Award Given to Undergraduate Students for Accomplishments

The Division of Physical Sciences at UCSD recently presented 21 undergraduate students with the 2008 Dean's Undergraduate Awards for Excellence. This award was established in 2004 to recognize undergraduate students who have demonstrated academic excellence and promise as researchers. 

With more than 2,000 undergraduate majors enrolled in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Environmental Systems Program this award was given to these exceptional students to honor their accomplishments.   Faculty members from each of the departments nominated qualified candidates who had completed their junior year in the spring quarter for this award.

"In my more than two decades at UCSD, I have always been astounded by the extraordinary level of excellence in our students. This award is recognition of that excellence and the pride I have in the students here," remarked Dean Mark Thiemens. An awards ceremony and reception held November 7, 2008 at the Natural Sciences Building, for the recipients, faculty, family and friends.

These distinguished awards are made possible through the Physical Sciences annual fund, which is supported largely by its alumni. Four awards are named for alumni in honor of their significant contributions to the fund. They include Dr. Martin and Mrs. Denise Goldberg, who decided to name their award in honor of Jean Kramer who worked in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in Student Affairs. Martin Goldberg received degrees in chemistry, MS in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1986. He is currently Senior Vice President, Product Development at Affymetrix. William Hagan, who received his Ph.D. in physics from UCSD in 1986. After spending the majority of his career at SAIC in technology development, instrumentation products and venture capital, he joined the US government to serve as Chief Scientist and Assistant Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. Attorney Kristin C. Hiibner has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCSD and has a broad technical background, including graduate work in organic and inorganic chemistry, as well as work experience in plant pathology and molecular biology. She currently specializes in a full range of intellectual property, such as patent prosecution, licensing, opinion writing, due diligence and risk management, with an emphasis in the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industries. Norm Taylor received a BA in Physics from Revelle College in 1977. After graduation he pursued a career in the aerospace industry in Los Angeles, and concurrently completed an MS in Engineering at UCLA. He later changed career paths to work in the intelligence community developing signal processing and analysis systems. He currently works at Zeta Associates Inc. in Fairfax, Virginia.

2008 Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence
Recipients

Chemistry & Biochemistry

Anthony Fu
Michael Mckeown
Brittany Michel
Annie Tran
Katty Vu
Nathan Wright
Margaret Yandell
Chen Zhao

Mathematics

Aris Alexandradinata**
Sarah Elghraoui
Kathryn Farrell
Candice Huynh
Rudy Perkins
Steven Rocha

Physics

Aris Alexandradinata**
Kathryn Chapin

Alex Frenzel
Brennan Pursley
Thomas Tran

Environmental Systems

Jack Buchanan
Abigail Cannon
Genevieve Metson

** Double Major

Named awards:

William K. Hagan '86 Award

Alex Frenzel, Physics

Kristin Hiibner '97 Award

Margaret Yandell, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Jean and Max Kramer Award

Chen Zhao, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Norm R. Taylor '77 Award

Brennan Pursley, Physics

Michelle Youngers Award

Candice Huynh, Mathematics