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An active year for recruiting My first year as chair of chemistry has been quite a learning experience. The question I am most often asked by colleagues inside and outside the department is, “What’s it really like being chair?” This question is usually asked very gently, in the tone of voice one might use on a street person in Berkeley so as not to get him (or her) too agitated. In any case, my usual response, paraphrasing the great Yogi Berra, is this job “is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” Being chair has its ups and downs, but so far the ups are winning. We have had a very active year with regard to faculty recruitment. John Hartwig will be moving here from the University of Illinois to hold the Henry Rapoport Chair in Organic Chemistry. John’s research focuses on the discovery of new transition metal chemistry and the development of practical, synthetic methods.
Bill has been a pillar of our world-leading theoretical chemistry program. His retirement, along with that of Bill Lester last year, leaves a significant gap in our theory program that I will be aiming to fill within the next couple of years. Mike Marletta, my predecessor as chair, has decided to leave Berkeley and become president of Scripps Research Institute. Mike has been a major player in chemical biology at Berkeley and will be sorely missed. I wish him the best of luck in his new position. Our chemistry faculty members continue to receive a high level of campus-wide, national and international recognition. The full list of awardees is too long to replicate here. However, two of these awards are particularly noteworthy, as
daniel M. neumark Chair, Department of Chemistry, Joel B. Hildebrand Distinguished Professor
Anne Baranger, John’s spouse, will be joining the faculty and will take on the newly created position of Director of Undergraduate Education, where she will oversee the suite of lower division courses taught at Berkeley and work to keep them at the forefront of modern chemistry.
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John and Anne both received their doctorates at Berkeley from Bob Bergman, and we welcome them back. Felix Fischer will be joining our faculty as an assistant professor. Felix is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia. He works in the general area of organic materials and will fill a critical need in our department. The department is also in the process of making an offer to a senior candidate in the field of inorganic chemistry, which should be finalized shortly. This high level of recruiting activity is necessitated by the turnover within the department. Jean Fréchet, who has been on leave this past year, will officially retire this summer. In addition, Bill Miller retired to become a Professor of the Graduate School.
Chemistry professors Phillip Geissler and David Chandler, the Bruce H. Mahan Professor in Physical Chemistry, celebrate their teaching awards during a recent gathering at The Faculty Club. Geissler received the campus’s Distinguished Teaching Award while Chandler (Geissler’s doctoral advisor) received the department’s Outstanding Teaching Award.
they highlight that our department places a strong emphasis on excellence in teaching as well as on research. I am pleased to report that Phill Geissler has received the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest honor awarded by the university for classroom performance. In addition, David Chandler has received the
Department of Chemistry Outstanding Teaching Award. I offer my heartiest congratulations to Phill and David, and to all my other colleagues who have been officially recognized for their outstanding work during the past year. by daniel m. neumark
Spring/Summer 2011 Catalyst