UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Many thanks to alum Dr. AJ Addae, founder of SULA LABS, Global Head of R&D @Unilever & Adjunct Prof. @NSUFlorida and a 2026 Ph.D. graduate from the Caram and @PSWnano groups, for speaking to our Careers in Chemistry & Biochemistry class! @uclacollege.bsky.social

Profs. Steve and Cathy Clarke at the chemistry building of Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Western Australia. Steve is pointing to element 106, seaborgium, on the building’s periodic table. The element is named for UCLA alumnus and Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg!

Congrats to Prof. Soumitra Athavale, named a 2026 Packard Fellow! Supported by the @packardfdn.bsky.social, he joins a community of #PackardFellows whose discoveries are transforming how we understand and improve the world. Learn more: packard.org/2026fellows

Many thanks to alum Dr. Rachel Ehrlich '18, a scientist at AMVAC Chemical Corp., for returning to UCLA to speak to our Careers in Chemistry & Biochemistry class! Pictured here with her former undergraduate research advisor, Prof. Ellen Sletten.

📣 Great article by Prof. Neil Garg! Link: cen.acs.org/education/ou...

Join us at 4 pm today in YH4222 for Prof. Chad A. Mirkin's Distinguished Lecture! "Repurposing the Blueprint for Life through Spherical Nucleic Acids and Colloidal Crystal Engineering with DNA" @iinanonu.bsky.social

📣Great article by Prof. Neil Garg! @uclacollege.bsky.social

Congratulations to Thalia Georgiou of the Bouchard group on receiving the MBI Jules Brenner Scholars Achievement Award! Congratulations on this outstanding achievement and well-deserved recognition! Link: chemistry.ucla.edu/news/ucla-ch...

Congratulations to Aadhishre Kasat of the @shafaatlab.bsky.social on receiving the MBI John-Eiserling-Lengyel Teaching Excellence Award! Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition and achievement in teaching excellence! Link: chemistry.ucla.edu/news/ucla-ch...

Congratulations to Peter DePaola of the @schmittwitt.bsky.social group on receiving the MBI John-Eiserling-Lengyel Teaching Excellence Award! Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition and achievement in teaching excellence! Link: chemistry.ucla.edu/news/ucla-ch...

Congratulations to Katerina Varsamis of the Tinoco Valencia group on receiving the MBI Outstanding Poster Presentation Award! Her research was selected from among 50 posters presented at the retreat! Link: chemistry.ucla.edu/news/ucla-ch...

Congratulations to Professor David Eisenberg on receiving the MBIDP First-Year Curriculum Instructor Award! Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition! Link: www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/ucla-ch...

Join CNSI Education, along with @ucla.edu graduate student volunteers, will be participating in a day of big-scale fun with nano-scale science for #NationalNanoDay on 10/9 (in honor of the nanometer scale of 10⁻⁹)! Refer to the flyer below for more info.

🔓Be sure to read this #OpenAccess paper by Zihuan Fu & Heather D. Maynard @uclacb.bsky.social in our latest issue describing how alternating iterative exponential growth oligomers serve as a platform for hydrophilic antibody–drug conjugates #medchem #orgchem Find it in full👇 doi.org/10.1039/d6ob...

We are seeking outstanding candidates for Asst. Adj. Prof. / Teacher-Scholar positions! This program provides teaching & research opportunities for recent Ph.D. grads (Ph.D. earned 2022-27). Apply here by Dec 1: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11373 @chemjobber.bsky.social

Distinguished Prof. Neil Garg is bringing Organic Chemistry to @LecturesOnTap in Manhattan on Oct. 13! A full-circle moment for Garg, a New York native and @NYU alumnus. Tickets & info: lecturesontap.com/nyc

Tonight, from 5-7 pm, Prof. Giulia Palermo will chair the “Integrating Data Generation and Computational Approaches” session in the Elevation Ballroom at the “Integrative Structural Biology: Bridging Fields, Techniques, and Scales” Keystone Symposium!

Today! Prof. Giulia Palermo will give a keynote address at 8:10 am in the Elevation Ballroom at the “Integrative Structural Biology: Bridging Fields, Techniques, and Scales” Keystone Symposium!

Tomorrow! Prof. Giulia Palermo will give a keynote address at 8:10 a.m. at the “Integrative Structural Biology: Bridging Fields, Techniques, and Scales” Keystone Symposium. Join her in the Elevation Ballroom!

Our newest faculty member, Prof. Giulia Palermo, is a co-organizer of the “Integrative Structural Biology: Bridging Fields, Techniques, and Scales” Keystone Symposium, taking place Sept. 28–Oct. 1! Learn more: www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/conference-listing/meeting/onpage-program/F12027

Distinguished Professor Michael Jung has received the UC Regents Innovation Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to drug discovery, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Link: www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/michael...

Even hundred-year-old chemistry rules can be broken! Learn about the work Neil Garg (UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) on anti Bredt olefins in the Dreyfus Foundation-supported Chemistry Shorts film "Changing Key and Chemistry!" https://youtu.be/XhxaNUF6lWk

Soumitra Athavale, an Assistant Professor at UCLA and one of C&EN's 2026 Talented Twelve, is engineering iron-containing enzymes to do chemistry they’ve never done before. cen.acs.org/synthesis/bi... #chemsky 🧪

Great interview with UCLA alum Prof. Melissa Ramirez (Ph.D. '21, Garg and Houk groups)!

