On June 9, 2025, we celebrated the many accomplishments of our alumni, faculty, postdoctoral researchers, students, and staff at our annual departmental awards ceremony.
Each year at this event, we gather together to celebrate the accomplishments of our department members in the University’s primary missions: research, teaching, and service. We also recognize our staff members for their outstanding contributions to the department and honor our distinguished graduate alumni with the Alumni Legacy Award.
A photo gallery from the event can be viewed here, and select photos can be viewed below.
The following awards were presented at the 2025 Departmental Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to all the recipients!
2025 ALUMNI LEGACY AWARD
This award honors distinguished UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate alumni in recognition of their achievements in life and generous support and service to UCLA.
Dr. Donna Speckman (Ph.D. ’84, Hawthorne group) is the recipient of the 2025 Alumni Legacy Award. Read more about Speckman here.
FACULTY AWARDS
THE HERBERT NEWBY MCCOY FACULTY AWARD
Each year, this award is given to the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty member who has made the greatest contributions of the year to the science of chemistry and biochemistry.
Organic chemists Professors Ken Houk and Neil Garg were honored as co-awardees for this year’s McCoy award.
THE 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/or non-ladder faculty members for their efforts in classrooms and laboratories, in overseeing undergraduate student research, and preparing exceptional teaching materials.
This year’s recipient of the Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching is Professor Huiling Shao.
FACULTY INCLUSION AND MENTORING AWARD
This award highlights a faculty member who has gone above and beyond in the mentorship of our students.
This year’s recipient of the Faculty Inclusion and Mentoring Award is Professor Michael Lawson.
JULI FEIGON HELPING HANDS AWARDS
This award, initiated by Professor Juli Feigon in 2024, is awarded to postdoctoral fellows, research staff, and graduate students who are primary caregivers of dependent children or other family members, to be used for anything that helps relieve their domestic burden. The goal is to provide them extra time and resources to pursue their scientific careers. Congratulations to the following recipients!
Graduate student Nesibe Akmansen Kalayci (Tolbert lab), and postdoctoral researchers Dr. Tyler Kerr (Spokoyny lab) and Dr. Yuan Yang (Feigon lab) received the 2025 Juli Feigon Helping Hands awards.
POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS
Postdoctoral researchers play a crucial role in our department and our faculty award committee was delighted to learn about the countless accomplishments of our postdoctoral scholars in making the award selection this year. Congratulations to the following recipients!
Dr. Alex Cusumano (Doyle Group), Dr. Sarah French (Garg group), and Dr. Hyuk-Joon Jung (Diaconescu Group) are recipients of this year’s Postdoctoral Awards.
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. Congratulations to the following recipients!
Carbon Award – Brandon Lindo
Hydrogen Award – Kelsea Valerio
Oxygen Award – Jenny Rodricks
Technical Staff (Ts) Excellence Award – David Rodriguez
CHEM Honoree – Jin Lee
GRADUATE STUDENT DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS
Each year we recognize our graduate students for their accomplishments in research and teaching, two of the primary missions of our university. An article with details about the awards and photos of the recipients can be viewed here. Congratulations to the following recipients!
CHARLES J. PEDERSEN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Noelle Mitchell (Andrews group) and Emily Mobley (Sletten group).
DAFNI AMIRSAKIS MEMORIAL AWARD – Caitlyn Fick (Srivastava/Loo groups) and Emma Greene (Harran group).
DANIEL E. ATKINSON AND CHARLES A. WEST EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Mai Abdusamad (Torres group) and Angela Agnew (Zhou group).
DR. YUH GUO PAN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Erin Marie Bucci (Doyle group), Brady Dehnert (Kwon group), and Zach Walters (Garg group).
GEORGE GREGORY EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Nesibe Akmansen Kalayci (Tolbert group) and William Borrelli (Schwartz group).
HERBERT NEWBY MCCOY MENTORSHIP AWARDS – Mai Abdusamad (Torres group), Nima Adhami (Spokoyny/Rodriguez groups), Erin Marie Bucci (Doyle group), Bryan Christian (Quinlan group), Maya Cornejo (Koehler group), Elizabeth Croll (Kwon group), Michael Guile (C. Clarke group), Ryan Howe (Koehler group), Erin Kim (Li/Backus groups), Angela Koeberlein (Quinlan group), Alex Leon (Schwartz group), Helen Lin (Sletten group), Kara Lo (Schwartz group), Thomas Louis-Goff (Spokoyny group), Yessica Nelson (Spokoyny group), Shervin Nia (Zhou group), Glenn Nurwono (Park/Tang groups), Eileen Olivares (Loo group), Kayla Rich (Torres group), Merin Rixen (Loo/Quinlan groups), Hootan Roshandel (Diaconescu group), Madeline Ruos (Doyle group), Lilith Schwartz (Kamariza/Sletten groups), Alexander Simafranca (Tolbert group), Shelby Vexler (Chen group), Gilbert Walker (Harran group), Cindy (Sining) Wang (S. Clarke group).
