UCLA was named #1 among U.S. public universities in two significant lists: the 2019 U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” rankings, and the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education survey.

Qualities highlighted by the publications include UCLA’s commitment to top-quality education, fostering a sense of community, and prioritizing inclusion. Click here to read the news announcements.

Organization for Diverse Leadership in Science pioneering outreach and inclusivity

In the efforts to diversify the STEM fields of universities all across the nation, OCDS was created almost ten years ago in the Chemistry and Biochemistry department, but has since become a wide-spread STEM organization to promote multiculturalism and inclusion in the field, especially at the graduate level.

OCDS is led by graduate students who are in turn advised by a long-time faculty mentor, professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Miguel García-Garibay, who is also dean of the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences.

Click here to read more about OCDS.

Jiaxing Huang, PhD from UCLA in ’04 and part of the Kaner Group, has received funding to develop a new-self sanitizing medical face mask that deactivates viruses on contact. Huang’s team will investigate ati-viral chemicals that can be safely built into masks to self-sanitize the passing respiratory droplets.

Huang is currently a professor at Northwestern University, and with his research team there have been provided the funding by a rapid response research grant from the National Science Foundation, which has called for immediate proposals that have potential to address the spread of COVID-19.

Read more here.

Although big data is everywhere, the basics of computational skills needed for data science aren’t a requirement in grade-level school. Also, a major problem in grade-level school is losing students in the math system. To solve this problem, Rob Gould,  professor of statistics at UCLA, created a solution to both: Mobilize.

The mission behind Mobilize is to arm students with computational and analytical skills in a new way: through data science. Introduction to Data Science, or IDS, is a year-long class designed as part of Mobilize that started a movement to focus on arming students with the tools to succeed in data science. Read more here.

Gefen Skilnick, a rising senior at UCLA, is fellow in the Physical Science Center for Diverse Leadership in Science and student researcher under the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. However, she is much more than that, she is a young Jewish, Israeli, woman, and masculine of center lesbian in tech.

Skilnick is an advocate for women and LGBTQ+ folks breaking into the tech world, and has done a lot as a student, professional, and researcher to make a difference in these communities.

Read her interview with The Pride LA here.