Sarah Tolbert, professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the UCLA College, received the 2019 Community Service and Praxis Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award from the UCLA Academic Senate.
The award honors a faculty member who has built solid, lasting and meaningful partnerships with community groups and organizations, who has had a positive effect on diversity in Los Angeles, and who has demonstrated community outreach and professional service. As director of the California NanoSystems Institute, Tolbert oversees the institute’s nanoscience education program, which includes K-12 teacher training workshops, nanoscience summer programs for high school students, multiple annual public outreach events and an entrepreneurship education for middle and high school students.
Tolbert’s research focuses on controlling nanometer-scale architecture in solution-processed nanostructure materials to generate unique optical, electronic, magnetic, structural and electrochemical properties. She is the recipient of a number of awards and honors including Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the 2017 National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award and a Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship.