IMMANUEL WILK AWARD FOR MENTORSHIP, INCLUSION, AND SERVICE – Diego Garcia (Schwartz group), Susan Ju (Tolbert group), Jasmine Keane (Tolbert group), Christina Rivera (Garg group), Katherine Snell (Maynard group), Aryan Tan (Deming group), Laura Wagner (Conway group), Lissy Wood (Bouchard group).
JIM AND BARBARA TSAY EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Yongjia He (Caram group) and Lajoyce Mboning (Bouchard/Pellegrini groups).
JOHN ALAN WALKER EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Ramzi Massad (Li/Diaconescu groups) and Jingwen Sun (Liu group).
JOHN M. JORDAN EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Lily Taylor (Rodriguez group).
JOHN STAUFFER EXCELLENCE IN SECOND-YEAR ACADEMICS AND RESEARCH AWARDS – Ajoa (AJ) Addae (P. Weiss/Caram groups), Pujan Ajmera (Alexandrova group), Tucker Allen (Neuhauser group), Yisi Chen (Liu group), Elizabeth Croll (Kwon group), Flora Fan (Doyle group), Taras Khvorost (Alexandrova group), Erin Kim (Li/Backus groups), Lenka Milojevic (Zhou group), Shervin Nia (Zhou group), Jack Scully (Schmitt group), Jingran Shan (Garcia-Garibay/Houk groups), Daniel (Dani) Turner (Garg group), Qingyang Zhou (Houk group).
MAJETI-ALAPATI EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Jeremy Dworkin (Kwon group), Jordan Anthony Michael Gonzalez (Garg group), and Helen Lin (Sletten group).
MICHAEL E. JUNG EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARDS – Faven Berhane (Torres group), Judy Cheng (S. Weiss group), Kylie Cheng (Clubb group), Kaitlin Cheung (Conway group), Allison Clark (Garg group), Katarina Cohen (Schmitt group), Aubrey Emmi (Lawson group), Elizabeth Foker (Kwon group), Diego Garcia Vidales (Schwartz group), Anubhav Goswami (Alexandrova group), Morgan Grimes (Lawson group), Ryan Howe (Koehler group), Nathan Incandela (Conway/Houk groups), Sohan Jadhav (Caram group), Ben Janda (Garg group), Stephanie Jimenez (Schwartz group), Matt Kensil (Loo group), Jared King (Garcia-Garibay group), Toy Lemmons (Loo group), Mei Matsumoto (Spokoyny group), Marcelo Mazariego (Harran group), Rebecca Mcalpine (Tolbert group), Yannah Melle (Schwalbe-Koda groups), Giulianna Miseo (Garg group), Glenn Nurwono (Park/Tang groups), Aren Ohanyan (Diaconescu group), Marvin Onwukwe (Schmitt/Shah groups), Maggie Polite (Maynard group), Daniela Prochazkova (Conway group), Catherine Pugh (Harran group), Tiffany Robinson (Schmitt group), Aris Rubio (Spokoyny/Houk groups), Ethan Savage (Tolbert group), Connor William Short (Koehler group), Sophia Uemura (Kaner group), Katie Vineall (Schmitt group), Aihui Wang (Wollman group), Yueying (Qiao-Qiao) Wang (Spokoyny group), Zhaozong Wang (Duan group), Janet Zhong (Feigon group).
RALPH & CHARLENE BAUER GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS – Winston Gee (Alexandrova/Doyle groups), Prairie Hammer (Sletten group), Allison Hands (Garg group), Paige Kotowitz (Sletten group), Xinyu Liu (Rubin/Tolbert groups), Kara Lo (Schwartz group), Glenn Nurwono (Park/Tang groups), Kayla Rich (Torres group), Madeline Ruos (Doyle group), Georgia Scherer (Garg group), Kainalu Smith (Tolbert group), Kodi Thurber (Tolbert group), Katie Zhu (Sletten group).
ROBERTS A. SMITH EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARD – Nina Harpell (Rodriguez/Gelbart groups) and Carolyn Wu (Quinlan group).
SAMANTHA T. MENSAH DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION AWARD – Fernando Lopez (Duan/Huang groups).
CHRISTOPHER S. FOOTE SENIOR FELLOWS – Flora Fan (Doyle lab), Zach Walters (Garg lab), and Qingyang Zhou (Houk lab).
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS
Our talented chemistry and biochemistry undergraduates received departmental awards this year in recognition of their accomplishments in academics and in research. An article with details about the awards and photos of the recipients can be viewed here. Congratulations to the following recipients!
BRUCE MERRIFIELD UNDERGRADUATE AWARD – Felisha Kuo (Liu group).
