Yuzhang Li, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a 2025 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. The honor, which includes a $100,000 research grant, recognizes outstanding faculty within the first five years of their academic careers in chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields who demonstrate a deep commitment to education.
Funded by the New York-based nonprofit Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the award is given to 19 recipients this year and will support Li’s research to expand applications for cryogenic electron microscopy, or cryo-EM. This technology uses extremely cold temperatures and low doses of electrons to capture 3D images of fragile molecules. Accurate molecular imaging can enhance next-generation technologies, particularly those dependent on interactions at the molecular and electron scale, such as in energy storage and utilization.
Li, who joined UCLA in 2020, leads a research group that uses cryo-EM to study the atomic-scale assembly of lithium for next-generation battery charging. The work led to a cover feature in Nature and earned him several honors, including an Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, a Naval Research Office Young Investigator Award and a California Climate Action Grant. He has also received a U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Award for investigating atomic-scale processes using cryo-EM.
