The UC Berkeley College of Chemistry is one of the fifteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. It houses the department of chemistry and the department of chemical 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.
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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. 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 are responsible for the discovery of sixteen elements, including berkelium, californium, and seaborgium, 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; 37 members of the National Academy of Sciences; and 34 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 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 (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 - Professor, Wolf Award (2020), Nobel laureate (2020)
William F. Giauque (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 (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)
Notable alumni
Jan Anderson (Ph.D. 1959 Chemistry) - investigation of photosynthesis
Frances Arnold (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 (1966)
Andrew Grove (Ph.D. 1963 Chemical Engineering) - cofounder of Intel
Richard A. Houghten (Ph.D. 1975 Chemistry) - Florida Inventors Hall of Fame (2018)
Willis Lamb (B.S. 1934 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate in Physics (1955)
Gordon Moore (B.S. 1950 Chemistry) - cofounder of Intel
Mario Molina (Ph.D. 1972 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1995)
Kary Mullis (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 (Ph.D. 1940 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1983)
Harold C. Urey (Ph.D. 1923 Chemistry) - Nobel laureate (1934)
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 (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