Martin Mulvihill, PhD
Martin Mulvihill, PhD

USGBC Senior Research Fellow, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry (BCGC), and researcher in both Public Health and Environmental Engineering. Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in Chemistry and Nanoscience.

The Family Tree of Chemistry
10 Jul 2014 • openbook 5 minute read
The periodic table is beautiful. I have no fewer than three in my office, and you can also find one in the front or back of almost any chemistry textbook. If you want to understand chemistry, it is worthwhile to spend a few minutes with the periodic table. I will spa …
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Identifying Better Products by Understanding Their Chemistry
12 Nov 2013 • openbook 3 minute read
Very few people walk into a hardware store and say, “I am looking for a mixture of calcium silicate, magnesium oxide, clay and sand for my driveway, can you tell me how much calcium sulfate to use if I want it to set quickly when I pour it this weekend?” Most peo …
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Envisioning a Perfect Building Material
14 Oct 2013 • openbook 2 minute read
I am a chemist, not an architect, builder, contractor, or designer. I once built a coat rack out of a 4x4. It wasn’t pretty, but its sheer mass kept it stable in the corner of my college apartment until I moved out 2 years later. I did not build that coat rack arou …
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