A photo gallery of the 2018 Departmental Awards Ceremony and a list of the award recipients are now available online.
The annual Departmental Awards Ceremony was held at the CNSI auditorium on Monday, April 9, 2018. In addition to recognizing the efforts of our accomplished students and faculty, we had an opportunity to celebrate our department’s excellence in teaching and research.
Photos from the ceremony and reception can be viewed here.
At this year’s ceremony, four new award categories were presented:
• The Alumni Legacy Awards, which honor our illustrious Ph.D. graduates in recognition of their achievements in life, and generous support and service to UCLA.
• The Safety Awards, which recognize individuals and groups who go above and beyond in promoting safety in all research activities within their research groups.
• The Departmental Postdoctoral Research Awards, which recognize postdoctoral fellows in the department for their excellent work.
• The Staff Awards, which recognize staff members who have a wide ranging positive impact on many areas of the department.
The award recipients are listed below. Congratulations to all the winners!
Department Chair Professor Catherine F. Clarke gave the opening remarks and spoke about the awards and recognition received by chemistry & biochemistry faculty and students.
Professor Catherine Clarke (center) with the 2018 Alumni Legacy Award recipients – Dr. Atsuko Fujimoto, Dr. Margaret Holzer, Dr. Audree Fowler, and Dr. Kate Murashige. The women are holding their Ph.D. theses.
(Left) Professor and dean of the division of physical sciences Miguel Garcia-Garibay presented the Undergraduate Awards. He is pictured here with Gold Family Foundation Award recipient Karina Nugroho. (Right) Professor Neil Garg (center) presented the Majeti-Alapati Fellowship awards to his graduate students Emma Baker-Tripp and Elias Picazo.
Professor Sarah Tolbert’s group (pictured) received the inaugural LabENGAGE Safety Award in recognition of their commitment to actions and changes in procedures that resulted in improved laboratory safety. The Safety Awards were presented by Professor Craig Merlic, Executive Director of the UC Center for Laboratory Safety (fourth from right).
Chair of the Postdoctoral Awards Committee Professor David Eisenberg (left) presented the 2018 Postdoctoral Awards to Dr. Jian Guo (accepting on behalf of Dr. Yuan Liu), Dr. Jonathan Axtell, Dr. Marc Garcia Borras, Dr. Steven Jonas, Dr. Duyoung Min, and Dr. Stefan Schmollinger.
(Left) Chief Administrative Officer Aaron Sanchez with recipients of the
inaugural
Staff Key Element Awards – Dr. Jonathan Erde (Hydrogen Award), Denise Mantonya (Carbon Award), Rochanne Pucket (Technical Staff (Ts) Award), and Penny Jennings (Oxygen Award). (Right) Recipient of the Staff CHEM Honoree award Jin Lee (left) was presented the award by assistant dean of the division of physical sciences Dr. Kathleen Micham.
(Left) Professor Zhao Li, recipient of the Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Professor Hosea Nelson, recipient of The Herbert Newby McCoy Faculty Award. (Right) Recipient of the William M. Arnold Biochemistry Alumni Award undergraduate Jamel Simpson (third from left) with his family and Ahmed Arnold (second from right), son of William Arnold.
(Left) UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC) Magnetic Resonance Staff Scientist Dr. Ta-Chung (TC) Ong; Jeff McCormick, recipient of the Dafni Amirsakis Memorial Fellowship Award; Dr. Jane Strouse, the former director of the MIC, and Dafni Amirsakis’ husband Peter Glink. (Right) Retired researcher and department supporter Gloria Turner with Department Chair Professor Catherine Clarke.
