A team of researchers led by Professors Ken Houk, Yi Tang, and Todd Yeates have published their findings in the June 2014 print edition of journal Nature Chemical Biology. UCLA Newsroom (by Kim DeRose): In pharmaceutical production, identifying enzyme catalysts that help improve the speed and efficiency of the process can be a major boon. Figuring […]

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate student, Jeffrey Vinokur (The Dancing Scientist), recently appeared on the Queen Latifah Show and Home & Family to perform experiments and share his passion for science. Vinokur’s appearance on the Queen Latifah Show (a national talk show with 1.2 million viewers) featured dancing and performing various experiments, including the use of sucrose to […]

UCLA Alumnus and former faculty member, Professor Fred Wudl, is the recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2014 Spiers Memorial Award. News.ucsb.edu (Julie Cohen): Professor Wudl received the 2014 Spiers Memorial Award for his many innovative developments in the field of organic electroactive materials and plastic electronics. “I am very grateful to the RSC for this […]

DTRA’s JSTO in the News highlighted Professor Ken Houk and colleagues’ work on the publication, “Acceleration of an Aromatic Claisen Rearrangement via a Designed Spiroligozyme Catalyst that Mimics the Ketosteroid Isomerase Catalytic Dyad.” Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Chemical and Biological Technologies Department Courtesy Story FORT BELVOIR, Va. – Knowledge of quantum mechanics and the practical […]

On April 19, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry welcomed thousands of future Bruins and their families for UCLA’s Annual Bruin Day event.  UCLA Bruin Day is our exclusive, annual event for admitted freshmen and their guests, with faculty presentations, academic and financial aid resources, and campus and housing tours. The Chemistry & Biochemistry booth […]

Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist in the United States. Stoddart is among 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 15 countries recognized for […]

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate student Steven Lopez (Houk Group) is the student recipient of the UCLA Academic Senate’s 2014 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. Nominations for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award are collected annually from the entire campus. This year, Steven Lopez was selected, amongst many qualified nominees, by the UCLA Academic Senate […]

Prof. Anastassia Alexandrova and colleagues have created a unique transition metal hydride in which the hydrogens form a five-membered aromatic ring – something that had been theorized but until now never seen.  ChemistryWorld (by Simon Hadlington): Unlike ‘conventional’ π-aromaticity typified by benzene, here the delocalised electrons are shared across the pentagonal ring through planar σ […]