College Of Chemistry - UC Berkeley

Today, a new chemical process can essentially vaporize plastics that dominate the waste stream and turn them into building blocks for new plastics, thanks to chemistry professor John Hartwig and his team of researchers.

Read the full story (and watch the video!) here:

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/new-process-vaporizes-plastic-bags-and-bottles

The 2024 Games may be over, but student athletes at the College of Chemistry know the same kind of discipline and resilience as any Olympian. They also know that balancing books and sports is a journey of growth.

Meet Jaxon Mitchell and Rebecca Tomann, and learn how they are mastering the art of juggling academics and athletics, building character along the way.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/balancing-academics-and-athletics-character-building-experience

Cheering this team on as they continue on their journey in London!

Go Bears! 🐻🐻🐻

Bon voyage & bon chance to Nouf Alhazmi & Natalia Shamoon as Hult Prize Foundation Finalist Plastus Biotech heads to London for the the Global Accelerator ahead of the $1M Finals on September 6.

Go 🐻 🐻 UC Berkeley College Of Chemistry - UC Berkeley UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society Haas School of Business - UC Berkeley

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-pollution-solution-how-plastus-redefining-plastics-theplastus-jelbc/?trackingId=kuDMItCjSMKpi9%2BQBrLyPQ%3D%3D

Last week, our inaugural Summer Undergraduate Research Diversity (SURD) fellows presented their summer research projects at a symposium that closed out an intense 9-week program.

Throughout the individual presentations, the group of fellows shared their findings - ranging from research on light-matter interactions that could lead to improvements in technologies like lasers and LEDs, to research on how to reduce long-term radiotoxic waste.

Fellows included students from UC Berkeley, as well as other universities from around the nation, in hopes of empowering students from populations that are typically underrepresented in chemistry and chemical engineering an opportunity to have an in-depth research and training experience to better prepare them for future careers in research and industry.

A futuristic solution to supply water to an increasingly arid planet.

Omar Yaghi, professor of chemistry, and his pioneering work with , aims to fight climate change and expand access to drinking water.

Startups Are Racing to Make Water Out of Thin Air Materials that are bigger on the inside than the outside provide a futuristic solution to supply water to an increasingly arid planet.

Professor Peidong Yang and his team have designed a special device that only needs low-intensity red light to continuously convert CO₂ into useful chemicals, day and night. His findings have been published in Nature Catalysis.

This innovation could help reduce CO₂ emissions and produce valuable chemicals for a sustainable future.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/red-light-powered-device-co%E2%82%82-fixation

The College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley recently appointed Dr. Marissa Elena Yáñez as Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer.

Dr. Yáñez joins the College with over twenty years’ experience in STEM education focused on DEI initiatives. She joins the College from a position as Engineering Faculty and Faculty Director of STEM Internships at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/dr-marissa-y%C3%A1%C3%B1ez-appointed-chief-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-officer

Congratulations to Nouf Alhazmi from the College of Chemistry! She is a part of this accomplished team who was awarded the Hult Prize and will be going to London this September!

Go 🐻🐻!!

Go 🐻 🐻 !!

Plastus, the UC Berkeley Hult Prize OnCampus winner. won the Boston Summit & is heading to the $1M Finals in London!! 😍 🥇

Plastus makes PHA biodegradable bioplastic by re-purposing organic waste. 💚 🌲

This dream team consists of three Masters students: Nouf Alhazmi, College Of Chemistry - UC Berkeley BioProcess Engineering, Kevin Antonio Cahya UC Berkeley Fung Institute For Engineering Leadership & Maya Stern UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.

Big win for UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business - UC Berkeley & all of the teams + Campus Directors who have come before them. Shoutout to Zachary Zeleznick for spinning up the first Hult Prize campus round almost 10 yrs ago that powered Sneha Sheth to present Dost Education for the first time. 😎

Join us cheering on Plastus on September 6 in London!

UC Berkeley’s Omar Yaghi received a top sustainability prize on June 18 for his pioneering discoveries unlocking essential tools to combat the climate crisis.

The Tang Prize of Taiwan is one of the world’s most renowned awards, given to changemakers in sustainable development and three other categories every two years.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/omar-yaghi-wins-prestigious-tang-prize

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters named Armand Paul Alivisatos, professor emeritus of chemistry — winner of 2024 Kavli Prize in the field of nanoscience.

Also named a recipient was fellow University of California, Berkeley, faculty member — Doris Ying Tsao. Tsao, who is a professor of molecular and cell biology, was recognized for her work in neuroscience.

The Kavli Prize recognizes scientists in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. In total, eight scientists from three countries are honored for their research that has broadened our understanding of the big, the small and the complex.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/paul-alivisatos-awarded-2024-kavli-prize-nanoscience

On June 10, we welcomed our inaugural Summer Undergraduate Research Diversity (SURD) program fellows and their mentors.

The 9 week student program aims to provide research opportunities for students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM.

We can’t wait to follow their journeys! 🛣️

➡️ Learn more about the program at chemistry.berkeley.edu/dei/programs/surd 🌐

Scientists have wielded the power of synthetic biology to produce the active ingredient of soap bark, a molecule called QS-21, in yeast, producing a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly immune-boosting ingredient of many vaccines.

