Congratulations to Ben Hoar and Danlei Xiang for receiving their Ph.D. in Chemistry, pending the formal approval of their PhD thesis. It has been Chong’s great honor to spend five years with them! Best wishes to their future career!
Category Archives: Group members
Jingyu Wang and Brandon Jolly receive the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship!
Graduate students Jingyu Wang and Brandon Jolly receives the 2023-2024 UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF). Such financial support doctoral students who are within one year of completing and filling their dissertations. Congratulations!
Xun’s Nature Catalysis work gets highlighted
The work of Xun Guan, recently published at Nature Catalysis, is highlighted in the News & Views session of Nature Catalysis. Congrats to Xun! And we are grateful for the support and appreciation from the community!
Below is the figure from the News & Views of Nature Catalysis.

Three more PhDs and one more M.A.! Congrats!
Congratulations to Ben Natinsky, Jesus Iñiguez, and Xun Guan for receiving their Ph.D. in Chemistry! It has been Chong’s great pleasure to spend five years with them! Also, congratulations to Brianna Mai as a departmental scholar for receiving her M.A. in Chemistry! Good job and well deserved!

Danlei Xiang receives the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship!
Our graduate student Danlei Xiang receives the 2022-2023 UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF), among other chemistry & biochemistry graduate student researchers in the department. With a $20,000 stipend plus standard tuition and fees, the DYF is intended to support doctoral students who are within one year of completing and filing their dissertations. Congratulations, Danlei!
Zach Schuman receives the NSF GRFP Honorable Mentions
Graduate student Zach Schuman receives the 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships (GRFP) Honorable Mentions, a significant national academic achievement. Congrats!
The news report at the department of UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry also highlights and recorgnizes Zach’s achievement. Great!
Ben Natinsky receives the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship!
Graduate student Benjamin Natinsky receives the 2021-2022 UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF), among the 13 chemistry & biochemistry graduate student researchers in the department. With a $20,000 stipend plus standard tuition and fees, the DYF is intended to support doctoral students who are within one year of completing and filing their dissertations. The departmental news report is here. Congratulations, Ben!
Ben Hoar receives the Second Year Research and Academic Award!
Graduate student Benjamin Hoar receives the 2021 Jim and Barbara Tsay Excellence in Second Year Research and Academics Award. This award is given to third-year graduate students who performed exceptionally in courses, teaching, and research throughout their first and second years and have advanced to candidacy. Congratulations to Ben!
Ben Natinsky received two awards!
Graduate student Ben Natinsky (OG Ben) received the departmental John Stauffer Excellence in Research Award in recognition of his research excellence and productivity, as well as the departmental Michael E. Jung Excellence in Teaching Award in recognition of Ben as excellent teaching assistants.
This summer Ben is participating in the DOE Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) Energy Storage Internship Program at National Energy Technology Laboratory. Congratulations to Ben and enjoy the internship!
First Ph.D. in the group! Congratulations, Rosie!
The first graduate student in the Liu group, Ms. Roselyn Rodrigues, received her Ph.D. in Chemistry along with our departmental Inorganic Chemistry Dissertation Award. Congratulations!
Time flies. It is hard to believe that so many years have passed. Chong keeps recalling the summer of 2017 when Rosie and Chong were opening boxes like Christmas and setting up the lab. Chong is grateful for all the works that Rosie has contributed to the group and the mentoring that she did to other junior students. Best wishes to Rosie for her future career!