‘Extraordinary Latina’ Melissa Ramirez writes her chapter

Maya Angelou famously spoke about how the doors of opportunity are often opened by and for people whose paths will never cross - a guiding thought embraced by Melissa Ramirez, who graduated from UCLA in 2021 with a Ph.D. in chemistry. 

"I never met my grandparents on either side of my family," said Ramirez, now an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. "But their lives made it possible for my parents to immigrate from Guanajuato, Mexico, to the United States."

That allowed her to take a different path: from growing up in Pasadena to earning her bachelor's degree as a first-generation student from the University of Pennsylvania, to uplifting rising chemists in a lab of her own as an award-winning researcher.

Along the way, one experience crystallized just how far she had traveled from the world her parents once knew - a moment that made her feel the full sweep of her family's journey.

"Securing a postdoctoral research position at Caltech brought my educational journey full circle," Ramirez said. "My parents had once worked 'blue-collar' jobs on Caltech's campus - and now their daughter was conducting cutting-edge research there. It was very meaningful to me."

"I hope that through this book, more women realize they have the power to define themselves," she said. "I owe so much to the women in my own life, like my high school chemistry teacher, who always believed in me and helped me get to where I am today."  

The path to UCLA - and the Ramirez Lab

Growing up in Pasadena, California, Ramirez fondly remembers watching National Geographic specials with her father. His fascination with nature inspired her to start asking scientific questions and to realize that's how she wanted to spend her career.

When she arrived at UCLA for her doctoral program, Ramirez joined the laboratories of professors Kendall Houk and Neil Garg, training as both a computational and synthetic organic chemist. By combining computer simulations with real-world chemistry, she sought to understand why certain molecules react the way they do, with the goal of helping scientists design and build complex new compounds more efficiently. 

Her Bruin research training proved invaluable. Ramirez, who was recently awarded two research grants from the American Chemical Society, applies what she learned in her own work today. The Ramirez Lab, which currently consists of five graduate students, one postdoctoral researcher and one undergraduate student, focuses on challenges in organic synthesis, catalysis and computational chemistry. 

"The research grants from the ACS will support the development of sustainable catalysts, which will be incorporated into reactions that provide access to products with high value in the pharmaceutical industry," said Ramirez. "I can only hope that they one day lead to medicines that are more affordable and accessible."