Professors Matthew Nava and Danielle Schmitt receive 2025 Undergraduate Research Week Faculty Mentor Awards. These awards honor the considerable dedication of faculty mentors who have served as effective research mentors to undergraduate students.
As part of the UCLA Undergraduate Research Week, which was held on May 19-23, 2025, undergraduate student researchers who presented their work during the Undergraduate Research Showcase were invited to nominate their mentor for a Faculty Mentor award to recognize the meaningful role their mentor has played in their undergraduate experience, research or career exploration, and the support they have received from their mentor for their professional goals.
From the nominated faculty members, the Research Week campus committee chose the following winners who were honored at the Undergraduate Research Week Awards Ceremony:
Recipients of the 2025 Faculty Mentor Awards:
- Jesus Araujo – Cardiology, Toxicology
- Idan Blank – Psychology, Linguistics
- Jessica Cattelino – Anthropology
- Ugo Edu – African American Studies
- Sam Emaminejad – Electrical Engineering
- Alicia Izquierdo – Psychology, Brain Research Institute
- Alvine Kamaha – Physics & Astronomy
- Harley Kornblum – Psychiatry, Pharmacology, & Pediatrics, DGSOM, Brain Research Institute
- Tamar Kremer-Sadlik – Anthropology
- Diana Márquez-Gárban – Medicine, Hematology-Oncology
- Jared McBride – History
- William McCarthy – Health Policy & Management
- Salma Mousa – Political Science
- Matthew Nava – Chemistry & Biochemistry
- Diana Rigueur – Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
- Jesse Rissman – Psychology, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience
- Danielle Schmitt – Chemistry & Biochemistry
- Andrew Wikenheiser – Psychology, Brain Research Institute
- Patricia Arroyo Calderon – Spanish and Portuguese
Previous Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty to receive Undergraduate Research Week Faculty Mentor awards are Professors Anastassia Alexandrova and Margot Quinlan in 2018, and Professors William Gelbart and Alex Spokoyny in 2020, Professors Louis Bouchard and Paula Diaconescu in 2022, Professor Keriann Backus in 2023.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@ucla.edu.
