Graduate students Arwen Ying Cai (Alexandrova and Diaconescu groups), Calvin Ho (Doyle group), and Samuel Hugie (Doyle group) have been awarded prestigious international graduate scholarships.
Cai and Hugie received the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarships – Doctoral (PGS D), while Ho received a Croucher scholarship.
The Canadian NSERC PGS D program provides financial support to high-caliber students enrolled in eligible doctoral programs in the natural sciences and engineering. This support enables scholars to focus on their research and pursue mentorship opportunities with leading experts in their fields, both in Canada and internationally.
The Croucher Scholarship for Doctoral Study supports promising young researchers from Hong Kong who wish to pursue doctoral-level scientific research abroad.
Arwen Ying Cai is a first-year chemistry Ph.D. student in the groups of Professors Anastassia Alexandrova and Paul Diaconescu. They received their bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2024 from the University of British Columbia, where they worked with Professor Eva Nichols to investigate multimetallic porphyrins for catalyzing carbon dioxide reduction reactions.
Calvin Ho is a first-year chemistry Ph.D. student in Professor Abigail Doyle’s group. Ho was born and raised in Hong Kong, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2024 from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. During that time, he worked with Professor Jianwei Sun on CPA catalysis. He also had a brief stint at Scripps, working for Professor Keary Engle on nickel catalysis.
Samuel Hugie is a first-year chemistry Ph.D. student in Professor Abigail Doyle’s group. He was born and raised in Fremont, California. Samuel graduated from the University of Toronto in 2024 with a Honours Bachelor of Science in Biological Chemistry where he worked with Professor Datong Song to investigate bis(imino)carbazolide complexes of iron and cobalt. As an undergraduate student, Samuel also worked with Professor T. Don Tilley at the University of California, Berkeley and interned at Genentech.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
