Department of Chemistry

The University of California, Riverside’s Department of Chemistry has awarded five 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: Kliment Bozhilov, Andrew Carlson, Nicole Godfrey, Christopher Margono, and Mary Nguyen. On behalf of the Chemistry Department, we congratulate them for their achievements.

Senior Kliment Bozhilov has been part of numerous laboratory experiments under the mentorship of Prof. Valentine Vullev and Prof. Francisco Zaera. His latest research involves surface chemistry while using horizontal attenuated total reflection FT-IR to analyze the modifier, cinchonidine. Kliment’s future goal is to apply for graduate school and pursue a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.

Senior Andrew Carlson has been involved in research in Prof. Michael Pirrung’s laboratory focusing on the synthesis of a small molecule insulin mimic. He also has synthetically engineered luciferin for new biological assays. Andrew intends to pursue a career in pharmaceutical drug discovery, natural product synthesis, or new synthetic methods in graduate school. Andrew will be attending University of California, Los Angeles this upcoming fall to pursue a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry.
 

Junior Nicole Godfrey has been part of several laboratory research projects with the mentorship of Prof. Gregory Beran and Prof. Michael Pirrung. Nicole’s current research involves the solution phase synthesis of the lipopeptide Fellutamide B. She plans to complete her senior thesis and pursue a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry.

Senior Christopher Margono has been part of numerous outreach programs that help children that identify as low income to achieve academic excellence. Christopher serves as an Honors Peer mentor, HPAC Peer mentor, Fundraising Coordinator for the Student Run Health Clinic, and recently completed training as a Suicide Crisis Respondent for IMAlive. Christopher’s future goal is to apply to medical school and pursue a M.D. in Epidemiology to help rural Indonesian communities.

Junior Mary Nguyen is a co-author in Angewandte Chemie for research with Prof. Catharine Larsen on a unique dual catalyst for 1-step syntheses of amines with pharmaceutical relevance. As a CNAS Ambassador, she represents the college internally and externally recruiting new students and being a student voice in the college. One of UCR’s two Goldwater nominees, Mary plans to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry for a career in academia.