Department Overview

The UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Department has a tradition of excellence and is ranked among the best in the country, as evidenced by the quality of its programs, the caliber of its faculty, and the excellence of its students. The Department is a leader in cutting-edge research and innovative educational programs.

World-renowned faculty carrying out cutting edge research
The Department employs over 50 professors pursuing research in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. The goals of this research include synthesizing complex natural products and new nano-materials required to solve the many health and environmental crises facing our planet, and illuminating the molecular mechanisms that regulate the decoding of genetic information. Modern research cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries, and our faculty play key roles at the forefront of multiple interdepartmental research units at UCLA, including the California Nanosystems Insitute, the Molecular Biology Institute, the Stem Cell Institute, the Institute for Genomics and Proteomics, and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

One measure of the caliber of our research is the long list of national and international distinctions received by members of our faculty. For example, three members of our faculty have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Willard Libby in 1960, Donald Cram in 1987, and Paul Boyer in 1997).

Undergraduate, Graduate, and Postdoctoral Education
The Department is home to 1400 undergraduate students majoring in chemistry and biochemistry. Our undergraduate programs are designed to prepare students for graduate studies, for entry into professional schools in the health sciences, and for careers in the chemical and biotechnology industries.

The outstanding research conducted in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry would not be possible without our outstanding graduate programs in Chemistry (with subdisciplines in Physical, Organic, and Inorganic Chemistry), and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. These programs are home to approximately 350 Ph.D. students and 130 postdoctoral students engaged in wide-ranging interdisciplinary research under the mentorship of our faculty. The NIH-supported Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program, and the NSF-supported Materials Creation Training Program provide support and special training opportunities for graduate students.

State of the art facilities
The Department houses ultramodern labs for synthetic and analytical chemistry and biochemistry and a state-of-the-art instrumentation facility, the Molecular Instrumentation Center, which consists of five major laboratories: magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, materials characterization, proteomics and biochemistry instrumentation, and X-ray diffraction. An outstanding group of more than 40 technical and nontechnical staff support the Department?s research and teaching operations.

The total Departmental budget for the current fiscal year exceeds $20 million. In addition to $10 million from the State of California, this includes more than $12 million in federal and private contracts and research grants. The Department's endowments and gifts exceed $10 million.

A Commitment to Excellence
Our commitment to excellence extends well beyond the classrooms and laboratories. The Department hosts the UCLA California Teach Resource Center, an activity of the Science-Math Initiative, which encourages and supports math, science and engineering majors who are considering K-12 teaching careers. The Bridges and the Minority Scientist Development Programs assist underrepresented students from UCLA and community colleges pursuing careers in biomedical research. The editorships of multiple highly ranked journals are housed in the Department. Activities such as these greatly extend the reach and impact of our programs, helping California and the nation to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

Awards and honors by the Department faculty include:

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (3)
President's National Medal of Science
Guggenheim Fellowships (15)
National Academy of Sciences Membership (7)
American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (9)
American Physical Society Fellow (5)
Alexander von Humboldt US Senior Scientist Award (6)
NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (10)
NSF Young Investigator Award (6)
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award (5)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (18)
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (17)
Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award (9)
Searle Scholar (3)
Smithsonian Institution's Computerworld Award in Education and Academia
David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (2)
Wolf Prize
Coblentz Award
Agnes Fay Morgan Award
Leonard Medal
Rothschild Prize
Royal Soceity of Chemistry/Lennard-Jones Medal
National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Science
Texas Instrument Founders Prize
Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award (2)
Exxon Faculty Fellow in Solid State Chemistry (2)
Polyhedron Medal and Prize
Ralph F. Hirshmann Award in Peptide Chemistry
International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science Medal
Israel Prize, Exact Sciences
Jane Coffin Childs Fellow in Molecular Biology
Havinga Foundation Medal
Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Scholar
Kenneth G. and Elaine A. Langone Scholar
Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Young Investigator Award in Toxicological Sciences
American Heart Association Established Investigator Award
National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award
Charles Albert Shull Award of ASPB
Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences
J.L. Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences
Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologist Award
AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize
Gold Medal in the Pioneering Nanotechnology Competition
American Chemical Society Awards

Cope Award (1)
Cope Scholar Award (3)
Baekeland Award
Tolman Award, Southern California (9)
Willard Gibbs Medal (2)
Inorganic Chemistry Award (2)
Colloid and Surface Chemistry Award
Kendall Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry
Joel Hildebrand Award (3)