Anne Baranger

Anne Michelle Baranger
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Scientific career
Institutions	Yale University University of California, Berkeley
Thesis	Catalytic and stoichiometric reactivity of Zirconocene and bridging zirconocene-iridium imido complexes (1993)

Anne M. Baranger is an American chemist who is Professor of Chemistry Education at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her research considers the experiences of chemistry students and ways to increase the number of students studying STEM subjects.

Early life and education

Baranger was born to a family of scientists. Her grandfather, Harold Urey, was a renowned physical chemist and Nobel Laureate, and her parents, Elizabeth Baranger and Michel Baranger, were physicists, as is her brother. She was an undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she majored in chemistry. She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for graduate studies, where she worked alongside Robert Bergman. After earning her doctorate, Baranger joined the lab of Alanna Schepartz at Yale University. She held both a Rudolph Anderson Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Donaghue Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Research and career

Baranger joined the faculty at the Wesleyan University in 1996. She spent 10 years at Wesleyan, before moving to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In Chicago, Baranger was made Associate Head of the Chemistry department. She was part of the i-STEM education initiative, and worked on evaluating science teaching. She worked on biophysical processes involving RNA. She moved to University of California, Berkeley as Director of Undergraduate Chemistry in 2011. In 2020 she became the first Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the College of Chemistry.

Baranger's research considers chemistry education and the development of evidence-based educational practices. She hopes to improve the experience of chemistry majors and increase the number of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. In particular, she is interested in strategies to improve the quality of chemistry education and integrate green chemistry in laboratory instructions. She has worked to improve sense of belonging in chemistry departments.

Awards and honors

• 2002 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
• 2015 American Chemical Society Committee on Environmental Improvement Award
• 2016 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Foundation Fellowship

Selected publications

• Marcia C Linn; Erin Palmer; Anne Baranger; Elizabeth Gerard; Elisa Stone (1 February 2015). "Education. Undergraduate research experiences: impacts and opportunities". Science. 347 (6222): 1261757. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1261757. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 25657254. Wikidata Q38346165.
• Stachl, Christiane N.; Baranger, Anne M. (2020-05-21). "Sense of belonging within the graduate community of a research-focused STEM department: Quantitative assessment using a visual narrative and item response theory". PLOS ONE. 15 (5): e0233431. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233431. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 7241794. PMID 32437417.
• WALSH, P. J.; BARANGER, A. M.; BERGMAN, R. G. (2010-08-21). "ChemInform Abstract: Stoichiometric and Catalytic Hydroamination of Alkynes and Allene by Zirconium Bisamides Cp2Zr(NHR)2". ChemInform. 23 (26): no. doi:10.1002/chin.199226089. ISSN 0931-7597.