At this year’s Academic Senate Celebrating Diversity award ceremony, two faculty members and one graduate student received prestigious DEI awards.
At the event held on June 6, 2019 at the Chancellor’s residence, Professors Sarah Tolbert and Jorge Torres, and graduate student Jesus Iñiguez (Chong Liu group), received UCLA Academic Senate’s 2019 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Awards.
Professor Sarah Tolbert received the Faculty Community Service and Praxis Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. Tolbert holds faculty appointments in Chemistry & Biochemistry, and in Materials Science and Engineering, is also the faculty education director for the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), and directs CNSI’s extensive nanoscience education program.
Professor Jorge Torres received the Faculty Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. Torres holds a faculty appointment in Chemistry & Biochemistry, has served as a mentor for several UCLA diversity outreach programs including the Amgen Scholars Program, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative, and the Minority Access to Research Careers program.
Jesus Iñiguez received the Graduate Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. Iñiguez is a graduate student in Professor Chong Liu’s group. Through his various mentorship roles at UCLA he serves as a role model to under-represented students who are interested in pursuing careers in STEM fields.
In total, four members of the Division of Physical Sciences received awards, with Professor Smadar Naoz from the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy receiving the Career Faculty Commitment to Diversity DEI award. Other award recipients were Professor Alexandra Krantzler from the Department of Anthropology, Enrique Ainsworth from the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity, and Professor Vickie Mays from the Departments of Psychology and Health Policy Management.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
