2022 UCLA Chancellor’s Awards for Postdoctoral Research

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Postdoctoral Scholars Xiangyang Chen (Houk group) and Yao He (Feigon group) receive the 2022 UCLA Chancellor’s $7,500 Awards for Postdoctoral Research in recognition of their research, its impact, and as a valued member of UCLA’s academic community.

The award honors UCLA’s postdoctoral scholars for their important contributions to the university’s interrelated missions of research, teaching, and public service at UCLA.  Chen and He were recognized at the 2022 UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Scholars Award Ceremony on November 9, 2022.


Recipients of the 2022 Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research at the November 9, 2022 ceremony.


(Left) Dr. Xiangyang Chen with Prof. Roger M. Wakimoto, Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities, and Prof. Susan L. Ettner Dean, Graduate Education. (Right) Chen accepting her award.

Dr. Xiangyang Chen received the Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research for her work exploring the “black box” on the important fields of organocatalysis and organometallics by employing quantum mechanics. More specifically, her research is focused on studying the catalytic mechanisms to establish the computational methods and discover the factors controlling selectivity and reactivity. Chen received her B.Sc. in Applied Chemistry (2011) from Shandong Normal University, M.Sc. (2014) in Physical Chemistry from Capital Normal University, and her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (2017) from Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), China. At the end of 2017, she came to UCLA and started her postdoctoral research with Professor Kendall N. Houk.


(Left) Dr. Yao He with Prof. Roger M. Wakimoto, Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities, and Prof. Susan L. Ettner Dean, Graduate Education. (Right) He accepting his award.

Dr. Yao He received the Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research for his work investigating the structural basis for assembly, recruitment and function of telomerase, which maintains genomic integrity of linear chromosomes and plays an important role in the regulation of aging, tumorigenesis, and stem cell renewal. He received his B.S. in life science from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2011. After receiving his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from USTC in 2017, he started his postdoctoral research with Professor Juli Feigon (Chemistry & Biochemistry) and Professor Z. Hong Zhou (Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics) at UCLA. In 2021, He received the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department’s Postdoctoral Research Award and the Molecular Biology Institute’s Boyer/Parvin Postdoctoral Award. In 2022, He received the Sydney Finegold Postdoctoral Award.

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