Save the Date! Monday, 10/12 @ 4 pm in YH4222. Please join us for the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Fall 2026 Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Chad A. Mirkin "Repurposing the Blueprint for Life through Spherical Nucleic Acids and Colloidal Crystal Engineering with DNA".

We’re proud to celebrate UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry alumnus Irving Porush ’39, who was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his role in inventing the pressurized metered dose inhaler. ucla.in/4ikx70n

New! We are excited to share our latest UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Magazine. This issue celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of our community. Check it out here: bit.ly/UCLAChemBioc...

🥳 Congrats to Dr. Maher El-Kady on his induction into the National Academy of Inventors! His pioneering work in graphene and energy storage is helping shape the future of sustainable energy. Learn more: www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/researc...

Congrats to Prof. Hannah Shafaat (@shafaatlab.bsky.social) on being named the recipient of the 2026 Early Career Award from the Society for Biological Inorganic Chemistry! Read more: www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/hannah-...

Congrats to Prof. Osvaldo Gutierrez on his selection as a recipient of the prestigious 2027 ACS Arthur C. Cope Mid-Career Scholar Award, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of organic chemistry! Learn more: bit.ly/4wZVkNa

📣 IGNITE Mentorship Program Mentor Applications are due TODAY, September 1! Interested in becoming an IGNITE mentor? Support early Chemistry & Biochemistry doctoral students through peer-to-peer mentorship. Scan the QR code to learn more and apply!

🥳Congrats to our Undergraduate Summer Research Poster Session winners! 🎉🔬 Luna Liang, Skylar Whitley, Miguel Villegas Sanchez & Virginie Maurandy, with Sophie Andrews receiving an honorable mention. The inaugural session featured 30 research posters! bit.ly/4gq6S7q

🎉 Exciting news! Prof. Abigail Doyle and collaborators have received a $19.5M NSF award to establish a nationally accessible, fully automated chemistry lab. www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/abigail-doyle-and-collaborators-awarded-19-5-million-to-establish-an-open-access-autonomous-chemistry-laboratory/

🥳Congrats to Prof. Danielle Schmitt, one of 12 researchers selected for a Parkinson’s Foundation Impact Award! @schmittwitt.bsky.social Read more here: www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/danielle-schmitt-receives-impact-award-from-the-parkinsons-foundation/

🎉 Exciting news from Prof. Abigail Doyle's group and collaborators!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kevin Chalek has joined the department as a Research & Development Engineer in the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Division of the UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC)! mic.chem.ucla.edu

In memoriam: Charles A. West (1927–2026), @uclacb.bsky.social West was recognized internationally for his expertise in the biosynthesis of plant terpenoids and growth hormones and was a longtime member of the ASBMB community. Read more:

Thursday at #ACSFall2026: 5 of 5 Giulia Palermo presents “Interpretable deep learning and causal inference decipher mechanisms of RNA-guided transposition." @giuliapalermo.bsky.social

Thursday at #ACSFall2026: 4 of 5 Chinmai Pindi (Postdoctoral Scholar – @giuliapalermo.bsky.social group) presents “Hidden mechanisms of TnsC filament assembly in CRISPR-associated transposons revealed by deep learning and molecular simulations.”

Thursday at #ACSFall2026: 3 of 5 Giulia Palermo presents “From mechanism to design: Deep learning-driven engineering of adenine base editors.” @giuliapalermo.bsky.social

Thursday at #ACSFall2026: 2 of 5 Philippe Sautet presents “Towards an accurate modeling of heterogeneous catalysis.”

Thursday at #ACSFall2026: 1 of 5 Chinmai Pindi (Postdoctoral Scholar – @giuliapalermo.bsky.social group) presents “Design rules for expanding PAM compatibility in CRISPR-Cas9 from molecular mechanics and causation inference.”

Wednesday at #ACSFall2026: 3 of 3 Anastassia Alexandrova presents “Strongly heterogeneous and dynamic intra-protein electric fields as drivers of enzymatic catalysis.”

Wednesday at #ACSFall2026: 2 of 3 Caitlyn Fick (Graduate student – Srivastava group) presents a poster “Stabilization of complex coacervate emulsions by comb polyelectrolytes and their applications as enzymatic reactors.”

Wednesday at #ACSFall2026: 1 of 3 Timothy Deming presents “Active control of peptide assembly using coacervate forming polypeptides.”

Tuesday at #ACSFall2026: 7 of 7 Jing-Ran Shan (Graduate student – Garcia-Garibay & Houk groups) presents a poster “Free Molecular Rotors in Crystalline Porous Materials: Terahertz Rotation, Inertial Behavior, and Langevin Dynamics.”

Tuesday at #ACSFall2026: 6 of 7 Hang Chi (Calvin) Ho (Graduate student – Doyle group) – Oral Presentation: “DiploPhos: A hemilabile bisphosphine for sterically hindered Ni-catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura couplings.”

Tuesday at #ACSFall2026: 5 of 7 Paris Dee (Graduate student – Doyle group) presents “Cross-electrophile coupling of aziridine-2-carboxylates and (Hetero)aryl halides toward ß2-amino acid synthesis.”