Adjunct professor of chemistry, longtime fire fighter, and UCLA alumnus Derek Urwin (B.S. ’03 Math, M.S. ’17, Ph.D. ’22 Chemistry, Alexandrova group) is featured in a UC Newsroom article about his research that reveals PAHs’ affinity for binding to DNA — and evading repair. From UCLA Newsroom (by Wayne Lewis): Chemicals produced by fires show […]

On October 29, 2024, the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry launched a SPARK fundraising campaign to raise seed funding for new lab purchases for our two campuswide, state-of-the-art core facilities – the Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC) and the Biochemistry Instrumentation Core Facility (BIF). As one of the country’s top chemistry and biochemistry departments, we provide […]

Four UCLA students from Chemistry & Biochemistry labs won poster awards at the annual Southern California conference on theoretical chemistry (SoCalTheoChem) hosted at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) on October 5, 2024. The one-day regional symposium showcased cutting-edge research in theoretical chemistry through faculty talks and a poster session that highlighted the breadth […]

A team of UCLA researchers led by Professor Keriann Backus and graduate students Ashley R. Julio and Flowreen Shikwana has shed new light on the functional consequences of cysteine-reactive compounds in cells. Their discovery that compounds commonly used in screening studies can cause electrophile stress is highly significant  for understanding cellular responses to stress and […]

Alumnus Dr. Edward Mena, M.D., ’94, Medical Director of the Pasadena Liver Center—a multi-disciplinary treatment facility—and founder of the California Liver Research Institute (CLRI), a nonprofit dedicated to advancing liver disease treatments and cures, has been named the recipient of the Leadership Visionary Award by the Liver Health Foundation. A global leader in hepatology, Mena […]

We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Charles and Carolyn Knobler Endowed Term Chair, thanks to a generous gift from UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty member Emeritus Professor Charles “Chuck” Knobler and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Knobler, a long-time research chemist in the department. The Knobler Chair will support a faculty member in […]

This summer, we bid farewell to former Teacher-Scholar Rajat Maji, and we welcome our newest Teacher-Scholars Martin-Louis Riu and Eric Wu. Our Teacher-Scholar program allows postdoctoral scholars to experience research and teaching at the same time as a way to prepare them for future faculty or research positions. Dr. Rajat Maji (2023-2024 Donald J. Cram […]

The department welcomes inclusive chemical education researcher Dr. Dory DeWeese, who will join the UCLA faculty as an Assistant Teaching Professor on November 1, 2024. DeWeese received a B.S. in chemistry and M.A. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA). She then received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford University, where […]