We celebrated the many accomplishments of our alumni, faculty, postdocs, students, and staff at our annual departmental awards ceremony on May 13, 2022.
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. Ralph Bauer (B.S. ’52, Ph.D. ’58) (pictured above).
The award recipients are listed below. Congratulations to all the award recipients!
The following awards were presented at the 2022 Departmental Awards Ceremony:
2020 ALUMNI LEGACY AWARD
This award honors distinguished UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Ph.D. graduates in recognition of their achievements in life and generous support and service to UCLA. (Due to the pandemic, we were unable to celebrate Dr. Bauer’s award in 2020). Read an article about Dr. Bauer here.
Dr. Ralph Bauer (BS ’52, PhD ’58) (pictured above)
FACULTY AWARDS
The Herbert Newby McCoy Faculty Awards
Each year, this award is given to the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry researchers who have made the greatest contributions of the year to the science of chemistry and biochemistry. An in-depth article about the recipients and their research will be posted soon.
Professor Juli Feigon and Professor Xiangfeng Duan
Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching
This award was established in 1986 as a means to celebrate outstanding teaching within the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. The award recognizes our ladder and non-ladder faculty members for their efforts in classrooms and laboratories, in overseeing undergraduate student research, and preparing exceptional teaching materials. An in-depth article about the recipients will be posted soon.
Professor Hung Pham and Professor Margot Quinlan
POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS
Postdocs play a crucial role in our department and our faculty award committee were delighted to learn about the countless accomplishments of our postdoctoral scholars in making the award selection this year. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Dr. Aneta Turlik (Houk group), Dr. Baocheng Liu (Feigon group), Dr. Huaying Ren (Duan group), and Dr. Cheng-Wei Lin (Kaner group)
STAFF AWARDS
Since 2018, these awards have been given to UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry staff members in recognition of the wide-ranging positive impact they have on the many areas of the department. An article about the award recipients will be posted soon.
CHEM Honoree – Jin Lee
Carbon Award – Daniel Jacobs
Hydrogen Awards – Stephanie Hotz & Penny Jennings
Oxygen Award –
Technical Staff (Ts) Excellence Award – Dr. Robert Peterson
GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
2022 Excellence in Research awards
These awards are given to students who have advanced to candidacy and are based on research excellence and productivity. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients!
Theodore A. Geissman Excellence in Research Award
Andrew Kelleghan
George Gregory Research Awards
Daniel Robertson and Charlene Salamat
Thomas L. and Ruth F. Jacobs Excellence in Research Award
Patricia Poths
John M. Jordan Excellence in Research Award
Samuel DeMario
Charles J. Pedersen Excellence in Research Award
Cesar Garcia
John Stauffer Excellence in Research Awards
Natalie Kashanchi and Zach Hern
John Alan Walker Excellence in Research Awards
Shijie Deng, Yi Shen, and Lisa Boatner
2022 Ralph & Charlene Bauer Graduate Student Award
This award, given to students in recognition of their excellence in research, teaching, and service, is made possible by a generous endowment established by Dr. Ralph Bauer (B.S. ’52, Ph.D. ’58) and his wife Charlene Bauer (B.S. ’54). View photos of all the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients! Samuel DeMario, Morris Dweck, Matthew McVeigh, Milauni Mehta, Daniel Robertson, Anthony Spearman, Cheylene Tanimoto, Laura Wonilowicz, and Danlei Xiang
2022 Michael E. Jung Excellence in Teaching Award
These awards are given to students who have excelled as teaching assistants (TAs), as reflected in undergraduate student evaluations and faculty nomination letters. The award honors Professor Michael Jung, one of our department’s greatest educators. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients: Keaton Barr, Roberto Chavez, Casey Cornwell, Helen Cumberbatch, Katherine Estoque, Caitlyn Fick, Spencer Hamilton, Nathaniel Johnston, Rongli Liu, Luca McDermott Catena, Kenneth Mei, Jose Moreno, Noelle Alexa Novales, Austin Ready, Charlene Salamat, Maya Segal, Jun Shen, Alex Simafranca, Arismel Tena Meza, Cindy Wang, Yueying Wang, Jillian Williams, Reid Wilson, and Dominick Witkowski
2022 Jim and Barbara Tsay Excellence in Second Year Research and Academics Award
These awards, made possible by a generous endowment established by Dr. Shyr-Jin “Jim” Tsay (Ph.D. ’77) and his wife Barbara, are given to third-year graduate students who performed exceptionally in courses, teaching, and research throughout their first and second years and have advanced to candidacy. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients! Ana Bulger, Claire Dickerson, Andrew Goring, Noelle Alexa Novales, Billy Treacy, Benqian Wei, Katie White, and Zisheng Zhang
2022 Christopher S. Foote Senior Fellows
The Senior Foote Fellowships are awarded to our most outstanding organic graduate students in their third year upon completion of their qualifying examination for their Ph.D. degree. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients! Ana Bulger, Bill Treacy, and Matthew McVeigh
UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS
2022 Undergraduate Student Departmental Awards
35 talented chemistry and biochemistry undergraduates received departmental awards this year in recognition of their accomplishments in academics and in research. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients!
