Department of Chemistry

The University of California, Riverside's Department of Chemistry has awarded two undergraduate students with the Alumni Scholarship Award. This award is made possible by the support of the Chemistry Department Alumni and is awarded to undergraduate students for their academic achievements, research involvement and extra-curricular activities. The following students have demonstrated such merit and were awarded the scholarship: Krystal Vasquez and Adam Yu. On behalf of the Chemistry Department, we congratulate them for their achievements. 

 Junior Krystal Vasquez has participated in several laboratory research projects under the mentorship of Prof. Valentine Vullev and Prof. James Sickman. Her latest research involves the use of stable isotopes to study the relationship between the origin of Pacific Ocean storm systems and the δ²H and δ¹⁸O of precipitation samples from the Sierra Nevada to investigate the potential of paleoproxies specific to the area.  With her research, Krystal has been granted the opportunity to present at the American Geophysical Union and plans to turn this project into her senior thesis. In the future, Krystal hopes to attend graduate school and obtain a Ph.D in Atmospheric Chemistry.

 Senior Adam Yu has been involved with several laboratory research projects with the mentorship of Prof. Vincent Lavallo. Adam's current research involves derivatization of carboranes for use as metal free organocatalysts. On his free time, Adam also serves as a volunteer at Kaiser's Baldwin Park Medical Center in order to better understand the role of professional pharmacists within a hospital setting. Adam's future goal is to apply to pharmacy school to pursue a PharmD degree in order to have a positive and lasting impact on the community.