Professor Keriann Backus is the recipient of a prestigious 2019 Young Faculty Award from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Backus is an assistant professor of biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine and of chemistry and biochemistry in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. Backus received the award based […]

Professors Anastassia Alexandrova, Patrick Harran, and Margot Quinlan have agreed to serve as the Vice Chairs of the department, effective July 1, 2019. Alexandrova will serve as the Vice Chair of Undergraduate Education, Harran will continue to serve as Vice Chair of Graduate Education, and Quinlan will serve as Vice Chair of Academic Personnel/Space Allocation. […]

The Houk group hosted the CCHF Virtual Symposum 14 sponsored by the Center for Selective C-H Functionalization (CHF). Professor Ken Houk’s group hosted the live virtual symposium on July 2, 2019, at UCLA in a conference room in the Molecular Sciences Building. The virtual symposium, projected on to a screen via YouTube, featured talks by Richmond Sarpong (UC Berkeley), […]

Alumna Mercedes Cornelius (BS ’18 Paul Weiss group) appears in episode of web series, Nerd Girl Nation, which features women in STEM fields. In the episode about bio-physics, which aired on June 24, 2019, Mercedes discussed her work in bio nanotechnology and organ on a chip, her role models, and her career plans.   “It was an […]

Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Yuan Yang, from Professor Juli Feigon’s group, received one of three Boyer/Parvin Postdoctoral Awards at the ceremony on June 25. Yang was recognized for her research on the structure and function of the 7SK RNP, an essential regulator of eukaryotic mRNA and HIV-1 transcription. In particular, Yang’s work has revealed how the […]

Six undergraduate students from five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) will contribute to research projects this summer. For the fifth year, the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry is hosting undergraduate students from various Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields for the UCLA Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Geoscience HBCU Summer Research Program. Our visiting […]

Professor Richard Kaner has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the chemical profession. At the AIC Chemical Pioneer Symposium held in May 2019, Kaner gave a special lecture and was presented with institute’s 2019 Chemical Pioneer Award, which recognizes chemists and chemical engineers who […]

In celebration of UCLA’s centennial, research and ideas from UCLA faculty and collaborators are featured in the special June 25 issue of ACS Nano. UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty Professors Anne Andrews, Sarah Tolbert, Jeffrey Zink, and Paul Weiss were among the co-authors of the editorial titled “Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at UCLA”. Weiss is the […]