Newsroom’s Faculty Bulletin Board is a biweekly roundup highlighting awards, honors and notable achievements by UCLA faculty members. Consider it a snapshot of the many ways Bruin scholars and researchers are advancing knowledge, shaping their fields and powering progress on campus and around the world. See previous issues of the board.
5 professors awarded Guggenheim Fellowships
The prestigious awards recognize scholars in disciplines across the creative arts, social sciences, natural sciences and humanities who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in their fields and show great promise for the future. The new UCLA fellows — Richard L. Hasen, Jamie Kreiner, Heather Maynard, Sean Metzger and Kay Kyurim Rhie — are engaged in transformative work in areas ranging from law and chemistry to theater, musical composition and medieval studies. ► Read more
4 faculty elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Yongkang Xue, Marilyn Raphael, Alexander Spokoyny and Stuart Brown have been elected fellows of the association, one of the largest general scientific societies in the world, in recognition of their furtherance of scientific research in service to society. The UCLA faculty members, who are among the 449 new fellows across disciplines in academia, technology and government, will be honored at an association forum in Washington, D.C., on May 29. ► Read more
Lionel Popkin named dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture
Popkin, who has served as interim dean of the school since February 2024, has been appointed the permanent dean, effective May 1. In his interim role, he has expanded support for student scholarships and faculty research, strengthened and revitalized the school’s board, fostered cross-departmental teaching and collaboration, and moved forward with long-deferred capital planning. "I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to carry this mission forward," Popkin said, "and cannot imagine a more vital or capable community of artists, architects and scholars with whom to forge the future of UCLA Arts.” ► Read more
Jianwei (John) Miao honored by American Physical Society
Miao, a professor of physics and astronomy and memober of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, has been awarded the American Physical Society's 2026 Joseph F. Keithley Award for Advances in Measurement Science. The award recognizes physicists who have made major advances in measurement techniques or equipment. Miao was cited for pioneering coherent diffractive imaging and atomic electron tomography with X-rays and electrons, and for advancing quantitative 3D and 4D measurement techniques for crystal defects and amorphous materials from the nanoscale to the atomic scale. ► Read more
Alissa Park recognized with leadership award for women chemical engineers
Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received the 2026 Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin Medal from the American Chemical Society, which honors distinguished leadership in chemistry by women chemists and chemical engineers. The award recognized Park for “inspiring and mentoring the next generation of chemists and chemical engineers to solve the world’s grand challenge of climate change through innovative chemistry.” ► Read more
John Clemens honored for research on cholera
Dr. John Clemens, a physician and professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, has been named a laureate of the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for his outstanding achievements in global health research. Clemens was honored for his work with Dr. Jan Holmgren to understand “cholera disease and immunity, and for the development and evaluation of safe, effective, and affordable inactivated oral cholera vaccines that have enabled cholera control worldwide." ► Read more
Jean-Luc Margot elected to Belgium’s Royal Academy
Jean-Luc Margot, UCLA professor of Earth, planetary and space sciences and of physics and astronomy, has been named an associate member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. Margot studies the physical properties and evolution of objects in our solar system, with a particular focus on asteroids, planets and planetary interiors. Using techniques like radar astronomy, he has helped reveal how these bodies rotate, what they’re made of and how they formed. He is also active in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ► Read more
Ron Avi Astor receives award for research on students’ mental health
Ron Avi Astor, professor of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, has received the Division E Distinguished Research Award in Human Development from the American Educational Research Association. Astor and three co-authors were recognized for their article “The Contribution of School Victimization to Sadness, Hopelessness, and Suicidal Ideation Among Bias-Based and Non-Bias-Based Victims and the Moderating Role of School Climate,” published last year in the journal Educational Researcher. ► Read more
Richard Finn recognized for advancing liver cancer treatments
Dr. Richard Finn, professor of medicine and director of the signal transduction and therapeutics research program and the clinical research unit at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named a recipient of the Lifetime Impact Award, presented by the Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association. Finn is being honored for his longstanding leadership in research and his role in advancing treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer. ► Read more
Antoni Ribas honored for achievements and leadership in cancer research
Dr. Antoni Ribas, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s tumor immunology and immunotherapy Program, is this year’s recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research. Ribas is widely known for his pioneering contributions to cancer immunotherapy, particularly the development of checkpoint inhibitors and new approaches to address treatment resistance. His research has helped transform outcomes for patients with advanced melanoma. ► Read more
UCLA group awarded $5 million to develop AI for math advancement
With a grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the new team ALPHA, develop artificial intelligence tools to transform how mathematical discoveries are made, formalized and verified, with a focus on partial differential equations, number theory and complexity theory. The project is led by Wei Wang and also includes Andrea Bertozzi, Kai-Wei Chang, Nanyun (Violet) Peng, Amit Sahai and Fields Medal winner Terence Tao. ► Read more
