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Student Awards, Fellowships and Spotlights


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2024 Undergraduate Student Award Recipients

 

ACSSA Research Poster Awards

  • Sinead Cahill: Biochemistry
  • Yaya Zou: Biochemistry
  • Sandhya Bhaskaran: Organic Chemistry
  • Sophia Hsu: Inorganic Chemistry
  • Tessa Tafuri: Physical/Analytical Chemistry

Mayer Award- Faculty Nominated

  • Aakash Davasam
  • Ruixuan Wen
  • Vicky Chen
  • Zachary Neuschuler

Kamen Award- Faculty Nominated

  • David Han

Urey Award- Merit Based

  • Bochu Wang
  • Han Chi
  • Josef Dante Daniels
  • Shihong Luo
  • Yige Wu

Undergraduate Inclusive Excellence Awards

  • Huishan (Natalie) Chen: Roger Tsein Undergraduate Excellence Award
  • Aakash Davasam: Marjorie Caserio Undergraduate Excellence Award
  • Yaya Zou: Marye Anne Fox Undergraduate Excellence Award
  • Allison Sou: Mario Molina Undergraduate Excellence Award
  • Chloe Rosenbaum: Katja Lindenberg Undergraduate Excellence Award
  • Kyra Wu: Joe Watson Undergraduate Excellent Award

Charles L. Perrin Summer Research Fellowship

  • Deborah Lee
  • Thomas Frisch

Chemistry & Biochemistry Summer Student Fellowship

  • Yaya Zou
  • Yuran Choi

ACS Undergraduate Awards

  • TBA

Undergraduate Student Award Descriptions

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Charles L. Perrin Summer Fellowship

The Charles L. Perrin Summer Merit-Based Fellowship for Undergraduate Chemistry Research at UC San Diego!

This fellowship is designed to recognize students who show promise as future scientists through their engagement in undergraduate chemistry research. It provides support for continuing research during the summer of 2024 under the guidance of a Chemistry professor. The fellowship offers flexibility in time commitment based on mutual agreement with the faculty mentor. We're offering a maximum of 2 fellowships, with priority given to those pursuing Organic Chemistry research.

Eligibility:

  • Registered UCSD Undergraduate student majoring in one of the following: CH25, CH31, CH34, CH35, CH36, CH38
  • Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher
  • Completion of at least one quarter of CHEM 199 with a PI in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. (Students enrolled in their first 199 this Spring will be considered but not prioritized for this fellowship.)
  • Ability to conduct research on campus during Summer 2024

Requirements:

  • Cover Letter
  • Resume/CV
  • Letter of recommendation from your research mentor (to be emailed to chemadvising@ucsd.edu)
  • One-paragraph description of your proposed summer research project
  • Online Application

Award:

  • $1,000 to support the continuation of your research in Summer 2024

Undergraduate Inclusive Excellence Awards

The Undergraduate Inclusive Excellence Awards

These 6 awards honor our esteemed emeritus faculty: Marjorie Caserio, Marye Anne Fox, Katja Lindenberg, Mario Molina, Roger Tsien, and Joe Watson.

These awards celebrate undergraduate students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievements and a commitment to advancing the professional community through community involvement, leadership, overcoming adversity, and/or research accomplishments. We will grant a maximum of 5 awards.

Eligibility:

  • Registered UCSD Undergraduate student majoring in one of the following: CH25, CH31, CH34, CH35, CH36, CH38
  • Cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher
  • Experience in community/service, leadership, overcoming adversity, research, or other impactful areas

Requirements:

  • Brief statement (maximum 500 words) highlighting your involvement in or experience with one or more of the areas mentioned above
  • Endorser: Provide the name and email of one person (e.g., faculty member or supervisor) who can validate the contents of your personal statement
  • Online Application

Award:

  • $200 credited to your student account

 

Chemistry/Biochemistry Summer Research Fellowship

Fellowship for Undergraduate Chemistry or Biochemistry Research

This fellowship aims to recognize students demonstrating potential as future scientists through their involvement in undergraduate chemistry or biochemistry research at UCSD. It offers support for the continuation of their research during the summer under the mentorship of a UCSD professor.

