UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry News and Events

January 23, 2026

Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty and alumni among
the top 25 Bruinventors of the 21st century

Inventions by six members of the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry community are featured in the Fall 2025 UCLA Magazine article “The Top 25 Bruinventions of the 21st Century (So Far).”

Organic chemists take-on more rule-breaking molecules

In 2024, Professor Neil Garg’s lab, teaming up with Professor Ken Houk, violated Bredt’s rule, a 100-year-old rule stating that molecules cannot have a carbon-carbon double bond at the “bridgehead” position (the ring junction of a bridged bicyclic molecule). Now, they’ve developed the chemistry of more cage-shaped molecules that contain unusually weak double-bonds called cubene and quadricyclene.

Researcher in the news – Maher El-Kady

Researcher Dr. Maher El-Kady (Kaner group) was recently interviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat, one of the world’s leading international Arabic newspapers, for two feature stories on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the global impact of the Nobel Prizes on scientific discovery.

Nomination Call

The UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry is seeking outstanding nominees for the department’s undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, faculty, staff, and mentoring awards. Please visit the website below for links to learn about each award and submit nominations for individuals you believe are deserving of recognition.

NOMINATION LINKS

Deadline: Monday, February 23, 2026.

Upcoming Events

Mon, Jan 26 - 3:00 pm - Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall - Young Hall 4222

Organic Chemistry Student Seminar

Ruoh Yu Chan (Prof. Stuart Conway group)

UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

"Methods for Designing Cyclic Peptides as Potential Drug Candidates"

Questions? Contact Brandon Lindo, Brandonlindo@ucla.edu

Mon, Jan 26 - 4:00 pm - Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall - Young Hall 4222

Physical Chemistry Seminar

Prof. Carissa Eisler

UCLA Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

"Controlling the Direction of Light Emission in Anisotropic Perovskite Nanoparticles using Alignment, Fusing, and Surface Interactions"

Questions? Contact Rebecca Letts, letts@g.ucla.edu.

Wed, Jan 28 - 4:00 pm - Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall - Young Hall 4222

Organic Chemistry Student Seminar

Prof. John Anderson

Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago

"New Lessons in C-H Activation Revealed by the Reactivity of Co-Oxo Complexes”

Questions? Contact Isabella Luo, isaluo196@ucla.edu.

Thurs, Jan 29 - 12:00 pm - Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall - Young Hall 4222

Student Exit Seminar

Fernando Lopez (Profs. Xiangfeng Duan and Yu Huang groups)

UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

"A Kombucha-Inspired Approach to Resource Recovery: Shewanella Oneidensis and Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Under Electrochemical Stress"

Questions? Contact Rebecca Letts, letts@g.ucla.edu.

Thurs, Jan 29 - 4:00 pm - Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall - Young Hall 4222

Houk-Jung Organic Colloquium

Prof. Mark Levin

Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago

"Replacing Atoms"

Questions? Contact Isaiah Gutierrez at isaiahgtz@ucla.edu.

Fri, Jan 30 - 3:30 pm - Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall - Young Hall 4222

Dickerson Biochemistry Seminar Series

Prof. Nicholas Guydosh

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

"How the Ribosome Regulates Gene Expression and Signaling"

Questions? Contact Kelsea Valerio, kvalerio@ucla.edu.

Recent Scholarly Works

Solution and Active Site Speciation Drive Selectivity for Electrocatalytic Reactive Carbon Capture in Diethanolamine over Ni–N–C Catalysts - J. Am. Chem. Soc. R. Dominic Ross, Yulan Han, Hui-Yun Jeong, Jenna M. Ynzunza, Robert H. Lavroff, Avishek Banerjee, Aditya Prajapati, Carlos G. Morales-Guio, Jesús M. Velázquez, Anastassia N. Alexandrova*, Christopher Hahn.

Hyperpyramidalized alkenes with bond orders near 1.5 as synthetic building blocks - Nat. Chem. Jiaming Ding, Sarah A. French, Christina A. Rivera, Arismel Tena Meza, Dominick C. Witkowski, K. N. Houk* & Neil K. Garg*. Read about the research here.

A comparative study of dual thermal- and glucose-responsive nanogel systems - Polym. J. Yang, J.; Messina, K. M. M.; Vinciguerra, D.; Puente, E. G.; Maynard,* H. D.

Notices

We are pleased to announce UCLA’s new Master of Applied Chemical Sciences (MACS) Program. MACS was created in response to the increasingly high demand for chemists from world-wide industrial partners. The program balances a strong academic grounding, hands-on advanced laboratory preparation, and independent research experience to prepare the graduates for the various dynamic fields in applied chemistry. This program will train well-rounded chemists, who are equipped with a broad level of critical skills and the necessary knowledge of applied chemistry to be highly competitive in a non-academic workforce. As part of this program, we anticipate a significant industrial recruiting effort on campus.

For more information and to apply, please visit https://macsucla.com/

We are now reviewing applicants for rolling admission!

Final Deadline: June 1st, 2026

For questions, please email macs@chem.ucla.edu

New student-run newsletter, Catalyst Quarterly,
spotlights stories in science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM)

Catalyst Quarterly is an independent, student-run STEM newsletter that spotlights real, lived experiences in research, role models, and scientific discovery. With quarterly publications — featuring industry interviews, research reports, and first-hand student experiences — Catalyst seeks to inform and inspire the next generation of innovators.

The team recently released the premiere issue of the newsletter, now available at catalystnewsletter.org.

Dr. Martin-Louis Riu, assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, serves on the newsletter’s executive board.

Safety Tip

Custodians have been injured while picking up plastic trash bags that wrongly contained sharps such as needles, syringes with needles attached, scalpels, or razor blades.

This should not happen, as needles, syringes with needles attached, scalpels, or razor blades are supposed to be disposed of in designated Sharps containers, not the regular trash.

Please make sure your lab has procedures in place for proper disposal of sharps and that all workers follow those procedures.

Guidelines for non-biohazardous sharps:

Place sharps in a rigid, puncture-resistant, and leak proof Sharps Container.
Do not use cardboard containers as they can be punctured by sharps.
Deface any pre-existing labels.
Make sure the container is labeled as Sharps.
Dispose of the sharps waste container when 2/3 full.
Clean or chemically-contaminated sharps must be disposed of as hazardous waste. This is somewhat specific to UCLA because our regular trash is compacted.

Guidelines for biohazardous sharps:

Place sharps in a rigid, puncture-resistant, and leak proof Biohazardous Sharps container.
Make sure the container is labeled as Biohazardous Sharps.
Make sure the container is labeled with a biohazard symbol.
Dispose of the biohazardous sharps waste container when it is 2/3 full.
Biohazardous sharps must be disposed of as biohazardous waste.

For lab safety tips and information visit www.chemistry.ucla.edu/health-safety.

UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Branded Gear

Did you know that you can now order department branded gear at the UCLA Store?

Check it out here!

We want to hear from you!

Got some great award/honors news to share? Whether it's you or a colleague who's been recognized with a non-departmental award or honor, we want to hear about it! Share the details with us here.

Student Organizations

Get involved! Learn about organizations for UCLA chemistry and biochemistry graduate and undergraduate students here.

Departmental Events and Seminars Calendar

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry 2025 Departmental Magazine

We welcome news items, seminars & events, recent notable publications, notices, and employment opportunities for the C&B Weekly News. Please send information to Penny Jennings, penjen@g.ucla.edu, before noon on Thursday, to be included in that week's newsletter. News items must be received by Wednesday at noon. To obtain the latest news & information, please visit www.chemistry.ucla.edu.