Daniel E. Atkinson and Charles A. West Prize in Metabolic Biochemistry
Alek Muro and Emily Lu
Chemistry & Biochemistry Department Awards for Excellence in Academics
Eric Lin, Kyle Nagasawa, Susan Huh, Victoria Zheng, and Zoe Gleason.
Ethel Terry Mccoy Award for Outstanding Women Students In Chemistry & Biochemistry
Alena Yang, Bella Wachter, Sunny Wu, Katherine Downs, Silvi Lybbert, Sophia Westerkamp, Rachel Jiang, Courtney Lok, Nika Gladkov, Rachel Ma, Kaitlyn Nguyen, Lauren Vuong, and Rebecca Li
Gold Family Foundation Award
Ryan Dinh
Hosmer Stone Awards
Maximilian Floridia, Tim Duong, Madison Bang, Haley Gauer, Ashley Feng, Benjamin Nguyen, Andrew Yim, and Isaiah Lee.
Lorraine H. and Masuo Toji Undergraduate Scholarship for Excellence In Chemistry
Palak Jariwala, Tracie Luu, and Jasmine Tzeng
Raymond and Dorothy Wilson Department Award for Excellence in Academics
Nolan Lok
Raymond and Dorothy Wilson Department Award for Excellence in Research
Xavier Herrera
Raymond And Dorothy Wilson Department Award for Excellence in Research and Academics
Diane Kang
2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
One of the unique benefits of attending UCLA as an undergraduate is the opportunity to participate in meaningful research guided by eminent faculty. This is also an essential step along the path to graduate school and beyond. However, research opportunities are often limited by the availability of funds to support the hourly cost of an undergraduate intern. These fellowships make it possible for budding scientists to gain invaluable research experience and pursue their dreams. View photos of the recipients and learn more here.
Congratulations to the following recipients!
Susan Elizabeth Baumgarten Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Lauren Tan
Dr. Ravi And Aparna Bikkina Family Scholarships
Audrey Nashner and Akash Jain
Robert E. Biskowski Chemistry Scholarships
Jason Zhu and Aimee Liang
Paul Boyer and Richard Cross Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
Ashley Holtz, Scott Hale, Michelle Ai, and Nika Gladkov
Dolores Cannon Southam Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
Varun Gupta and Anastasia Lubarsky
Department of Energy Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
Jeff Qu and Mabel Song
Arthur Furst Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Ryan Lamkin
Daniel Kivelson Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships
Tom Hong, Natallie Kochumian, Abigail Chapman, and Edison Cummings
Ramsey Summer Fellowships
Russell Nakasone, Elise Tran, Rachel Ma, and Lauren Vuong
Lorraine H. and Masuo Toji Summer Research Fellowships
Michael Rebelo, Jacob Newman, Victoria Zheng, Eric Lin, Andrew Rodriguez, and Kimberly Vasquez
Raymond and Dorothy Wilson Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Ovie Soman, John Cao, and Mason Cooper
Weiller Family Research Scholarship
Riley Danna
Whitcome Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
Cameron Flowers and Sarah Gorbatov
The Department is extremely grateful to our generous donors and alumni whose support makes these many fellowship and award programs possible.
To learn how to contribute to our student departmental award funds or to establish a new named award or fellowship, please contact Alex Hood, Associate Director of Development, Physical Sciences, at ahood@support.ucla.edu or (310) 486-6956. 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.