DANIEL E. ATKINSON AND CHARLES A. WEST PRIZE IN METABOLIC BIOCHEMISTRY – Andrew Bondoc (Quinlan group) and Kasey Parks (Schmitt group).
ETHEL TERRY MCCOY AWARD – Daphne Chan (Clubb group), Claire Chang (Nava group), Tanya Chhabria (Kappel group), Reena Choi (Tang group), Sunny Ding, Samantha Frehner, Minnie Alize Griffin, Holly Hadsall, Felisha Kuo (Liu group), Sandrine Lanch (Torres group), Rebecca Lee (Chen group), Asta Li (Caram group), Julie Liu, Kathryn McGovern (Quinlan group), Gabriela Rodriguez, Taisiya Rubtsova, Emile Rusu, Margaret Sasere, Jayanti Singla (Gutierrez group), Anneke Talke, Skylar Whitley.
HOSMER STONE AWARD – Gretchen Fan, Jimin Kim, and Bill Wang.
JAMES BLAINE RAMSEY UNDERGRADUATE AWARD – Wesley Jeng (Petrovic group), Daniel Kendall (Barber group), Lucy Liu (Spokoyny group), Vanlinh Nguyen (Harran group), Bonnie Qian (Alexandrova group).
JANIS OKIDA HASHIMOTO UNDERGRADUATE AWARD – Conrad Wang (Eisenberg group).
LORRAINE AND MASUO TOJI UNDERGRADUATE AWARD – Justin Luu and Marcus Young (Paulsen group).
MARIA REBECCA AND MAUREEN BELLETTINI AWARD – Gabrielle Sabsovich.
MAX SHAW DUNN UNDERGRADUATE AWARD – Jaejeun “Josh” Hong and Lauren Van Auken (Garg group).
RSC UNDERGRADUATE AWARD – Sofia Ando (Shafaat group).
VERNE SCHUMAKER UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS – Chris Gudmundsen and Katherine Jaramillo (Chanfreau group).
WILLIAM M. ARNOLD SCHOLARSHIP – Thaddeus Stephanski-Hall (Harran group).
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
These research fellowships make it possible for budding scientists to gain invaluable research experience and pursue their dreams. An article with details about the fellowships and photos of the recipients can be viewed here. Congratulations to the following recipients!
CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY ALUMNI UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Andrew Huang (Kaner group).
DANIEL E. ATKINSON AND CHARLES A. WEST UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Andrew Bondoc (Quinlan group), Kathryn McGovern (Quinlan group), and Olivia Pacheco (S. Clarke group).
DANIEL KIVELSON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Timothy Chau (Barber group), Asta Li (Caram group), and Jiayi “Bonnie” Qian (Alexandrova group).
DOLORES CANNON SOUTHAM UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Felisha Kuo (Liu group).
EVELYN PAN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Claire Chang (Nava group), Tyler Hsu (Nava group), Kehan Jiao (Neuhauser group), Linchen “Ethan” Li (Narang group), Allison Lorber (Nava group), and Ye Wen (Tolbert group).
JAMES BLAINE RAMSEY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Zachary Ching (Gelbart group), Dylan Davidoff (P. Weiss group), and Anam Jamshaid (Shafaat group).
JANIS OKIDA HASHIMOTO UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Wesley Jeng (Petrovic group), Lawrence Lundblad (Petrovic group), Nicholas Machin (Rodriguez group), Henley Roy (Petrovic group).
PAUL BOYER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Caroline Canavan (Backus group), Tanya Chhabria (Kappel group), Katherine Jaramillo (Chanfreau group), Sandy Lanch (Torres group), Rebecca Lee (Chen group), Jerry Li (Kappel group), and Dennis Nguyen (Torres group).
RAVI AND APARNA BIKKINA FAMILY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Siddharth Das (Schmitt group) and Rohan Thadwal (Athavale group).
ROBERT AND CAROLE FORAN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Bijan Ahrablou (P. Weiss group), and Pawat Wachiratienchai (Shafaat group).
ROBERT E. BISKOWSKI UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Kenny Garcia (Spokoyny group) and Kieran Pearson (Diaconescu group).
SAUL WINSTEIN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Sydney Choi (Tang group), Jessica Darfler (Athavale group), Idaly Maldonado (Gutierrez group), Jayanti Singla (Gutierrez group), and Thaddeus Stephanski-Hall (Harran group).
SUSAN ELIZABETH BAUMGARTEN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Tiffany Thai (DeWeese group).
THEODORE GEISSMAN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Bedelia Law (Kwon group) and Yongjin Lee (Bouchard group).
WEILLER FAMILY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Hanna Auchynnik (Spokoyny group) and Aila Shibao (Liu group).
WHITCOME UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP – Chloe Schnell (Lawson group) and Jonathan Shirley (Damoiseaux and Koehler groups).
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!
If you find any errors in this article, please email Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
