Each year at commencement we recognize our graduate students for their accomplishments in academics and in research.

The 2022 Chemistry & Biochemistry Graduate Commencement Awards were presented to our students at the department’s annual commencement ceremony. Congratulations to all the recipients!

We are incredibly grateful to our donors whose generous gifts make these awards possible!

DAFNI AMIRSAKIS MEMORIAL DISSERTATION AWARD
Established in 2016 to honor UCLA alumna and staff member Dr. Dafni Amirsakis, this award is given to a graduate student who goes above and beyond all expectations in their research, teaching, and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students, and who has many of the wonderful characteristics that Dafni had, including kindness, generosity, determination, joyfulness, sweetness, and good humor.

Cheylene Tanimoto (Gelbart group)

DANIEL E. ATKINSON AND CHARLES A. WEST DISSERTATION AWARD
This award honors Professors Daniel Atkinson and Charles West, the two UCLA chemistry faculty who were largely responsible for the development of biochemistry within the department. They were both exceptionally valued by their faculty colleagues, the students in their laboratories, by the national and international research communities, and by the multitude of undergraduates they taught. This award honors the significant contributions of both men to research, education, and the strength of the UCLA academic community.

Janine Fu (Loo group) and Orlando Martinez (Clubb group)

DONALD J. CRAM DISSERTATION AWARD
This award honors Professor Donald J. Cram (1919-2001), the Nobel Prize-winning chemist who taught and conducted research at UCLA for more than 50 years.

Rachel Knapp (Garg group)

M. FREDERICK HAWTHORNE INORGANIC CHEMISTRY DISSERTATION AWARD
This award is made possible by a generous gift from boron research pioneer UCLA Professor Emeritus M. Frederick Hawthorne and his wife, Diana Hawthorne.

Kierstyn Anderson (Spokoyny group)

MAJETI-ALAPATI DISSERTATION AWARD
Dr. Satyan (Sat) Majeti (PhD ’69) and Dr. Vimala Majeti (Ph.D. ’71) were graduate students in the late Professor Christopher Foote’s group. In 2001 they established the “Majeti-Alapati Endowed Graduate Fellowship” along with matching funds from Proctor & Gamble to support our graduate program, in particular by granting Fellowships to deserving graduate students.

Salvador Bernardino (Harran group) and Lee Joon Kim (Nelson group)

JAMES D. MCCULLOUGH DISSERTATION AWARD
The James D. McCullough Prize Fund was established from the estate of James D. McCullough in 1986.

Shanlin Hu (Tolbert/Kaner groups)

THE PFIZER-UCLA DISSERTATION AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO ORGANIC SYNTHESIS
This award was made possible by a generous gift from Pfizer, Inc.

Jason Chari (Garg group) and Anton El Khoury (Harran group)

ROBERTS A. SMITH DISSERTATION AWARD
In 2009, the Roberts A. Smith Graduate Award for the Study of Biochemistry was established with a generous endowment from funds contributed by Atsuko Fujimoto (PhD ’63, MD ’69) and her husband, Akira Fujimoto, and by Emeritus Professor Smith.

Joseph Ong (Torres/Quinlan groups)

SAUL AND SYLVIA WINSTEIN DISSERTATION AWARD
This award honors Professor Saul Winstein (1912-1969), who was one of the leading physical organic chemists of the 1950s and ‘60s, employing the tools of physical chemistry to explore reactions in solution, and his wife, Sylvia Winstein, also a UCLA alumna, was a long-time supporter of the department until she passed away in 2009.

Evan Hurlow (Harran group), Francesca Ippoliti (Garg group), and Irene Lim (Sletten group)

UCLA CHEMISTRY DISSERTATION AWARD, SPONSORED BY THE SG FELLOWSHIP
The SG Fellowship in Chemistry fund was established in 1991 to support graduate students in the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.

Christopher Sue (Clubb group)

UCLA CHEMISTS ASSOCIATION DISSERTATION AWARD
This award was made possible by the gifts from alumni and donors to the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.

Carter Lantz (Loo group)

THE UPJOHN GRADUATE DISSERTATON AWARD
This gift was established in 1988 to support graduate student awards in the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.

Jennifer Ngo (Shirihai group)

Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.