Eligibility:

  • Registered UCSD Undergraduate student majoring in one of the following: CH25, CH31, CH34, CH35, CH36, CH38
  • Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher
  • Completion of at least one quarter of CHEM 199 with a PI in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Students enrolled in their first 199 this Spring may also be considered.
  • Ability to conduct research on campus in Summer 2024

Requirements:

  • Cover Letter
  • Resume/CV
  • Letter of recommendation from your research mentor (to be emailed to chemadvising@ucsd.edu)
  • One paragraph describing your proposed summer research project
  • Online Application

Award:

  • $1,000 to support the continuation of your research in Summer

AIC (The American Institute of Chemists)

The American Institute of Chemistsm(AIC)

The AIC is excited to announce its annual Student Awards program, which includes honoring an outstanding senior student from the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry! You are warmly invited to either self-nominate or nominate a deserving peer.

Eligibility:

  • Registered UCSD Undergraduate student majoring in one of the following: CH25, CH31, CH34, CH35, CH36, CH38
  • Cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher
  • Graduating Senior (Fall '23, Winter '24, or on track to graduate in Spring or Summer '24)
  • Demonstrated record of leadership ability, character, scholastic achievement, and advancement potential in the chemical professions

Requirements:

  • Personal Statement discussing your specific leadership experience, scholastic achievements, and career goals.
  • Resume/CV
  • Online Application

Award:

  • A certificate suitable for framing
  • A Student Affiliate membership in the AIC (complimentary membership valid through December 31, 2025)
  • Access to The Chemist, the AIC online peer-reviewed journal
  • Listing on the AIC website
  • Access to the AIC website
  • Opportunity to enroll in the certification program for chemical scientists and engineers
  • Participation in national meetings
  • Networking opportunities with other chemical professionals

For further details about this esteemed organization, please visit: www.TheAIC.org.

Royal Society of Chemistry Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence

The Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence from the Royal Society of Chemistry

This prestigious award recognizes outstanding achievement in the chemical sciences among university students in North America. Recipients are chosen by their departments based on exceptional dedication, performance, and engagement in coursework and research.

Nomination Criteria:

We are looking to nominate students who:

  • Are within the top 5% of their class in subject-specific and overall coursework (YOU!)
  • Participate and excel in undergraduate research projects (YOU!)
  • Have taken on leadership roles in their department and community
  • Persevered in their program despite facing significant challenges

Award Details:

2 of our most outstanding students awarded will receive:

  • Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence from the Royal Society of Chemistry
  • Recognition on the RSC website
  • The top awardee will receive either One RSC Affiliate Membership or one copy of The Merck Index (15th edition).

Selection Process:

Students for this award are invited by the department based on their exceptional achievements. If you have been invited, you will be notified directly by the department with directions on how to apply. 

Past Recipients

Past Awards

ACSSA Research Poster Awards

  • 2023: Aakash Davasam, Khoa Tran, Yale Huang, Josef Daniels, Siena Schumaker
  • 2022: Ethan Ashley, Elanor Sievers, Reagan Beers, Dylan Snelson, Karen Lopo Zepeda
  • 2021: Christopher Nowak, Nicole Nolan, Minh Le, Elanor Sievers, Amalia Villagran-Suarez
  • 2020: Jori Mills, Kendrick Nguyen, Ningkai Zheng, Kien Malarney, Reece James, Gordon Peiker
  • 2019: Riddhi Ananth, David Callahan, Andrea Gonzalez, Aurora Guild, Christine Lee, Debbie Zhuang
  • 2018: Jacob Hawver Pachter, Gavin Heim, Qin Li, Laura Williamson
  • 2015 (Oral): Ryan Davis, Christina Jayson, Eric Kircher, Phuc Nguyen, Michael Shenk
  • 2015 (Poster): Jennifer Bowen, Christopher Coyle, Samantha Freitag, Cassandra Gilmour, Kelsey Krug, Beatriz Lopez-Bermudez, Megan Murphy, Sean Najjar, Wiberth Narvaez, Jennifer Ngo

Kamen Award 

  • 2023: Jillian Hirano, Dina Chehada
  • 2022: Jiwoo Kim, Shane Douty
  • 2021: Tommy Le
  • 2020: Leah Grayson, Kailash Venkatraman
  • 2019: Yueyi Chen, Nicholas Tu
  • 2018: Yook May Amelia Woo, Tian May Zeng, Dylan Power
  • 2017: Kyle Balucana, Yoyo Wang

