Chemist Robert Bergman wins 2014 Welch Award

Bergman wins Welch Award

May 2, 2014

Chemistry Professor Robert Bergman.

Chemistry Professor Robert Bergman has been named the 2014 recipient of the Welch Award in Chemical Research for pioneering work in alkane activation and mechanisms of organometallic reactions.

The Houston-based Welch Foundation is one of the nations oldest and largest sources of private funding for basic research in chemistry. The foundation also cited Bergmans vital contributions to the understanding of organometallic chemistry and particularly carbon-hydrogen bond activation and its application to drug development and cleaner energy.

Bob Bergman is a trail-blazing researcher whose interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to science has led to significant contributions to chemistry throughout his career, said Marye Anne Fox, chair of the Foundations Scientific Advisory Board and a former UCSD Chancellor.

He was a pioneer in taking the methods and reasoning of physical organic chemistry and using them to help grow the new field of organometallic chemistry, where mechanistic insights were not always obvious until revealed by his work. His work has revolutionized the field of C-H activation, one of the most important in chemistry, and he continues to expand our insights in this area, providing the foundation of organometallic chemistry as we know it today.

Growing up in Chicago, Bergman attended Carleton College where he edited the college newspaper and considered being a journalist before finally settling on chemistry as a career. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a North Atlantic Treaty Organization fellow at Columbia University.

He spent 10 years on the faculty of Caltech before moving to Berkeley where he is now the Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor.

The author of more than 500 papers, he has been recognized with numerous American Chemistry Society awards as well as the E. O. Lawrence Award in Chemistry from the U.S. Department of Energy and teaching excellence awards from both Caltech and Berkeley. He has served in many academic and research leadership roles, on editorial advisory boards and had been active in outreach programs in local K-12 schools.

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Chemist Robert Bergman wins 2014 Welch Award