NSF CCI: Center for Integrated Catalysis!

We are proud to be part of the newly sponsored CCI Phase I: NSF Center for Integrated Catalysis (CIC)! This center is led by our colleague Prof. Paula Diaconescu of UCLA and joined with Prof. Jeffery Byers and Prof. Dunwei Wang of Boston College, Prof. Loi Do of the University of Houston, and Prof. Alexander Miller of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Guess what we can do when you put organometallic chemistry and material sciences together.

The NSF Center for Integrated Catalysis is supported by the Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) program of the NSF Division of Chemistry.  With a 3-year 1.8 M support, we aim to develop the fundamental chemistry needed to prepare synthetic plastics from pools of abundant feedstocks in a single reactor using spatially separated and temporally switchable catalysts. Looking forward to the exciting synergy that we have for chemical catalysis!

The press release at UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry is here.

A website for our center is incoming~ Stay tuned.

Coco Wu and Luke Elissiry receive the Undergraduate Departmental Awards!

Our undergraduate Coco Wu and Luke Elissiry have been selected to receive the Susan Elizabeth Baumgarten Chemistry Endowed Student Award, in honor of their success in research and academic pursuits.

The award comes with a $500 prize for each recipient and the awardees will be properly honored at the time of the 2020 Departmental Awards Ceremony in the future. Congratulations to Coco and Luke!

Roselyn Rodrigues receives the Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF)!

Graduate student Roselyn Rodrigues is one of the 18 Chemistry & Biochemistry graduate students who receive the 2020-2021 UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship. Congratulations!

The fellowship is intended to support doctoral students who are within one year of completing and filing their dissertation. It includes a $20,000 stipend plus standard tuition and fees (excluding nonresident tuition). Each year, approximately 200 Dissertation Year Fellowships (DYF) are awarded to UCLA graduate students who are nominated for the fellowship by their department.

Roselyn Rodrigues receives the Excellence in Research Award

Graduate student Roselyn Rodrigues receives the Dafni Amirsakis Memorial Excellence in Research Award, in recognition of her research excellence and productivity! Congratulations!

The awards are normally presented to students at the department’s annual awards ceremony and at Commencement, both of which have been postponed until later in the 2020-21 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The department will be honoring our graduating students through virtual celebrations in June.

Jesus Iñiguez receives the departmental teaching award!

Graduate student Jesus Iñiguez receives Michael E. Jung Excellence in Teaching Awards, in a recognization of his excellence as teaching assistants (TAs) as reflected in undergraduate student evaluations and faculty nomination letters. Congratulations!

The awards are normally presented to students at the department’s annual awards ceremony and at Commencement, both of which have been postponed until later in the 2020-21 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The department will be honoring our graduating students through virtual celebrations in June.

Brianna Mai receives the undergraduate summer research fellowship!

Undergraduate Brianna Mai received the Raymond and Dorothy Wilson Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the department! Congratulations! We are looking forward to the exciting (remote) summer research experience! 😉

These awards were to have been presented at the department’s annual awards ceremony which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The department is planning to hold the ceremony later in the 2020-21 academic year.