This year’s annual Organic Graduate Symposium, held in the Yoo Conference Hall and Collaboratory on June 12, 2026, featured brilliant talks by 16 chemistry graduate students.
The annual Organic Graduate Symposium (OGS) provides a forum for organic chemistry graduate students in their final year to present their dissertation research at UCLA to their peers, researchers, and faculty. The symposium is open to everyone in the department and to the friends and families of the presenters. Each student speaker is introduced by either a faculty member, a member of their lab, or a friend. Click here for a flier with details about the symposium.
A photo gallery from the event can be viewed here, and select photos can be viewed below.
Research talks were presented by (top row from left): Erin Bucci (Doyle group), Gabriella Cooper (Harran group), Brady Dehnert (Kwon group), Jeremy Dworkin (Kwon group), Jordan Gonzalez (Garg group), Emma Greene (Harran group), Colin Johnson (Tang group), Jared King (Garcia-Garibay group), Paige Kotowitz (Sletten group), Aleksandras Lotuzas (Harran group), Daniel Min (Doyle group), Madeline Ruos (Doyle group), Georgia Scherer (Garg group), Katie Snell (Maynard group), Katie Zhu (Sletten group), and Qingyang Zhou (Houk group).
Organized by Professor Yves Rubin, the all-day event was both an excellent scientific event and a celebration of this year’s Organic Chemistry Ph.D.s. Featuring synthesis, chemical biology, and organic materials chemistry, the OGS included talks by 16 Ph.D. candidates (most of whom were also hooded in the departmental commencement ceremony on June 13). Representing 11 organic research groups, the speakers gave outstanding and entertaining summaries of their research and experiences at UCLA. An enthusiastic audience of students, faculty, and some families and friends enjoyed the great talks as well with breakfast, lunch, refreshment breaks, and a concluding reception all organized by Brandon Lindo.
Continuing a long tradition (~25 years) of post-symposium limericks created by Professor Mike Jung, and later poems and songs by Professor Ken Houk, Houk shared a poem he wrote honoring the speakers.
“Congratulations to all of you for such engaging and informative talks,” Houk said. “All of you have “pushed back the frontiers of science” in your graduate research at UCLA, in an astonishingly successful way. To commemorate that, here is a poem that I have entitled “The 2026 UCLA Organic Graduate Symposium.”
The 2026 UCLA Organic Graduate Symposium
Brady and Jeremy to us revealed, a Kwon group sensation.
Their ozonolytic dealkenylation is a spectacular innovation.
The Harran group’s Alek, Emma, and Gabby’s extraordinary synthetic might,
On Portimines and polyheterocyclic peptidomimetics, was a spectacular sight.
And Anton and Marcella’s contributions, too,
We learned of smells funky or Frito-like, yeoo,
The synthetic plan for Portimine A
Is totally awesome in Harran’s great way.
Katie and Paige from Ellen Sletten’s team, gave compelling displays,
Showing how poly(oxazolines) can guide drug delivery, in impressive ways.
And Ethan’s intro of Katie, it really was a killer,
And Paige’s use of crowding was an amazing thriller.
Daniel, Maddy, and Erin from the Doyle group, shared methods really keen
By blending machine learning and synthesis, into a powerful machine.
The group’s uses of data science, world famous it makes them thrive,
A very important application, predicting the Knicks in five.
Qingyang explored the enzyme BruB, with quantum mechanics and MD,
Revealing the pericyclic magic, that enzymes can set free.
His 35 published papers, and collaborations that are worldwide
Have shown how chemistry happens, thanks for the wonderful ride!
Jordan and Georgia from Garg made structures thought not to exist,
Forged natural products and more, exploiting the double bond twist.
It has been my pleasure, to work with the Garg group each day
As they break the rules of chemistry, in such an important way.
Colin Johnson expertly mined genomes, with a thoughtful and discerning eye,
Showed us how, the Tang group reveals, fungal biosynthesis, and why.
Katie from the Maynard group synthesized polymers with precision and grace,
Helping deliver life-saving glucagon, with glucose controlling the pace.
Garcia-Garibay’s group are masters, of photochemistry in the crystalline phase.
Jared King showed us how substituted benzophenones, are transformed in intricate ways.
Today was filled with science that inspired from beginning to end,
A showcase of sixteen brilliant UCLA Ph.D.s, each a scholar and a friend.
We were introduced to the Sixteen, by colleagues both young and old,
Elizabeth, Anton, Ethan, Marcelo, Prairie, Glenn, Matthew, Wenyu, Georgia, Lydia, Erin, Madeleine, Jordan, and Antonio helped their stories unfold.
We are delighted by presence of families, your offspring made you—and us—proud.
Their research has been so successful, they stand out in any large crowd.
So many photos of families and friends have ended your talks today.
You brought to all of us the joys, that kept you straight on your way.
From mechanisms, models—genes, and molecules large and small,
The Organic Graduate Symposium inspired, and re-connected us all.
From all of us in the audience, to those we heard from today,
Thanks for your talks, and as you leave us, we’ll miss you in every way.
Article by Professor Ken Houk and Penny Jennings. Photos by Penny Jennings, penjen@g.ucla.edu. Montage by Isabella Luo.
