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

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. It houses the department of

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and the department of

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and biomolecular engineering. The College offers bachelor of science degrees in chemistry, chemical engineering, and chemical biology. Chemistry undergraduates have the option to earn a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from the College of Letters and Science or to specialize in a materials chemistry concentration. With the College of Engineering, the College of Chemistry offers two joint majors: chemical engineering/materials science & engineering and chemical engineering/nuclear engineering. Its graduate programs confer M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering, a Ph.D. in chemistry, and three professional master's degrees.

History

Although Berkeley began offering chemistry courses in 1869, the College was not officially established until 1872, awarding its first Ph.D. in 1885 to John Maxson Stillman, who later founded the chemistry department at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. A division of chemical engineering was formed 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 widening research interests of its faculty. Faculty and researchers at the College and affiliated with

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

are responsible for the discovery of sixteen elements, including

berkelium Berkelium is a synthetic chemical element; it has 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 Berkeley National ...

californium Californium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Cf and atomic number 98. It was first synthesized in 1950 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory) by bombarding curium with al ...

, and

seaborgium Seaborgium is a synthetic chemical element; it has 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 als ...

, named after Nobel laureate, department chair, and alumnus Glenn Seaborg.

Students and faculty

Today, the College comprises one of the largest chemistry programs in the nation, with a faculty of 96 professors, researchers, and lecturers and an enrollment of 963 undergraduate, 539 postgraduate, and 123 postdoctoral students. In the spring of 2021, the College conferred 187 bachelor's degrees and 93 graduate degrees. The faculty includes a Nobel laureate, twelve members of the

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

; 37 members of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

; and 34 members of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

. The College has thirty endowed chairs and professorships.

Campus

The College occupies a complex of six buildings on the northeastern corner of the Berkeley campus. Completed in 1917, Gilman Hall, where plutonium was identified in 1941, is the oldest of the buildings. Pimentel Hall, one of the largest lecture halls on campus, features a revolving stage that can accommodate chemistry demonstrations. The buildings are linked by a network of underground hallways and laboratories. The newest building, Tan Hall, was dedicated in 1997. A new building, Healthcock Hall, is scheduled to break ground in 2023-24.

Notable faculty

Paul Alivisatos Armand Paul Alivisatos (born November 12, 1959) is a Greek and American chemist and academic administrator who is the President of the University of Chicago, 14th president of the University of Chicago since September 2021. He is a pioneer in nan ...

(Ph.D. 1986) - Professor Emeritus, National Medal of Science (2015); Priestley Medal (2020) * Neil Bartlett - Professor (1969) * Carolyn Bertozzi (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 pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, wit ...

- Professor, Wolf Award (2020), Nobel laureate (2020) * William F. Giauque (B.S. 1920, Ph.D. 1922) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1949) *

John F. Hartwig John F. Hartwig is an American organometallic chemist who holds the position of Henry Rapoport Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. His laboratory traditionally focuses on developing transition metal-catalyzed reacti ...

- 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 - Dean (1912–1941), Professor * Willard F. Libby (B.S. 1931, Ph.D. 1933) - Professor (1933-1941), Nobel laureate (1960) * Jeffrey R. Long - Professor, National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award * David MacMillan - Professor (1998-2000), Nobel Prize (2021) * George C. Pimentel (Ph.D. 1949) - Professor (1949-1989), National Medal of Science (1985) * Kenneth Pitzer (Ph.D. 1937) - Dean (1951–60), Professor, President of

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

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 - Professor, Wolf Award (2018)

Notable alumni

* Jan Anderson (Ph.D. 1959 Chemistry) - investigation of photosynthesis *

Frances Arnold Frances Hamilton Arnold (born July 25, 1956) is an American chemical engineer and Nobel Laureate. She is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). I ...

(Ph.D. 1985 Chemical Engineering) - Nobel laureate (2018) * Thomas Cech (Ph.D. 1975 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1989) * Robert F. Curl, Jr. (Ph.D. 1957 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1996) * Henry Eyring - (Ph.D. 1927 Chemistry) -

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 science, behavior ...

(1966) *

Andrew Grove Andrew "Andy" Stephen Grove (born Gróf András István; 2 September 1936 – 21 March 2016) was a Hungarian-American businessman and engineer who served as the third CEO of Intel Corporation. He escaped from the Hungarian People's Republic dur ...

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

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

* 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 shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Polykarp Kusch "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum". Lamb was able to p ...

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

Gordon Moore Gordon Earle Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and emeritus chairman of Intel Corporation. He proposed Moore's law which makes the observation that the number of transistors i ...

(B.S. 1950 Chemistry) - cofounder of

Mario Molina Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (19 March 19437 October 2020) was a Mexican physical 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 Chemistry for his role ...

(Ph.D. 1972 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1995) *

Kary Mullis Kary Banks Mullis (December 28, 1944August 7, 2019) was an American biochemist. In recognition of his role in the invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith and was ...

(Ph.D. 1972 Biochemistry) - Nobel laureate (1993) * Geraldine Richmond (Ph.D. 1980 Chemistry) - Priestley Medal (2018) * Susan Solomon (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 (Ph.D. 1923 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1934) * A.R. Frank Wazzan (B.S. 1959 Chemical Engineering) - Dean, UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 1986 - 2001. *

Ahmed Zewail Ahmed Hassan Zewail (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 and became the first Egyptian a ...

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

Centers and institutes

Source: *Berkeley Catalysis Center *Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry *Berkeley Global Science Institute *Berkeley Nanosciences and Nanoengineering Institute *Berkeley Nanotechnology Club *Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center *Berkeley Stem Cell Center *California Research Alliance *CalSolv Center *Center for Computational Biology *Center for Genetically Encoded Materials * Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) *

California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit research and technology commercialization institute affiliated with three University of California campuses in the San Francisco Bay Area: Univers ...

(QB3) * Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) *Energy Frontier Research Center on Gas Separations *Joint BioEnergy Institute *Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis *Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry *Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center

References

External links

* {{University of California, Berkeley Chemistry education

chem Chem may refer to: *Chemistry *Chemical * ''Chem'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press *Post apocalyptic slang for "drugs", medicinal or otherwise in the Fallout video game series. In Ancient Egyptian usage: * ''Khem'' (also ...

1872 establishments in California Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area Universities and colleges established in 1872