Fifth-year chemistry graduate student Caitlyn Fick (Srivastava group) was one of ten finalists in the recent 2025 UCLA Grad Slam competition.
Fick’s 3-minute presentation was titled “Combs: For More Than Just Your Hair”. In her talk, Fick explains how comb polymers—a special type of polymer—can enhance products like perfume, ice cream, and even wastewater treatment. Her research focuses on optimizing the structure of these polymers to improve their ability to stabilize substances. Her findings show that certain structural features (like longer, fewer chains) lead to better performance. These polymers also have promising applications in drug delivery, including sustained release of cancer medications. Fick highlights the versatility and potential impact of comb polymers across various fields.
As a Finalist, Fick received an $800 award and attended a dinner with the Dean of Graduate Education and other distinguished guests.
Before joining the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate program in 2020, Fick received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Scripps College, where she was a student researcher in Professor Aaron Leconte’s group. At Scripps, her research focused on the creation and screening of mutant luciferase enzymes for improved bioluminescent imaging, which may potentially be used in bio-tagging procedures. Fick received a Master of Science degree in chemistry from UCLA in 2022.
Fick currently works in Professor Samanvaya Srivastava’s lab in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science conducting polymer synthesis, specifically comb polymers. Her work is interdisciplinary and seeks to address common issues in human health, disease, and eventual diagnosis and treatment.
Fick is active in outreach to diverse communities and, in 2023, she received the department’s inaugural Sammy T. Mensah Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. She serves as an Internal Coordinator for the UCLA Organization for Cultural Diversity in Science and President of the UCLA Graduate Society of Women Engineers. Fick was selected as a BioPACIFIC MIP fellow for the 2023-2024 program.
About the UC Grad Slam Competition
Grad Slam is a campus and UC-wide competition that showcases and awards the best 3-minute research presentations by graduate students. The competition aims to strengthen the important career development skill of articulating graduate research concisely and effectively to a non-specialist audience. It also highlights the excellence, importance and relevance of UCLA graduate students and their research.
The 2025 Grad Slam was comprised of a preliminary round video submission, followed by in-person semi-final rounds on Thursday, February 27, 2025, at the Kerckhoff Grand Salon, and culminating in a final competition and celebratory reception held on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, at the Grand Horizon Ballroom in Covel Commons at UCLA.
First, second, and third-place winners in the UCLA competition received graduate student support awards in the amounts of $6,000, $4,000, and $3,000 respectively, and an Audience Choice of $1,000. This year Pablo Alvarez, a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular Biology, won the UCLA campus competition with his presentation, “Guarding the Crown Jewel: Stopping the Viral Invasion of the Brain,” and will represent UCLA in the systemwide University of California Grad Slam competition. The 2025 contest will be emceed by UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D., at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento, California. Tune in to watch the livestream and cast your vote for audience favorite on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at 10:30 a.m.
Photos by Rich Schmitt Photography.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