An adjuvant made in yeast could lower vaccine cost and boost availability | College of Chemistry The central mission of the College of Chemistry is to advance society through education and research, and we have made it our responsibility to fulfill this mission, year in and year out, for more than 140 years.

The College of Chemistry celebrated the groundbreaking of its new research and teaching facility, Heathcock Hall, on Thursday, May 2.

As a result of cornerstone gift of philanthropy from alumnus Terry Rosen (PhD, Chemistry’85) and family, Heathcock Hall will be named in honor of renowned organic chemist, former Dean of the College of Chemistry, and Terry’s research director, Clayton H. Heathcock.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/college-chemistry-breaks-ground-new-state-art-building-heathcock-hall

On Tuesday, the semi annual Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering "Pet Biomolecule" Term Project Celebration took place on the College of Chemistry Plaza, featuring 42 students' amazing term projects.

The event also welcomed alumni and other representatives from ~25 companies spanning Bay Area biopharmaceutical, industrial biotech, and food tech communities for our aspiring bioprocess scientists and engineers.

Professor Teresa Head-Gordon has been honored with a prestigious research award from the Humboldt Foundation.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/professor-teresa-head-gordon-awarded-humboldt-research-award

Michael Zuerch, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, has been named a 2024 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar.

Faculty who receive this aware are within the first five years of their academic careers, have each created an outstanding independent body of scholarship, and are deeply committed to education. Each Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar receives an unrestricted research grant of $100,000.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/michael-zuerch-receives-camille-dreyfus-teacher-scholars-award

🎉⚛️👩‍🔬

Three Berkeley Lab Scientists Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Three Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious organization honoring excellence in science, the humanities and arts, and policy and communication.Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sci...

Polly Arnold, professor of chemistry and director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Chemical Sciences Division, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She is known for her innovative work in exploratory synthetic chemistry. Her research focuses on advancing our understanding of the bonding and reactivity of heavy elements - the elements of the f-block of the periodic table.

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/polly-arnold-elected-american-academy-arts-and-sciences

Kwabena Bediako, a 2023 Heising-Simons Faculty Fellow, is using his expertise in chemistry and physics to design new magnetic and electronic crystals and new ways of storing energy from renewable sources.

The Chemistry of Energy Efficient Electronics | Research UC Berkeley

Learn how scientists are accelerating chemistry discoveries with automation

How Scientists Are Accelerating Chemistry Discoveries With Automation Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed an automated workflow that could accelerate the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs and other useful products by enabling real-time reaction analysis from a desktop computer instead of in a lab. The automated workflow could identify new chemical reaction p...

An extensive CO2 monitoring network set up around the San Francisco Bay Area by Ronald Cohen, Professor of Chemistry, has recorded the first evidence that the adoption of electric vehicles is measurably lowering the area’s carbon emissions.

EVs are lowering Bay Area's carbon footprint | College of Chemistry The central mission of the College of Chemistry is to advance society through education and research, and we have made it our responsibility to fulfill this mission, year in and year out, for more than 140 years.

In 2016, Yaghi Research Group, led by UC Berkeley’s Professor of Chemistry Omar Yaghi, realized the first molecularly woven structure by interlacing the backbone of the framework in a 3D space.

Today, along with Ting Xu, Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering; and Rob Ritchie, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, the lab is now leveraging both the porosity and molecular weaving to make polymer composites stronger, tougher, and more resistant to fracture by threading polymer strands through the woven network. Their findings have been published in a paper by “Science.”

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/news/molecular-weaving-makes-polymer-composites-stronger-without-compromising-function

Thank you for joining in the Big Give! College of Chemistry raised $54,612 from 162 donors!
⭐️ Your light shines on! ⭐️

Help us finish strong! Only 42 more gifts to reach our match…
➡️➡️➡️ GIVE BY 9PM ➡️➡️➡️
https://givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/76721/set/5844

BIG GIVE is today! Join the College's alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends by supporting the students and programs you love during our annual fundraising blitz!
➡️ https://givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/76721/set/5844

⭐️ Big Give ⭐️ starts tonight at 9 pm and runs through 9 pm on Thursday! Support our students and research with a gift during this 24-hr event by visiting this link TONIGHT ➡️ https://givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/76721/set/5844

This and beyond, we are grateful to spotlight Professor of the Graduate School in Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology and a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, Dr. Judith Klinman.

Among her many distinctions, Klinman was the first woman faculty member in the physical sciences at UC Berkeley. She was also the first woman chair of the Department of Chemistry serving in that capacity from 2000 to 2003.

She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2002 by former President Barack Obama for her discoveries of fundamental chemical and physical principles underlying enzyme catalysis and her leadership in the community of scientists. Her parents told her when she started that if a woman chose a career in science it was typically as a lab tech. “But I had this underlying curiosity,’’ she said. “I was determined to go the whole route.’’

We are thrilled to announce that Profs. Darleane Hoffman and Gabor Somorjai have been announced as the recipients of the Enrico Fermi award by the White House today. https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2023/03/28/biden-harris-administration-announces-recipients-of-the-enrico-fermi-award/

Support the College of Chemistry -- support our students who will become the future of the chemical sciences. https://givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/60202/set/4774