Thanks to our generous donors, 69 talented graduate students received departmental awards this year in recognition of their accomplishments in teaching, academics, research, and/or service.
The 2024 Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate student departmental awards were presented at our annual departmental awards ceremony on May 21, 2024. Congratulations to all the recipients listed below!
We are incredibly grateful to our donors whose generous gifts make these awards possible.
SAMANTHA T. MENSAH DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION AWARD
The awards honor graduate student Samantha “Sammy” T. Mensah who passed away on February 22, 2023. Sammy did many remarkable things during her time at UCLA, including co-founding BlackInChem in 2020.
Vicki Rubio (Spokoyny group), Jordan Gonzalez (Garg group), Maya Cornejo (Koehler group), Yessica Nelson (Spokoyny group), Alex Leon (Schwartz group). Far right: Sophia Uemura (P. Weiss group) and Lajoyce Mboning (Bouchard/Pellegrini groups), recipient of the Spirit of Samantha T. Mensah DEI Award.
MICHAEL E. JUNG EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARDS
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, who is one of our department’s greatest educators.
Back row: Hung-Kai (Jerry) Hsu (Harran group), Gilbert Walker (Harran group), Allison Hands (Garg group), Daniel Turner (Garg group), Zachary Walters (Garg group), Fernando Lopez (Duan group), Pujan Ajmera (Alexandrova group), Thomas Underwood (Wollman group), Caleb Pike (Caram group), Louise Aryan Tan (Deming group); Front row: Elizabeth Foker (Kwon group), Paris Dee (Doyle group), Kaiyang (Kevin) Liu (Pang group), Vito Lin (Maynard group), Jennifer Kim (Liu group), Rebecca Jenkins (Rodriguez group), Erin Kim (Li/Backus groups), Arthur Odenheimer (Caram group); far right, starting top: Angela Agnew (Zhou group), Tucker Allen (Neuhauser group), Kevin Koshiro (Weiss group), Paige Kotowitz (Sletten group), Hayden Montgomery (Maynard group), Ellie Puente (Maynard group).
JOHN STAUFFER EXCELLENCE IN SECOND-YEAR ACADEMICS AND RESEARCH AWARDS
This award was established by the John Stauffer Charitable Trust in 1997.
Will Borrelli (Schwartz group), Brady Dehnert (Kwon group), Jeremy Dworkin (Kwon group), Yongjia He (Caram group), Alek Lotuzas (Harran group), Ramzi Massad (Diaconescu group), Lajoyce Mboning (Bouchard/Pellegrini groups), Emily Mobley (Sletten group), Glenn Nurwono (Park/Tang groups), Judah Thomas Raab (Doyle group), Maddy Ruos (Doyle group), Georgia Scherer (Garg group), Zachary Schuman (Liu group), Jingwen Sun (Liu group), and Alexandra Turmon (Backus group).
RALPH & CHARLENE BAUER GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
These awards were made possible by a generous endowment from Dr. Ralph Bauer (B.S. ’52, Ph.D. ’58) and Charlene Bauer (B.S. ’54) in 1988.
Caitlyn Fick (Srivastava group), Susan Ju (Tolbert group), Yangtao (Barry) Li (Caram group), Heting Pu (Duan group), Yueying (Qiao-Qiao) Wang (Spokoyny group), and Dominick Witkowski (Garg group).
CHARLES J. PEDERSEN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
This award was established in 1988 with a gift from DuPont. Dr. Charles Pedersen won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Professors Donald J. Cram (UCLA) and Jean-Marie Lehn (Universite Louis Pasteur) for their work on highly selective molecules.
Luca McDermott Catena (Garg group) and Arismel (Ari) Tena Meza (Garg group).
UCLA CHEMISTS ASSOCIATION EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
This award is given to worthy graduate students in chemistry and biochemistry. It was established by various donors in 1988.
Zhiyin Yang (Kaner group)
DAFNI AMIRSAKIS MEMORIAL AWARD
Established in 2016 to honor UCLA alumna and staff member Dr. Dafni Amirsakis, this award is given to a graduate student who has many of Dafni’s wonderful characteristics.
Giang Jessie Le (Loo group)
DANIEL E. ATKINSON AND CHARLES A. WEST EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
This award honors Professors Daniel Atkinson and Charles West, the two UCLA chemistry faculty who were largely responsible for the development of biochemistry within the department. This award honors the significant contributions of both men to research, education, and the strength of the UCLA academic community.
Kelsey Feustel (C. Clarke group) and Michael Guile (C. Clarke group).
DR. YUH GUO PAN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
Eugenia Pan (BA Psychology ’79) and her family endowed this award in 2020 to benefit organic chemistry graduate students in honor of her late husband, Dr. Yuh Guo Pan (MA Chem ’77, Ph.D. Chem ’80, Jung Group).
Jason (Yiheng) Wang (Doyle group)
EVELYN PAN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
Established by Walter and Shirley Wang, this award honors Shirley’s mother, Evelyn Pan.
Spencer Hamilton (Tolbert group), Shiyun Lin (Diaconescu group), Alexander Simafranca (Tolbert group), and Quintashia Wilson (Sletten group).
GEORGE GREGORY EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
This award was established in 1990 by Products Research Corporation (PRC) and a life-long friend of the department alumnus George Gregory (B.A. ’42), upon his retirement from PRC.
Robert Lavroff (Alexandrova group)
JAMES D. MCCULLOUGH EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
The James D. McCullough Prize Fund was established from the estate of James D. McCullough in 1986.
Sibo Wang (Duan group)
JIM AND BARBARA TSAY EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
These awards were made possible by a generous endowment established in 2009 by Dr. Shyr-Jin “Jim” Tsay (Ph.D. ’77), recipient of our 2019 Alumni Legacy Award, and his wife Barbara.
Diego Garcia Vidales (Schwartz group)
JOHN ALAN WALKER EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
This award was established in 2006 by Evelyn Walker to honor her son Dr. John Alan Walker (Ph.D. chemistry ’83) who passed away in 2005.
Hootan Roshandel (Diaconescu group)
JOHN M. JORDAN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
This award honors Professor John Jordan, a biochemistry faculty member from 1970 until his death in 1997. His widow, Professor Ann Sodja (Wayne State University), who passed away in 2022, was instrumental in establishing the John M. Jordan Award to memorialize his love of intellectual discourse, passion for his work, and originality in research.
Cindy (Sining) Wang (S. Clarke group)
ROBERTS A. SMITH EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD
In 2009, the Roberts A. Smith Graduate Award for the Study of Biochemistry was established with a generous endowment from funds contributed by Atsuko Fujimoto (PhD ’63, MD ’69) and her husband, Akira Fujimoto, and by Emeritus Professor Smith.
Eric Pang (C. Clarke group)
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 the Chair’s office, chair@chem.ucla.edu, (310) 825-3958. Your gift of any size will directly impact one of our world-class students and aspiring scientists!
Article by Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
