Thanks to our generous donors, 42 talented undergraduates received departmental awards this year in recognition of their accomplishments in research and in academics.
The 2025 Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Departmental Awards were presented to our students 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.
BRUCE MERRIFIELD UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
This award honors Nobel laureate Professor R. Bruce Merrifield who was a member of the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty.
Felisha Kuo (Liu group)
DANIEL E. ATKINSON AND CHARLES A. WEST PRIZE IN METABOLIC BIOCHEMISTRY
This award is named in honor of the second and third biochemists on the UCLA faculty, who taught generations of students over their forty-year careers and were largely responsible for the development of biochemistry within the department.
Andrew Bondoc (Quinlan group) and Kasey Parks (Schmitt group)
ETHEL TERRY MCCOY AWARD
These academic awards honor chemists Dr. Ethel Terry McCoy and her husband Dr. Herbert Newby McCoy who had successful careers at the University of Chicago and in industry.
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), Asta Li (Caram group), Julie Liu (Spokoyny group), Taisiya Rubtsova, Emile Rusu, Margaret Sasere, Jayanti Singla (Gutierrez group), Anneke Talke, Skylar Whitley. Not pictured: Rebekah Lee, Kathryn McGovern (Quinlan group) and Gabriela Rodriguez.
HOSMER STONE AWARD
This academic award was established in 1970 to honor the late Professor Hosmer Stone, one of the department’s first faculty members.
Gretchen Fan and Bill Wang. Not pictured: Jimin Kim
JAMES BLAINE RAMSEY UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
This award honors Professor Emeritus James Blaine Ramsey (1892-1965).
Wesley Jeng (Petrovic group), Daniel Kendall (Barber group), Vanlinh Nguyen (Harran group), Bonnie Qian (Alexandrova group). Not pictured: Lucy Liu (Spokoyny group)
JANIS OKIDA HASHIMOTO UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
This fellowship was made possible by a generous gift from Elizabeth Whitney, in honor of Janis Okida Hashimoto.
Conrad Wang (Eisenberg group)
LORRAINE AND MASUO TOJI UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
These awards were established in 2019 thanks to a $1 million gift from the estate of Lorraine and Masuo Toji.
Justin Luu and Marcus Young (Paulsen group)
MARIA REBECCA AND MAUREEN BELLETTINI AWARD
Established in 2019 by the Bellettini family, this award recognizes outstanding undergraduate students studying chemistry in the department.
Gabrielle Sabsovich
MAX SHAW DUNN UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
This award honors the memory of Professor Max Shaw Dunn, UCLA’s first biochemistry faculty member, who joined the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1922. He was a strong and positive force in the development of UCLA until his retirement in 1962.
Jaejeun “Josh” Hong and Lauren Van Auken (Garg group)
RSC UNDERGRADUATE AWARD
Sofia Ando (Shafaat group)
VERNE SCHUMAKER UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS
Established by his family, friends, and UCLA colleagues, this award honors Professor Verne Schumaker who was a member of the UCLA biochemistry faculty from 1965 until his passing in 2017.
Chris Gudmundsen. Not pictured: Katherine Jaramillo (Chanfreau group)
WILLIAM M. ARNOLD SCHOLARSHIP
This award was established in 2016 by the Arnold Family in memory of William M. Arnold ‘75.
Thaddeus Stephanski-Hall (Harran 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!
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