Mayer Award

  • 2023: Hei Yu Annika So, Alexander Pantelis Parmele, Molly Cohn, Sophia Madamba, Yuting Shen
  • 2022: Gordon Peiker, Christopher Nowak, Hans Ng, Marc Zepeda, Elanor Sievers
  • 2021: Calvin Huang, Amalia Villagran-Suarez
  • 2020: Duyen Dang, Heidi Busse, Kun Yong Jeoung, Tongshan Liu, Seth Vigneron, Megan Young, Laura Williamson, Riddhi Ananth
  • 2019: Haotian Chen, Andrew Mitchell, Richard Niederecker, Yifan Wu
  • 2018: Dylan Power
  • 2017: Alexandre Vincent, Clark Wang, Jessie Davis, Luke Kisaichi, Tiffany Chen
  • 2016: Kelsey Ann Krug, David Stephen Robert, Hao Zheng
  • 2014: Kuei-Lin Chang, Kevin Pham
  • 2013: Saajan Bhakta, Jake Boissonnault
  • 2012: Patrick Smith
  • 2011: Nathan Hendricks

Urey Award

  • 2023: Emma Deters, Zoey Litt, Jiayang Zhou, Flora Wong, Aidan Cleeves Tice-Raskin
  • 2022: Thảo Bùi, Thi Xuan Nguyen, Oliver Sun, Lu Yue Wang, Eric Lu
  • 2021: Serena Huang, Julie Thanh Huynh, Nhuan Duc Vu, Ella Lee, Xuanhe Jiang, Adrian Jordi De Almenara, Helen Than, Sara Rew, Siavash Moghadami
  • 2020: Andrew Mitchell, Cornelius Smith, Sarah Schwab, Teffanie Yu Ling Goh, Roghiye Kazimi, Ryan Helsel
  • 2019: Melinda Chan, Peter Glatt
  • 2018: Nicholas Checchia, Andrew Dang, Xiangyi Ke, Sijing Meng
  • 2017: Ashley Hua Yee Chong
  • 2016: Joshua Lee Cox, Connor Masao, Nam Thanh Trinh, Shane Christopher Williams
  • 2014: Russell Lewis, Cydnee Ng, Dennis Tran, Krystine Vuong
  • 2013: Pei-Ling Wu, Jung Hoon Park, Shiteng Duan, Alexander Ying Kit, Kevin Bao
  • 2012: Kayla Nicole Busby, Stephan Sheung-Ming Leung
  • 2011: Brittany Michel, Sihui Ma, Julia Stauber

Perrin Summer Fellowship Award

  • 2023:  Kunhao (Simon) Zhang, Phoebe Murayama
  • 2022: Tyler Lam, Khoa Tran
  • 2021: Minh Le, Andrew Villanueva
  • 2020: Tiffany Hamilton, Kien Malarney
  • 2019: Mingzhi Xu, Shenghua Yang
  • 2018: Kaleb Barber, Yifan Wu
  • 2016: Maher Alhaja, David Stephen Roberts

Chemistry and Biochemistry Summer Fellowship

  • 2023: Vicente Galicia. Jessica Nino
  • 2022: Natacha Oget, Katherine O'Shea

Silagi Award

  • 2022: Francis Alipranti
  • 2020: Sarah Schwab

Physical Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence

  • 2023: Hao Wei, Manasi Movva, Zachary Auvil, Annika So, Cynthia Rong, Vicente Galicia, Jillian Hirano, Yuting Shen, Clarisa Bautista, Daniel Liu, Aman Shihora, Maxwell Varley, Khoa Tran, Madeline Brown 
  • 2022: Francis Alipranti, Reagan Beers, Mark Glossbrenner, Grace Lee, Olivia Modi, Christopher Nowak, Gordon Peiker, Jessica Raygoza, Elanor Sievers
  • 2021: Alberto Castanedo, Andres De la Rosa, Calvin Huang, Tommy Le, Alina Luk, Jori Mills, Anthony Rodriguez, Sarah Schwab, Oliver Sun, Vanessa Tian, Nga (Swan) Van, Amalia Villagran-Suarez
  • 2020: Duyen Dang, Joseph Hunter, Courtney Jang, Emily Lara, Kristine Luong, Kailash Venkatraman, Dalida Warda, Laura Williamson, Shenghua Yang, Riddhi Ananth, Megan Young

Undergraduate Inclusive Excellence Awards

  • 2022: Molly Cohn, Sophie Nguyen, Minh Le, Katherine Tang, Annika So, Arshan Ommid

ACS Awards

  • 2022: Oliver Sun, Shane Douty