Have you heard? UCLA’s latest faculty and staff news

Welcome to the August edition of Newsroom's monthly "Have you heard?" roundup, your quick-hit guide to the faculty and staff breakthroughs, honors, milestones and memorable moments shaping our campus and community. Think of it as your regular dose of Bruin brilliance - smart, useful and worth sharing. From research awards and new leadership appointments to heartfelt remembrances, here's what's been happening recently.

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Awards, grants and honors

A spotlight on storytelling

The UCLA Semel Healthy Campus Initiatives Center has received a $2 million grant to expand partnerships with community organizations by aligning research and lived experiences around well-being. The grant and partnership will elevate the critical work of established organizations in Los Angeles through powerful storytelling and rigorous research, and respond to the realities of the current environment by elevating the impact and work of UCLA's community health partners.

Bruin ideas go global

Several faculty across campus have been awarded 2026 Global Education and Global Research grants totaling $260,000 to help expand UCLA's global reach, including 11 Global Education Awards for internationalizing curricula and six Global Research Awards. Award recipients reflect the breadth and depth of global engagement at UCLA. Congratulations to all the winners!

Awards and honors - Sciences

2 Bruins take a quantum leap

UCLA computer scientists Jason Cong and Jens Palsberg will help lead major national efforts to address some of quantum computing's biggest challenges, serving as co-principal investigators for separate research institutes backed by five-year, $37.5 million grants from the National Science Foundation.The two institutes are among eight NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes receiving more than $290 million in new funding to advance U.S. quantum science and accelerate the development of technologies with practical applications.

Making big data make sense

Wei Wang, professor and chair of the computer science department at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received the Innovation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest professional computing society. The highest technical honor presented by ACM's Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, the award recognizes an outstanding individual for contributions that have had a lasting impact on advancing theory or the development of commercial systems - and includes a $2,500 prize.

A greener way to make everyday products

Thanks to a recent grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, two UCLA scientists are launching a new project that they hope will yield some promising directions in providing a cleaner environment through green chemistry. Assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry Soumitra Athavale and doctoral student Justin Manoff will work together on a project called "New-to-Nature Biocatalysis for Sustainable Hydrogenation," which aims to create a new, cost-effective technology that reacts with renewable, easily grown biomolecules that do not create toxic bioproducts.

Awards and honors - Health sciences

UCLA Health is tops - again

For the 37th consecutive year, UCLA Health has earned a spot in U.S. News & World Report's annual Best Hospitals Honor Roll for its excellence in hospital-based patient care. The national honor roll distinction was awarded this year to only 20 hospitals or health systems from among the nearly 4,500 evaluated across 14 medical specialties and 23 procedures and conditions. UCLA Health also received the publication's No. 1 ranking in both California and Los Angeles. Kudos to good health!

Could a healthier gut help with obesity?

UCLA Health's Arpana Church has received a $4 million federal grant to test whether a specific probiotic blend can influence the communication network linking the gut, its microbiome and the brain in adults with obesity, with the goal of understanding how these changes may influence food cravings and eating behaviors. Funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health, the five-year project Probiotic Regulation of Gut-Microbiome-Brain Interactions in Obesity and Eating Behaviors will enroll 250 participants with obesity in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study.

A one-two punch against lung cancer

Dr. Jie Deng, assistant professor-in-residence of radiation oncology and a member of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been awarded an American Cancer Society Clinician Scientist Development Grant, co-sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology and designated in honor of Dr. Felix Feng. The award will help further Deng's research investigating how radiation therapy and the immune system can work together more effectively to improve outcomes for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Fixing giant aneurysms

Associate professor in the division of interventional neuroradiology Dr. Naoki Kaneko has been awarded $50,000 by the Brain Aneurysm Foundation to test a new device for complex, giant brain aneurysms located where blood vessels branch - aneurysms that are difficult to treat because they must be closed off while preserving blood flow to nearby arteries. His team will use realistic aneurysm models to find the best way to use the device, aiming to develop a safer, longer-lasting treatment option for patients.

A commanding honor

Dr. E. Dale Abel, chair and executive medical director of the department of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been awarded the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander by the Government of Jamaica, one of the nation's highest honors. Past winners include recognizable names like Usain Bolt and Rita Marley. Abel was recognized for his outstanding contributions to medicine, specifically in endocrine and metabolic research, and is an internationally recognized physician-scientist and mentor.

