| Christopher J. Chang | |
| Birth Place: | Ames, Iowa |
| Citizenship: | United States |
| Fields: | Chemistry |
| Workplaces: | UC Berkeley |
| Thesis Title: | Small-molecule activation chemistry catalyzed by proton-coupled electron transfer |
| Thesis Url: | https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/29928 |
| Thesis Year: | 2002 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Daniel G. Nocera |
| Academic Advisors: | Harry B. Gray, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Stephen J. Lippard |
| Notable Students: | Hemamala Karunadasa |
| Awards: | ACS Cope Scholar Award Sackler Prize in Chemistry |
| Spouse: | Michelle Chang |
Christopher J. Chang is a professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Class of 1942 Chair.[1] Chang is also a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, adjunct professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, and faculty scientist at the chemical sciences division of Lawrence Berkeley Lab.[2] He is the recipient of several awards for his research in bioinorganic chemistry, molecular and chemical biology.[3]
His research interests include molecular imaging sensors for the study of redox biology[4] [5] and metals,[6] especially as applied to neuroscience and immunology, metal catalysts for renewable energy cycles, and green chemistry.
Chang was born in 1974 in Ames, Iowa, and was raised in Indiana.[7] He attended the California Institute of Technology for his undergraduate degree, where he studied chemistry. At Caltech, he worked with Harry B. Gray on the synthesis and characterization of metal salen complexes of manganese and vanadium, and nitrogen and oxygen transfer reactivity with these complexes, respectively.[8] [9] [10] Chang earned his BS and MS in chemistry in 1997, after which he worked in the laboratory of Jean-Pierre Sauvage at the Université Louis Pasteur as a Fulbright Fellow. In 1999, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a NSF/Merck Graduate Fellow. During his doctoral studies, Chang worked in the laboratory of Daniel G. Nocera. After earning his PhD in inorganic chemistry in 2002, Chang remained at MIT, working with Stephen J. Lippard as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow.
In 2004, Chang began his independent career as an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He was promoted to associate professor in 2009, and full professor of chemistry in 2012, when he was also appointed professor of molecular and cell biology and co-director, chemical biology graduate program.
Technology Review magazine Young Innovator Award (2008)[14]
Christopher is married to his colleague in the department of chemistry, Michelle Chang.[21]