In the Fall of 2024, the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry named Nobel Laureate Sir Fraser Stoddart as the 2025 Seaborg Medalist—the highest honor the department bestows annually on a scientist for distinguished contributions to science, technological innovation, and/or public service in science. He had planned to attend the Seaborg Symposium and Medal Award Dinner on March 21, 2025, where he was to be honored and receive the medal. Sadly, Sir Fraser passed away on December 30, 2024. After his passing, the department decided to proceed with the event as planned, holding it as a memorial celebration of Sir Fraser’s remarkable life. Read a memorial article about Sir Fraser here.
The annual Seaborg events feature an afternoon symposium, a student poster session competition, and a medal award reception and dinner. Established in 1987, the award honors UCLA Chemistry alumnus Nobel Laureate Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg ’24.
The Seaborg Symposium centers around the science of the year’s Seaborg Medalist. For this year’s event we will have an afternoon symposium entitled “Artificial Molecular Machines: From Invention to Implementation”, with talks by five esteemed scientists: Anne-Sophie Duwez (University of Liège), Ben L. Feringa (Nobel Laureate, University of Groningen), Ken Houk (UCLA), Nathalie Katsonis (University of Groningen), Omar Yaghi (UC Berkeley). The symposium will also honor the 2025 Norma Stoddart Prize graduate student alumni winner.
The symposium will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the UCLA campus in the California NanoSystem Institute (CNSI) auditorium. A poster session by postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students will take place before the symposium in the CNSI lobby starting at 11:30 a.m.
The evening events will begin with a reception at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner and the medal awards ceremony.
All are welcome to attend the Seaborg events. The symposium is free of charge but registration is required for the evening reception and dinner.
- To register for the symposium only (no charge) and/or reception/dinner (using a credit card), click here.
- To make a 100% tax deductible donation to sponsor student dinners at the Medal Award Dinner ($ 165 per student), click here.
- To pay with an unrestricted FAU (for UCLA faculty only): If you would like to register and pay for the Seaborg dinner for yourself, your guest(s), and/or lab member(s) using an unrestricted FAU, please complete this Google form. Please submit the form by Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
For a list of previous Seaborg Medal recipients please visit the previous recipients webpage.
Questions? Please contact Isaiah Gutierrez, Seminar and Events Coordinator, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, (818) 588-1572, isaiahgtz@chem.ucla.edu.