(Left) UCLA Graduate Division Vice Provost and Dean Robin Garrell with Postdoctoral Award recipient Dr. Steven Jonas. (Right) Professor Emil Reisler with Herbert Newby McCoy Staff Award recipient Dr. Elena Grintsevich, who conducts research in the Reisler group.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
Presented by Dean Miguel Garcia-Garibay, UCLA College, Division of Physical Sciences, and Prof. Yung Ya Lin, Vice Chair for Undergraduate Education
Alpha Chi Sigma (AXE) Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship
Cole Meyer
Alumni Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship
John Kozlowski
William M. Arnold Biochemistry Alumni Award
Jamel Simpson
Daniel Kivelson Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship
Yuxin Pan
Gold Family Foundation Award
Paul Chong
Karina Nugroho
Hosmer Stone Prize
Ara Mandjikian
Ghattas Malki
Raymond & Dorothy Wilson Research Fellowship
Omar Ebrahim, Dyana Kenanova, Yifan Warrick Ma, Ryan McLaughlin, Tate Reuter, Inwhan Roh, Joyce Samson, Miles Savage,Yi Shen, Sungho Son, Abby Thurm, Jocyelyn To, Shang-Lin Tsai, Luke Verlinsky, Guan Wang, Matthew Ye, Yuyang Zhang, and James Ziegenbein
Whitcome Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Xinyi Cheng and Kayla Frank
GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
Presented by Prof. Patrick Harran, Vice Chair for Graduate Education; Dr. Jane Strouse, Former director of the UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center; Prof. Anastassia Alexandrova, Grad Advisor for the Chemistry Ph.D. Program; Prof. Jorge Torres, Grad Advisor for the BMSB Ph.D. Program; Prof. Alex Spokoyny, Area Advisor for Inorganic Specialization; and Prof. Neil Garg, Area Advisor for Organic Specialization
Excellence in Second Year Academics and Research
Michelle Bradley, Emily Cosco, Jacob Dander, Huanchen Zhai, and Chuanzhen Zhao
Departmental Leadership Award
Terri Lin and Emma Pelegri-O’Day
Hanson-Dow Awards
Andrew Dawson, Ga Young Lee, Yolanda Li, Cheng-Wei Lin, Lucas Morrill, Stasik Popov, Roselyn Rodrigues, Stephen Sasaki, Andy Smaligo, Robert Susick, Gail Vinnacombe, KJ Winchell, and Patrick Yee
Graduate Research Award for Interdisciplinary Research
Jeong Hoon Ko
Dafni Amirsakis Memorial Fellowship Award
Jeff McCormick
George Gregory Research Award
John Abendroth
Daniel E. Atkinson and Charles A. West Prize in Metabolic Biochemistry
Agape Awad
John Stauffer Fellowship
Anish Nag
John M. Jordan Memorial Award
Rebeccah Warmack
Roberts A. Smith Research Award
Kanishk Jain
Ralph & Charlene Bauer Research Award
Kent Kirlikovali
Faculty Award for Innovation in Inorganic Chemistry
Georgiy Akopov
Majeti-Alapati Fellowship
Emma Baker-Tripp and Elias Picazo
Ernest F. Hare, Jr., Memorial Scholarship
Leibniz Hang
SAFETY AWARDS
Presented by Prof. Craig Merlic, Executive Director, UC Center for Laboratory Safety.
Laboratory Safety Award
Stephen Sasaki
LabENGAGE Award
Tolbert Lab
Safety Theory Recognition Awards
Georgiy Akopov, Matthew Fontana, and Stephen Sasaki
Christopher S. Foote Fellows
Presented by Vice Provost and Dean Robin Garrell, UCLA Graduate Division
Senior Foote Fellows
Alex Bagdasarian, Emily Cosco, and Michael Yamano
Foote Fellows
Annabelle Cantu, Jason Chari, Francesca Ippoliti, and Ben Wigman
POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS
Presented by Prof. David Eisenberg, Postdoctoral Awards Committee Chair.
Dr. Jonathan Axtell, Dr. Marc Garcia Borras, Dr. Steven Jonas, Dr. Yuan Liu, Dr. Duyoung Min, and Dr. Stefan Schmollinger
STAFF AWARDS
Presented by Aaron Sanchez, Chief Administrative Officer, and Assistant Dean Kathleen Micham, UCLA College, Division of Physical Sciences.
Key Element Awards
Carbon Award – Denise Mantonya
Hydrogen Award – Jonathan Erde
Oxygen Award – Penny Jennings
Technical Staff (Ts) Excellence Award – Rochanne Pucket
CHEM Honoree
Jin Lee
FACULTY AWARDS
Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching
Introduced and presented by Prof. Catherine Clarke, Department Chair; and Prof. Ken Houk, Awards Committee Chair.
Prof. Zhao Li
The Herbert Newby McCoy Awards
Introduced and presented by Prof. Ken Houk, Awards Committee Chair
Staff – Dr. Elena Grintsevich
Faculty – Prof. Hosea Nelson
ALUMNI LEGACY AWARD
Presented by Prof. Catherine Clarke, Department Chair
Dr. Audree Fowler, Dr. Atsuko Fujimoto, Dr. Margaret Holzer, and Dr. Kate Murashige
The Department is extremely grateful to our generous donors and alumni whose support makes these many fellowship and award programs possible.
Photos by Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
