Winstein Commons Fall 2022 Art Show Opening

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On October 20, 2022, members of the department gathered in the Winstein Commons for the opening of the Fall 2022 Art Show, with many of the artists in attendance.

Located in Young Hall 3037, the Saul and Sylvia Winstein Commons was dedicated in 2004 to honor Professor Saul Winstein, one of the greatest organic chemists of his time. The Commons name reflects the uniqueness of the combination of science, art, conversation, and collegiality experienced in the room. Faculty members, students, and staff have loaned or donated works of art created by chemists, friends, or members of their family, to decorate and enrich the room.

The current art on display was selected from many pieces offered by the Winstein Commons Art Committee, Professor Ken Houk, Chair; Professor Anastassia Alexandrova; Professor Abigail Doyle (our newest Winstein Chair); Department Chief Administration Officer (CAO) Amy Ragsdale; Dr. Aneta Turlik (Houk group); Morris Dweck (Harran group); and Prairie Hammer (Sletten group). The most recent artwork added to the Commons can be viewed below.

After remarks by Professor Ken Houk, each of the artists in attendance spoke about their piece and what inspired them to create it. Photos of their art pieces can be viewed below.

Artists at the event: Laura Wolinowicz, Natalie Schibrowsky, Professor Yves Rubin, host Professor Ken Houk, Dominick Witkowski, Emily Mobley, Sophia Elliott, Sequoia Ding, and Salvador Bernardino.
Professor Ken Houk welcomes attendees to the art show.
The event was a family affair with (left) artist Sequoia Ding and her father Dr. Hui Ding (Jung group) in front of her photos and (right) Professor Anastassia Alexandrova with her artist daughter Sophia Elliott in front of her ink drawing.
(Left) Professor Ken Houk congratulates all the artists with a toast. (Right) Houk with event organizer Isaiah Gutierrez and Department Chair Professor Neil Garg in front of Aqua Blast, a painting made in 2009 by Garg’s daughter Elaina and her toddler classmates in the Chick Room, which is a part of the Krieger UCLA Daycare Center.

the Winstein Commons Art Gallery’s Newest Additions

Untitled, 2022, by Sophia Elliott. Ink on paper.

Sophia Elliott is the daughter of UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty member Professor Anastassia Alexandrova.


Court of Sciences, 2021, photograph by Salvador Bernardino.
This photograph was taken just outside the CS lecture halls during an evening in April 2021.

Long Exposure Angel Crest Highway, 2021, photograph by Salvador Bernardino.

This long exposure photograph of a car was taken just after sunset in the mountains of the Angeles Crest Highway north of Pasadena.

Salvador Bernardino was an organic graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Patrick Harran. He is currently an Advisor in Medicinal Chemistry at Eli Lilly and Company.


Stretch, photograph by Sequoia Ding.

This feisty male Allen’s hummingbird was constantly defending his claim to the hummingbird feeder on the Ding balcony. While he was usually zipping around and chasing off other hummingbirds, Sequoia was lucky to capture this moment of surprising stillness as he perched for a quick preen and stretch in a tree near the balcony.

Golden, photograph by Sequoia Ding.

Sequoia captured this shot of a lively Townsend’s warbler on her balcony in the fall of 2020. While stuck at home during the pandemic, Sequoia found beauty at home in moments like these. She loves how this picture captures both the sunny yellow of the warbler and the golden fall colors surrounding it, with just a touch of bokeh to brighten up the background.

Sequoia Ding (daughter of Jung group researcher Dr. Hui Ding) is a high schooler with a love of wildlife and, more specifically, birds. She loves to capture the fleeting but awe-inspiring moments in the lives of local avifauna through photography. She hopes her work will inspire others to appreciate and protect the wildlife around us today. You can see more of her work at her website.


C, 2022, vector image by Dr. Evan Hurlow. An abstracted line-angle structure of a cytidine nucleotide and the first in a series of designs featuring small molecules.

Dr. Evan Hurlow grew up in Salt Lake City and was a graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Patrick Harran. He has been working with vector-based design since high school. His other projects include design and production of graphic t-shirts under the label “ORANG”. Evan received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2022 and is now a Research Scientist, Process Chemistry, at Snapdragon Chemistry, Inc.


#85 Silkscreen, by Dr. Cooper Jamieson.

