thomas Cech Thomas Robert Cech (born December 8, 1947) is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, ...

(Ph.D. 1975 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1989) * Robert F. Curl, Jr. (Ph.D. 1957 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1996) * Henry Eyring - (Ph.D. 1927 Chemistry) -

(1966) *

Andrew Grove Andrew Stephen Grove (born András István Gróf; 2 September 193621 March 2016) was a Hungarian-American businessman and engineer who served as the third CEO of Intel Corporation. He escaped from Communist-controlled Hungary at the age of 20 ...

(Ph.D. 1963 Chemical Engineering) - cofounder of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

* Richard A. Houghten (Ph.D. 1975 Chemistry) - Florida Inventors Hall of Fame (2018) *

Willis Lamb Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded hal ...

(B.S. 1934 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate in Physics (1955) *

Gordon Moore Gordon Earle Moore (born January 3, 1929) is an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corporation. He is also the original proponent of Moore's law. As of March 2021, Moore's net worth is repor ...

(B.S. 1950 Chemistry) - cofounder of

Mario Molina Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (19 March 19437 October 2020), known as Mario Molina, was a Mexican chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemis ...

(Ph.D. 1972 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1995) * Kary Mullis (Ph.D. 1972 Biochemistry) - Nobel laureate (1993) *

Geraldine Richmond Geraldine Lee Richmond (born January 17, 1953 in Salina, Kansas) is an American chemist and physical chemist who is serving as the Under Secretary of Energy for Science in the US Department of Energy. Richmond was confirmed to her DOE role by the ...

(Ph.D. 1980 Chemistry) - Priestly Medal (2018) *

Susan Solomon Susan Solomon (born January 19, 1956 in Chicago) is an American atmospheric chemist, working for most of her career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2011, Solomon joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech ...

(Ph.D. 1981 Atmospheric Chemistry) - Nobel Peace Prize (2007), National Medal of Science (1999) *

Henry Taube Henry Taube, (November 30, 1915 – November 16, 2005) was a Canadian-born American chemist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He ...

(Ph.D. 1940 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1983) *

Harold C. Urey Harold Clayton Urey ( ; April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981) was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in the ...

(Ph.D. 1923 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1934) *

Ahmed Zewail Ahmed Hassan Zewail ( ar, أحمد حسن زويل, ; February 26, 1946 – August 2, 2016) was an Egyptian-American chemist, known as the "father of femtochemistry". He was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry ...

(Postdoc. 1974 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1999)

References

External links

* {{University of California, Berkeley Chemistry education University of California, Berkeley Educational institutions established in 1872 1872 establishments in California Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area UC Berkeley College of Chemistry faculty