Department of Chemistry

Thanks to generous donations by UCR Chemistry alumni John Precht and Eddie Seo, three of our undergraduate students worked full-time in the laboratory this summer. The Kuwana-Sawyer Award honors Ted Kuwana and Donald T. Sawyer, well-known analytical chemists and former UCR professors, while providing support for undergraduate students doing research in analytical chemistry. This year’s Kuwana-Sawyer Award recipients are Austin Chang (working with Prof. Yinsheng Wang), Nancy Ortega (working with Prof. Wenwan Zhong), and Philip Lee (working with Prof. Huiwang Ai). The students are all very appreciative of the opportunity to work full-time in the lab this summer, doing cutting-edge science and building skills to use in their future careers. In addition to doing research, Austin, Nancy and Philip joined about 30 other summer research students from all areas of science and engineering for seminars on searching the literature, scientific ethics, academic professionalism, applying to graduate school, interview skills and making successful poster and oral presentations.

The Sawyer Graduate Award is an annual cash award recognizing a 3rd or 4th year analytical chemistry graduate student. The award is given based on the student’s accomplishments, creativity and future potential as an analytical chemist. The 2014 Sawyer Award was presented in June to Zhijie Chen, a fourth year graduate student working in Prof. Huiwang Ai’s laboratory. The department has thus far raised $15,000 towards the $25,000 needed to endow the Sawyer Award. If you would like to contribute to the Sawyer Award fund or any of the Department’s other activities, it is easy to make a gift through the link on our website www.chem.ucr.edu.