The Chemical Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is the home of fundamental research in chemistry and chemical engineering. Our work provides a basis for new and improved energy technologies and for understanding and mitigating the environmental impacts of energy use. To fulfill its vision and mission, the Division pioneers an integrated research portfolio in fundamental chemistry that seamlessly spans from atomic scales to macroscopic scales and from time scales of electron motion (attoseconds) to the natural time scales of chemical transformations and catalytic reactions (standard clock time). Theory and experiment are very closely coupled across all research areas, including interfacial chemistry; gas phase and condensed phase chemical physics; homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis; heavy element chemistry; ultrafast X-ray sciences; and atomic, molecular and optical sciences. This cutting-edge research portfolio is designed to support the Basic Energy Sciences mission of the Department of Energy.
The Chemical Sciences Division has approximately 345 staff, faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and affiliates. To fulfill its mission, the Division is organized into five core programs and three centers and facilities. The five core programs, described in more detail within their respective webpages, are: Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences; Catalysis and Chemical Transformations; Condensed Phase and Interfacial Molecular Science (CPIMS); Gas Phase Chemical Physics; and Heavy Element Chemistry. In addition, three centers and facilities provide unique capabilities to carry out cutting-edge research in the division: the Molecular Environmental Sciences (MES) and Chemical Dynamics Beamlines (CDB) at the ALS; the Heavy Element Research Laboratory (HERL) in Building 70A; and the Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory (UXSL) in Building 2. Furthermore, some of the division’s principal investigators conduct fundamental research within the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) hub. Collaborations between researchers cut across all core programs and centers. There are also very strong collaborations with other LBNL divisions, in particular with the divisions funded by BES/DOE: Materials Sciences, Earth Sciences, Physical Biosciences, and the Advanced Light Source.