UC Berkeley College of Chemistry

The UC Berkeley College of Chemistry is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. It houses the departments of Chemistry, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chemical Biology and occupies six buildings flanking a central plaza.[2][3]

University of California, Berkeley College of Chemistry
TypePublic Professional School
Established1872
DeanDouglas S. Clark
Academic staff
89 [1]
Undergraduates981 (2019-20)[1]
Postgraduates516
115 postdoctoral (2019-20)[1]
Location
Berkeley
,
California
,
U.S.
Websitechemistry.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry has been listed as the best global university for chemistry in the 2020 U.S. News and World Report Education rankings.[4] The college's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering program was ranked number two in a tie with Caltech among U.S. News best chemical engineering graduate programs in the United States in 2021.[5] Its faculty and graduates have won numerous awards, including the Wolf Prize, the National Medal of Science, the National Medal of Technology, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as fourteen Nobel Prizes.[6]

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 are responsible for the discovery of sixteen elements, including berkelium, named after the city, and seaborgium, named after Nobel laureate and former department chair Glenn Seaborg.[7]

First established in 1872, the college awarded its first Ph.D. in 1885 to John Stillman, who later founded the chemistry department at Stanford University. 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.[8]

Students

The College offers three undergraduate degrees: chemical engineering, chemistry, and chemical biology.[1] 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 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.[1]

Faculty

As of 2020, the faculty at the College includes 12 members of the National Academy of Engineering; 28 members of the National Academy of Sciences; 39 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 11 members of the faculty have been awarded the National Medal of Science and 9 have been awarded the Wolf Prize.[1]

Campus

The College of Chemistry is located on the east side of the UC Berkeley campus. It includes Gilman Hall, 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.[9] The buildings of the college are linked by a network of underground hallways and laboratories.

Notable faculty
  • Neil Bartlett - Professor (1969)
  • Melvin Calvin (B.S. 1931, Ph.D. 1935) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1961)
  • Robert E. Connick (Ph.D. 1942) - Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Dean
  • William F. Giauque (B.S. 1920, Ph.D. 1922) - Professor, Nobel laureate (1949)
  • 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 (Ph.D. 1906) - Dean (1949–1951), Chairman of the Dept. of Chemistry (1941–1943), Professor
  • Darleane Hoffman - Professor, National Medal of Science (1997)
  • 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, Nobel laureate (1960)
  • 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 and Stanford University
  • 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
  • Roger Y. Tsien - Professor (1982–1989), Nobel laureate (2008)
  • Paul Alivisatos - Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost UC Berkeley, Professor, National Medal of Science (2015); Priestley Medal (2020)
  • Peidong Yang - Professor, MacArthur Genius Award (2015)
  • Omar Yaghi - Professor, Wolf Award (2018)
  • John F. Hartwig - Professor, Wolf Award (2019)
  • Jennifer Doudna - Professor, Wolf Award (2020)

Notable alumni
  • Harold C. Urey (Ph.D. 1923 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1934)
  • Henry Eyring - (Ph.D. 1927 Chemistry) - National Medal of Science (1966)
  • Willis Lamb (B.S. 1934 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate in Physics (1955)
  • Henry Taube (Ph.D. 1940 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1983)
  • Gordon Moore (B.S. 1950 Chemistry) - cofounder of Intel
  • Robert F. Curl, Jr. (Ph.D. 1957 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1996)
  • Jan Anderson (Ph.D. 1959 Chemistry) - investigation of photosynthesis[10]
  • Andrew Grove (Ph.D. 1963 Chemical Engineering) - cofounder of Intel
  • Mario Molina (Ph.D. 1972 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1995)
  • Ahmed Zewail (Postdoc. 1974 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1999)
  • Thomas Cech (Ph.D. 1975 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1989)
  • Susan Solomon (Ph.D. 1981 Atmospheric Chemistry) - Nobel Peace Prize (2007), National Medal of Science (1999)
  • Kary Mullis (Ph.D. 1972 Biochemistry) - Nobel laureate (1993)
  • Richard A. Houghten (Ph.D. 1975 Chemistry) - Florida Inventors Hall of Fame (2018)
  • Frances Arnold (Ph.D. 1985 Chemical Engineering) Nobel laureate (2018)

References
  1. UC Berkeley College of Chemistry. "Facts". University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 9 Jul 2020.
  2. "The Department of Chemistry | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu.
  3. "The Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu.
  4. "Top Chemistry Schools in the World". US News Education. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  5. "Best Chemical Engineering Programs - Top Engineering Schools - US News Rankings". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  6. "Major Awards & Honors | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu.
  7. "#16elements: Berkeley Lab and the Periodic Table". News Center. 2019-01-28. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  8. "CBE Graduate Programs | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu.
  9. University of California, Berkeley. "Google map - UC Berkeley". Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  10. "Vale Jan Anderson (12 May 1932 – 28 August 2015)". Australian National University. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
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