Keeping moms vaxxed

UCLA Health's Dr. Neil Silverman, professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the Geffen School of Medicine, has been selected as the recipient of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's 2026 Maternal Immunization Champion Award. The award recognizes physicians who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing maternal immunization rates and promoting the importance of recommended vaccines during pregnancy, including COVID-19, flu, RSV and Tdap.

Extraordinary impact

Using AI to outsmart disease

The decades-old scientific quest to create brand new proteins has been turbocharged in the era of artificial intelligence. Among today's vanguard in generative AI-enabled protein design is Jason Zhang, an assistant professor of bioengineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, who is deploying AI to create proteins never before seen in nature that may help unlock secrets of biology and transform treatment of previously untreatable diseases.

Protecting Bruins when sparks fly

Over the course of his 30-plus-year career, Steve McNaughten, UCLA's new lead campus fire marshal, has protected landmarks such as the Getty Museum and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, helped save lives on land and water, delivered six babies and comforted families in moments of devastating loss. At UCLA, McNaughten now leads a team of fire safety professionals primarily responsible for fire prevention and related life safety efforts for the campus. Prior to UCLA, he served at UC San Francisco as a designated campus fire marshal. Welcome to the team!

Explore more honors, recognitions and grant awards on Newsroom's Faculty Bulletin Board page and faculty and staff page.

Transitions and appointments

Sandesara to lead global health minor

Geffen School of Medicine assistant professor Dr. Utpal Sandesara has been appointed chair of the International Institute's global health minor - the second-largest undergraduate minor offered at UCLA. Sandesara teaches multiple global health courses, and his current research includes a community-engaged project to standardize evidence-based practices for hypertension patients as well as a longitudinal ethnographic study of informal caregiving for people with liver disease.

From student staffer to associate vice chancellor

UCLA alumna Sarah Dundish has stepped into her new role as associate vice chancellor for UCLA Housing & Hospitality, effective Aug. 5, following an extensive nationwide search. Dundish brings more than 20 years of progressive leadership experience in UCLA Housing & Hospitality, most recently as director of administration and chief of staff. Congratulations, Sarah!

A disease detective takes the lead

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health alumna and professor Anne Rimoin, an internationally recognized epidemiologist and global health leader, has been appointed associate dean of global health, effective Aug. 1. Rimoin's work addresses emerging infectious diseases and global health security, particularly at the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health.

Around campus

Lights, camera, Keke!

Starting this fall, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television is bringing Emmy winner Keke Palmer into its community for a new artist-in-residence program. Over the next five years, the multi-hyphenate star will visit campus for quarterly workshops and give TFT students the opportunity to develop original content for her digital media network. Each year, TFT students will develop and produce original multimedia projects through a fully sponsored studio guided by faculty and mentored by Palmer.

Randall Park is back - for a dance battle?

The alumnus and comedian will be back at UCLA to co-host the inaugural UCLA College Lecture Awards with senior dean Miguel Garcia Garibay on Oct. 12 in Royce Hall. The event will pay tribute to the best Bruin ideals of higher education and will honor five College faculty members, each of whom will share insights into their research and scholarship: Eric Avila (division of undergraduate education), Martha Bailey (division of social sciences), Wesley Campbell (division of physical sciences), Helen Deutsch (division of humanities) and Elaine Hsiao (division of life sciences).

In memoriam

A dentistry pioneer's enduring legacy

The UCLA School of Dentistry mourns the passing of Dr. Henry H. Takei, distinguished clinical professor emeritus of periodontics and a beloved educator, mentor, clinician and internationally recognized leader in periodontics. Takei, who died on July 29 at the age of 88, devoted nearly 60 years to advancing periodontal education and patient care while shaping generations of dental professionals at UCLA and around the world. UCLA will lower the flag near Pauley Pavilion to half-staff in his honor on Thursday, Sept. 3.

A giant of SoCal architectural history

Thomas Spight Hines Jr., a professor emeritus of history and architecture at UCLA whose scholarship and teaching helped recast how we view modern architecture - especially the architecture of Southern California - died July 26. He was 89. Hines, a formative presence at UCLA for five decades, held the rare distinction of a joint appointment spanning the department of history and the department of architecture and urban design. He is remembered as a warm, generous mentor invested in student growth and the power of research.

See more on Newsroom's faculty and staff page.

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