Dr. Cooper Jamieson was a graduate student working jointly in the laboratories of Professors Ken Houk and Yi Tang. Cooper received his Ph.D. in 2021 and was a postdoc at UCLA before joining Frances Arnold’s group as an NIH postdoc at Caltech in 2022. Cooper majored in art and chemistry at Lewis and Clark College and worked as an artist’s assistant at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, before his graduate work at UCLA. This silkscreened print was a gift to Tang and is on loan to the Winstein Commons.


Cell Bursts, 2018, by Emily Mobley are acrylic pour paintings on canvas. Taking advantage of the randomness of the creative process, an artist never really knows what they’re going to get from pour painting. This piece highlights the extremities between using positive and negative space. Cells begin bursting through the waves of color upon heating the canvases with a torch.

Emily Mobley is UCLA Chemistry Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Professor Ellen Sletten. She found her passion for the creative process as a student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. During this time, the acro yoga group which she was a member of would host “art parties” where each guest would make a piece of art for random exchange with another guest’s artwork – this is where she first began experimenting with art and painting, and she’s been hooked ever since. Her favorite mediums now are acrylics and watercolor, which she enjoys playing with in her free time to unwind.


Point Dume State Beach, Malibu, 2016, photograph by Dr. Ta-Chung Ong.

Dr. Ta-Chung “TC” Ong works at the Molecular Instrumentation Center at UCLA Chemistry. He picked up photography while a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his works were shown in solo and group exhibits. This image was taken one month after TC moved to LA.


Sunflower, by Professor Yves Rubin. Photograph. This is a photo of one of the sunflowers given by Dean Judith Smith to all the attendees at the Christopher Foote Memorial Symposium Banquet. It symbolizes the beauty and richness but also temporality of life. Professor Christopher Foote was a faculty member at UCLA and a world-renowned physical organic chemist.

Professor Yves Rubin is a UCLA Ph.D. and Professor of Chemistry in the department. He practices photography in his free time.


The ‘Cry’ing Heart, an electron micrograph by Natalie Schibrowsky.

Natalie Schibrowsky is a Las Vegas native and graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Jose Rodriguez. She captured this EM image of Cry11Bs crystalline inclusion slowly eroding into monomers and multimers. These floating particles are carried away by the alkaline pH solution from the only home they have ever known to their next stage in life. While parting is such (bitter)sweet sorrow; every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.


Savers Houses, 2019, digital paintings by Dominick Witkowski. Savers Houses is a vector art piece comprised of two digital paintings. One house is a recreation of a design from a t-shirt that was found in a Savers thrift store in Marlborough, MA, and the other house is Dominick’s childhood home rendered in the same style.

Dominick Witkowski was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and grew up in Northborough, Massachusetts. He is an organic chemistry graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Neil Garg.


View of David, 2021, by Laura Wolinowicz, shows a viewer’s perspective of Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece, David. The sketch is a study of the impeccable facial proportions delivered by Michelangelo.

Portrait of a Lady, 2013, by Laura Wonilowicz, shows a young woman gazing intently at the viewer. Her beauty is overshadowed only by her strength.

Laura Wonilowicz is a graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Neil Garg at UCLA. A lifelong passion for art helped draw her to organic chemistry. Laura sees art and organic chemistry as two sides of the same coin, each requiring visualization and creativity while serving unique purposes.


About the Winstein Commons

Professor Saul Winstein

The Commons is named for Saul and Sylvia Winstein. Professor Saul Winstein, one of the greatest organic chemists of his time, contributed mightily to the quality of chemistry in our department. In the 53 years since his death in 1969, his family, especially Sylvia, gave their time and money to make our department a more powerful research institution and a friendly and supportive place as well. The Winstein Commons is a lasting tribute to Winstein’s legacy and a symbol of our gratitude to the Winstein family. The Commons name reflects the uniqueness of the combination of science, art, conversation, and collegiality experienced in this room.

The Saul and Sylvia Winstein Commons, located in Young Hall 3037, opened on March 23, 2004. The renovation of the room was made possible by a substantial seed grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and a contribution by Dr. Madeleine Jacobs, then Editor of Chemical and Engineering News and later Executive Director of the American Chemical Society. The Commons is intended to contribute to the congeniality of the department felt by Dr. Jacobs on her visit to us in 2003 and particularly to recognize the significant progress that our department has made toward providing an environment in which women faculty have flourished. Former Winstein group members and colleagues have donated to the Commons, and funds from the Winstein Chair have also been made available to supplement donor funds.