Professor Osvaldo Gutierrez, holder of the Fraser and Norma Stoddart Chair in Contemporary Chemistry, is one of ten organic chemists to be selected by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for the prestigious 2027 Arthur C. Cope Mid-Career Scholar Award for his contributions to the field of organic chemistry.
The 2027 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award recipients will receive their awards and present their research at the ACS Fall 2027 meeting in San Diego, Tuesday August 24, 2027
A UCLA alumnus, Gutierrez attended Sacramento City College for five years before earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from UCLA in 2009. As an undergraduate, he conducted research with Professor Kendall N. Houk. He went on to receive his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 2012, working under Professor Dean J. Tantillo.
Following his postdoctoral studies with Prof. Kozlowski (UPenn), Gutierrez began his academic career at the University of Maryland–College Park in 2016 and was then recruited to Texas A&M University, where he served as a professor of chemistry. In 2025, he returned to UCLA to join the faculty as a professor of chemistry.
Gutierrez’s research focuses on mechanistically guided approaches to designing and developing new catalytic and environmentally friendly chemical transformations that can reduce the cost of producing medicines, which may help to yield better health outcomes nationally and globally.
In addition to his research, Gutierrez is a strong advocate for fostering more welcoming and inclusive environments in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). As part of that mission, Gutierrez serves as the inaugural Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) STEM Faculty Director for UCLA. Recently he organized the Breaking Barriers in STEM conference at UCLA and created a program, funded by the UCOP, to bring community college and CSU students to do hands-on research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In addition, in collaboration with UC faculty, postdocs, and graduate students he leads efforts of a hybrid research program that trains the next generation of community college faculty and students. He serves as the Faculty-in-Residence at UCLA to bridge connections between undergraduate students and research faculty.
Gutierrez was recently featured in an in-depth article about his personal background on the Division of Physical Sciences website. He grew up herding goats in rural Mexico, immigrated to the United States as a child, and overcame significant obstacles as an undocumented student to become a UCLA-trained chemist and faculty member.
Earlier this year, Gutierrez was awarded the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Biden. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.
Gutierrez was also recently featured in a new UCLA College Research Powers Progress video, which highlights his research and its importance to UCLA’s mission.
Other UCLA chemistry and biochemistry faculty who have received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar award are Kendall N. Houk (1988), Fred Wudl (1993), Christopher S. Foote (1994), Michael E. Jung (1995), J. Fraser Stoddart (1999), Yi Tang (2012), Miguel García-Garibay (2015), Neil Garg (2015), Heather Maynard (2018), Hosea Nelson (now at Caltech) (2020), Abigail Doyle (while at Princeton) (2020) and Ohyun Kwon (2024).
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
