On May 27, 2025, 28 undergraduate students presented posters summarizing their research efforts at the second annual SMACS and UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Poster Session, hosted jointly by the Student Members of the American Chemical Society (SMACS) and the department.
Select photos from the event can be viewed below, and the full photo gallery is available here.
The event, split in two 1-hour sessions, was held from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Young Hall Collaboratory. It was attended by an enthusiastic crowd of more than 40 undergraduate students, faculty, and graduate students, who engaged presenters with thoughtful questions and discussions about their research while enjoying light refreshments. Graduate students Elijah Cook and Alexandra Wright served as judges, evaluating each poster based on the quality of both content and delivery. Based on their evaluations, Selina Juang (Gelbart group) and Kasey Parks (Schmitt group) were selected as best poster recipients for Session 1, and Daniel Kendall (Barber group) and Yara Fahmy (Ni group) for Session 2.
This was the second event hosted jointly by UCLA SMACS and the Chemistry & Biochemistry department in the 2024-2025 school year, the first one being a student-faculty mixer held in the Winter quarter. SMACS hopes to provide more opportunities for departmental undergraduates to connect with chemistry graduate students and faculty and to create a welcoming environment within the department. Keep an eye out for more of these events in the future!
Undergraduate Kasey Parks (Schmitt group), recipient of Session 1 Best Poster Award for their poster on Illuminating compartmentalized AMPK signaling in single cells.
SMACS is the UCLA undergraduate chapter of the American Chemical Society. SMACS aims to nurture a social network for life and physical science undergraduate students, especially chemistry and biochemistry majors. SMACS holds weekly meetings from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays in Young Hall 2033 covering professional development, green chemistry, and service demonstrations. To find out more about SMACS at UCLA, visit https://www.chem.ucla.edu/acsbruins or check them out on instagram @smacsbruins.
Article written by SMACS members Chahak Gupta and Angelina Zou, smacsbruins@gmail.com.
Photos by Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
