Undergraduate researcher Amanda Nguyen (Schwartz group) has been selected for the prestigious 2023-24 UCLA Beckman Scholars Program.
The 2023-24 Beckman Research Scholarship at UCLA is awarded to outstanding undergraduate researchers committed to completing a thesis project under the supervision of select UCLA Beckman Faculty. The $18,200 award will be distributed over one academic year and two summers, plus $2,800 for travel and research supplies.
“I am extremely proud of Amanda’s work in our lab,” said graduate student mentor Zerina Mehmedović. “She entered the lab in the middle of winter quarter and she put in so much work already and is so enthusiastic about learning the science. She asks wonderful questions to help with her understanding of the science which is every mentor’s dream! It’s honestly really fun being her mentor because her enthusiasm for the research shows how ready she is for graduate school. This is a well-deserved recognition of her work and her potential in the field.”
Amanda is an undergraduate studying Chemistry-Materials Science with an interest in sustainable materials development. She currently conducts research in Professor Benjamin Schwartz’s group, where her project focuses on studying the counterion-polymer interactions in doped conjugated polymers through the control of both dopant size and polymer crystallinity. She hopes that greater understanding of the interplay between crystallinity, dopant size, and carrier mobility in organic semiconductors will enable the development of inexpensive, Earth-abundant materials for use in renewable energy harnessing. Amanda enjoys investigating materials problems from a chemistry perspective and plans on continuing this by pursuing graduate research. Outside of lab, she also conducts chemistry outreach with Alpha Chi Sigma and performs with UCLA drumming group Kyodo Taiko.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
