9th Annual Postdoctoral Recognition Awards
Sponsored by the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
and the Molecular Biology Institute

The 9^th Annual Postdoctoral Recognition Awards ceremony was held May 9, 2007. The awards were made possible by generous donations from Nobel Laureate and MBI Founding Director Paul Boyer, Mrs. Phyllis Parvin and the Parvin Foundation, Dr. James and Joan Peter, and Amgen Inc. Nominations of outstanding candidates were solicited and three $5000 awards were given -to honor academic excellence in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology at UCLA. In addition, four $1000 research excellence awards were presented. The Selection Committee, consisting of four distinguished UCLA faculty in the Chemical and Life Sciences, reviewed the nominations and chose the following exceptional postdoctoral fellows to receive Recognition Awards:

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Mara Duncan, Ph.D ( Mentor: Gregory Payne )
Recipient of the Boyer-Parvin Award

Lolitika Mandal, Ph.D.(Mentors:Utpal Banerjee & Volker Hartenstein )
Recipient of the Boyer-Peter Award

Vladimir Ramirez-Carrozzi, Ph.D (Mentor: Stephen Smale )
Recipient of the Amgen Award

 

(Left to right: Volker Hartenstein, Vladimir Ramirez-Carrozzi, Lolitika Mandal, Mara Duncan, Paul Boyer and Stephen Hitchcock)

The research excellence awards were presented to Steven Claypool (Mentor: Carla Koehler), Cory Evans (Mentor: Utpal Banerjee), Ian Henderson (Mentor: Steven Jacobsen), and Yue Liu (Mentor: Arnold Berk).

Paul Boyer presented the Boyer-Parvin and Boyer-Peter awards, and Dr. Stephen Hitchcock, Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Amgen, presented the Amgen award. Thanks go to the members of the Selection Committee, chaired by Prof. Charles West, for their extensive efforts, to MBI Director Steven Clarke and Chemistry & Biochemistry Chair Harold Martinson for hosting the event, and to Bo Tendis and Mandy Bell for handling all of the details.

For additional photos of the ceremony click here