Thanks to our generous donors, 124 talented graduate students received departmental awards this year in recognition of their accomplishments in teaching, academics, research, and/or service.
The 2025 Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate student departmental awards were presented at our annual Departmental Awards Ceremony on June 9, 2025.
Congratulations to all the recipients listed below!
We are incredibly grateful to our donors whose generous gifts make these awards possible.
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.
Noelle Mitchell (Andrews group) and Emily Mobley (Sletten 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.
Caitlyn Fick (Srivastava/Loo groups) and Emma Greene (Harran 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.
Mai Abdusamad (Torres group) and Angela Agnew (Zhou 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).
Erin Marie Bucci (Doyle group), Brady Dehnert (Kwon group), and Zach Walters (Garg 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.
Nesibe Akmansen Kalayci (Tolbert group) and William Borrelli (Schwartz group).
HERBERT NEWBY MCCOY MENTORSHIP AWARDS
These awards are given to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have spent the entire last year serving as peer mentors to members of our first-year graduate class as part of the IGNITE program.
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), Dr. 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 AWARDS FOR MENTORSHIP, INCLUSION, AND SERVICE
This award is given to graduate students who have engaged in a broad range of activities, including public science education, science outreach to schools, undergraduate mentorship, and service to the department.
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
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.
Yongjia He (Caram group) and Lajoyce Mboning (Bouchard/Pellegrini groups)
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.
Ramzi Massad (Li/Diaconescu groups) and Jingwen Sun (Liu 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.
Lily Taylor (Rodriguez group)
JOHN STAUFFER EXCELLENCE IN SECOND-YEAR ACADEMICS AND RESEARCH AWARDS
This award was established by the John Stauffer Charitable Trust in 1997.
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
Drs. Satyan (PhD ’69) and Vimala Majeti (PhD ’71), former students of Professor Christopher Foote, established this award in 2001, with matching funds from Procter & Gamble, to support deserving graduate students.
Jeremy Dworkin (Kwon group), Jordan Anthony Michael Gonzalez (Garg group), and Helen Lin (Sletten group).
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.
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 group), 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
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.
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
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.
Nina Harpell (Rodriguez/Gelbart groups) and Carolyn Wu (Quinlan group).
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.
Fernando Lopez (Duan/Huang groups).
CHRISTOPHER S. FOOTE SENIOR FELLOWS
The Christopher S. Foote Fellowship in Organic Chemistry was established in 2005 by his former co-workers and UCLA colleagues to honor UCLA organic professor Dr. Christopher S. Foote on his 70th birthday.
Flora Fan (Doyle group), Zach Walters (Garg grouop), and Qingyang Zhou (Houk 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, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
