Each year at commencement we recognize our undergraduate students for their accomplishments in academics and in research.
The 2020 Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Commencement Awards have been announced. Congratulations to all the recipients listed below! These awards are normally presented to our students at the department’s annual commencement ceremony which has been postponed until later in the 2020-21 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will be honoring our graduating students through a virtual celebration on Saturday, June 13, 2020. Learn more here.
Departmental Awards were also given to our undergraduate students this September. Read about those awards here.
We are incredibly grateful to our donors whose generous gifts make these awards possible.
ACS Award for Outstanding Senior in Inorganic Chemistry
Jenna Molas (Kaner group)
ACS Award for Outstanding Senior in Organic Chemistry
Hannah Eckvahl (Garcia-Garibay/Houk groups)
ACS Award for Outstanding Senior in Physical Chemistry
Jack Tulyag (Tolbert group)
Alpha Chi Sigma Achievement Award
Charles Lomba (Wong group)
Daniel E. Atkinson & Charles A. West Commencement Prize in Metabolic Biochemistry
Nour Jabassini (C. Clarke group) and Oscar Molina (Courey group)
Dunn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biochemistry
Jorge Cardenas (Rodriguez group), Wenzhe Chen (Loo group), Tanya Hadjian (Feigon group), Miranda Kelly (C. Clarke group), Jenna Lambert (S. Clarke group), Yanru (Cindy) Liu (Chanfreau group), and Rachel McAllister (Clubb group)
Geissman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Organic Chemistry
John Chapman (Sletten group), Junho Kwon (Sletten group), Nataliya “Natalie” Tyshchenko, Sining “Cindy” Wang (Houk group), Isabelle Winardi (Rubin group), Carolyn Wu (Sletten group), Roland Yu (Houk group).
Howard Reiss Commencement Award
Catherine Elva Dombroski, Christos Dereschuk, and Hee Seung Jung.
Ramsey Commencement Award for Excellence in Research
Zhangyuan “Vincent” Gao (Tobert group), Morgan Hopp (Spokoyny group), Shuyuan “Scarlett” Huang (Liu group), and Alex Umanzor (Spokoyny group).
The Dolores Cannon Southam Commencement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research
Carter Faucher (Rubin group), Matthew Hennefarth (Alexandrova group), Nina Le (Gelbart group), Greg Schuette (Bouchard group), and Abby Thurm (Gelbart/Knobler group).
The Maria Rebecca and Maureen Bellettini Award
Jaqueline Lopez (Kaner group) and Vivian Wall (Tolbert group)
To contribute to the undergraduate commencement awards fund or establish a new named award or fellowship, please contact Brooke Sanders, Executive Director of Development, UCLA Physical Sciences, 310-794-9045, bsanders@support.ucla.edu. Your gift of any size will directly impact one of our world-class students and aspiring scientists!
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
