We celebrated the many accomplishments of our faculty, postdocs, students, staff, and alumni at our annual departmental awards ceremony on April 22, 2019.
Each year at this event we recognize our faculty, postdocs, and students for their accomplishments in research and teaching, two of the primary missions of our university. We also recognize staff members for their outstanding contributions to the department. Finally, we honor one of our distinguished Ph.D. graduates with the Alumni Legacy Award in recognition of his or her career achievements and support of and service to the university; this year the award was presented to Dr. Shyr-Jin Tsay (Ph.D. ’77).
The award recipients are listed below. Congratulations to all the winners!
A photo gallery from the event, which was held at the California Nanosystems Institute, can be viewed here and select photos can be viewed below.
UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS
Presented by Prof. Benjamin Schwartz, Vice Chair for Undergraduate Education, and Dr. Heather Tienson
Alumni Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships
Miles Savage, Bryan Yang, Roland Yu
Dr. Ravi and Aparna Bikkina Family Scholarship
Oanh Huynh
Paul Boyer and Rich Cross Summer Undergraduate Fellowships
Wenzhe Chen, Clarissa Anne Pham, Xinran (Michelle) Tang, Melton Zheng
Department of Energy (DOE) Fellowships
Madeline Evans, Rachel McAllister, Julius I. Yevdash
Donors Summer Research Fellowships
Mohammad Jamal, Krista Yang
Daniel Kivelson Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships
Matthew Hennefarth, Greg Schuette
Howard Reiss Memorial Fund Fellowship
Zackary Ferrin
General Chemistry Instructional Laboratory Faculty Fellowships
Hannah Eckvahl, Scarlett Huang, Sining Wang, Isabelle Winardi
Lorraine H. and Masuo Toji Summer Research Fellowships
Arthur Huang, Junho Kwon, Carolyn Wu
Whitcome Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
Andrew Gilmour, Miranda Kelly
Raymond & Dorothy Wilson Research Fellowships
Paul Ajodha, Fadi Al Sarhan, John Oliver Chapman, Anabel Cho Lopez, Stella Fors, Tanin Hooshmand, Morgan Hopp, Carolyn Hu, Sheng Qu, Alexander Umanzor
GRADUATE AWARDS
Presented by Prof. Hosea Nelson; Dr. Jane Strouse, former Director of the UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC); Prof. Jorge Torres, Graduate Advisor for the Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology (BMSB) Ph.D. program; Prof. Jose Rodriguez; and Prof. Ken Houk, Area Advisor for Organic Specialization.
Excellence in Second Year Academics and Research
Timothy Boit, Ruxi Dai, Arundhati Deshmukh, Daniel Estabrook, Amy Lai, Stasik Popov, Roselyn Rodrigues
Hanson-Dow Awards
Sarah Anthony, Erin Avery, Jason Chari, Anton El Khoury, Jack Fuller, Zachary Gvildys, Liv Heidenreich, Morgan Howe, Francesca Ippoliti, Ieva Liepuoniute, Jay McDaniel, Shreya Patel, Erick Velasquez
Graduate Research Award for Interdisciplinary Research
Katherine Bay
George Gregory Research Award
Yung Kuo
Dafni Amirsakis Memorial Fellowship Award
Maly Cosco
Daniel E. Atkinson and Charles A. West Prize in Metabolic Biochemistry
Sue Tsui
John M. Jordan Memorial Award
Ivan Ramirez
Roberts A. Smith Research Award
Orlando Martinez
Ralph & Charlene Bauer Research Award
Wei Chen
Faculty Award for Innovation in Inorganic Chemistry
Dahee Jung
John Stauffer Fellowship
Marco Messina
Majeti-Alapati Fellowship
Andy Smaligo
Ernest F. Hare, Jr., Memorial Scholarship
Alex Bagdasarian
Christopher S. Foote Fellows
Presented by Prof. Ken Houk
Senior Foote Fellows
Sarah Anthony, Kersti Caddell Haatveit, Daniel Estabrook, Stasik Popov
Foote Fellow
Angel Mendoza
POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS
Presented by Prof. Catherine Clarke, Department Chair
Evan Darzi, Zhaoyang Lin, Julia Stauber, Yaqiang Wang
STAFF AWARDS
Presented by Prof. Catherine Clarke, Department Chair
CHEM Honoree
Max Kopelevich
Key Element Awards
Carbon Award – Janette Kropat
Hydrogen Award – Stephanie Hotz
Oxygen Award – Graduate Office Staff: Justyna Glode, Nick Baerg, & Annie Carpenter
Technical Staff (Ts) Excellence Award – Ankur Gholkar
FACULTY AWARDS
Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching
Presented by Prof. Michael Jung, Teaching Committee Chair
Professor Alexander Spokoyny and Dr. Heather Tienson-Tseng
The Herbert Newby McCoy Awards
Presented by Prof. Ken Houk, Awards Committee Chair
Professor Hosea Nelson and Professor Jose Rodriquez
ALUMNI LEGACY AWARD
Presented by Prof. Catherine Clarke, Department Chair
Dr. Shyr-Jin “Jim” Tsay
The Department is extremely grateful to our generous donors and alumni whose support makes these many fellowship and award programs possible.
Photo captions:
1. Professor Catherine Clarke (left) with the 2019 Alumni Legacy Award recipient Dr. Shyr-Jin Tsay.
2. (Left) Professor Michael Jung presented the Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching to Dr. Heather Tienson-Tseng and Professor Alex Spokoyny (not pictured). (Right) Professor Ken Houk presented the Herbert Newby McCoy Awards to Professors Jose Rodriguez (center) and Hosea Nelson (right).
3. (Left) Postdoctoral Awards were presented to Dr. Julia Stauber (Spokoyny group), Dr. Zhaoyang Lin (Duan group), Dr. Yaqiang Wang (Feigon group) and not pictured Dr. Evan Darzi (Garg group). (Right) Dr. Ankur Gholkar (Torres group) received the Technical Staff (Ts) Excellence Award.
4. (Left) Dr. Max Kopelevich received the Staff CHEM Honoree award and (right) Dr. Janette Kropat received the Carbon Award.
5. (Left) Physical Chemistry Divisional Assistant Stephanie Hotz received the Hydrogen Award. (Right) Graduate Office staff Annie Carpenter, Nick Baerg, and Justyna Glode received the Oxygen Award.
6. (Left) Undergraduate student Oanh Huynh received the Dr. Ravi and Aparna Bikkina Family Scholarship. (Right) Dr. Jane Strouse, the former director of the UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center Director, presented the Dafni Amirsakis Memorial Fellowship Award to Maly Costco (not pictured).
7. (Left) Recipients of the inauguaral Paul Boyer and Rich Cross Summer Undergraduate Fellowships with Professor Ben Schwartz – Melton Zheng, Wenzhe Chen, Clarissa Pham (Xinran “Michele” Tang not pictured). (Right) Professor Jose Rodriguez and recipient of the Ralph & Charlene Bauer Research Award Wei Chen.
8. (Left) Professor Ken Houk with Andy Smaligo, recipient of the Majeti-Alapati Fellowship. (Right) Professor Jorge Torres and Sue Tsui, recipient of the Daniel E. Atkinson and Charles A. West Prize in Metabolic Biochemistry.
9. Family and friends helped award recipients celebrate at the reception following the ceremony – (left) award recipient Katherine Bay and her family and (right) award recipient Morgan Howe and her parents.
10. (Left) Award recipient Kersti Caddell Haatveit (far left) and her family. (Right) CHEM Honoree Dr. Max Kopelvich and his wife Doreen Yeh.
Photos and article by Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
