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

Welcome to the latest 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.

Got news to share? Submit a story of kudos to [email protected]. We're all ears!

Awards and honors

Tech for the public good

UCLA DataX and the UCLA Center on Resilience & Digital Justice have been awarded a $300,000 state grant to launch "Public Interest Technology Pathways," a new effort led by professor Safiya U. Noble to help more students and working professionals learn how to use data, AI and technology responsibly.

Better access, better answers

Kristen Choi, associate professor in the department of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, is leading a research study on children's access to mental health care and how nursing regulations can help. Her team has been awarded about $300,000 from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing to study how state nurse practitioner supervision requirements affect children's access to mental healthcare from Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners.

Three mentors students will remember

Dr. Onyebuchi Arah, professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's department of epidemiology, Pamela Yeh with UCLA's department of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Neil K. Garg, distinguished professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry have received the university's 2026 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring. Congratulations to all!

A Bruin scholar to watch

The Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation has named Paul Melas, a doctoral candidate in the UCLA Department of Anthropology, a 2026 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow. Melas is one of 20 doctoral candidates selected nationwide to receive a $31,000 stipend from this fellowship, which is the nation's largest and most prestigious award for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences addressing questions of religion, ethics, morals or values.

Making an outstanding impact

Dr. Marc Suchard, a physician and professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's department of biostatistics, has received the 2026 Outstanding Impact Award and Lectureship from the International Biometric Society, one of the leading international societies for scientists in the discipline. This award puts a spotlight on the importance of foundational research in improving how analysis is used to optimize how public health agencies respond to crises.

Awards and honors - Sciences

Backing bold biomedical research

UCLA physiologist Navid Bavi has been named as one of 21 researchers to join the Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences. As part of the designation, Bavi and the other scholars will each receive four years of funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts to research new insights into human health and diseases.

Big honors for UCLA urology

Drs. Robert Reiter and Nima Nassiri have been named recipients of the 2026 Research Awards of Distinction by the Urology Care Foundation and the American Urological Association. Reiter, chief of the division of urologic oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, received the Richard D. Williams, M.D. Prostate Cancer Research Excellence Award for lifetime contributions to prostate cancer research. Nassiri, assistant professor of urology at the medical school and director of the bladder transplant program, received the Outstanding Graduate Scholar Award.

Healing, engineered

UCLA engineering professor Nasim Annabi has received two grants totaling nearly $2.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop new materials that could help the body heal more effectively. The first is focused on delivering stem cells to treat eye injuries, and the second hopes to create a bioadhesive wound dressing that could effectively seal and heal chronic wounds.

Extraordinary impact

The Bruin behind the robes

Jason Amorosi is the go-to guy around campus for all things graduation regalia, and he recently celebrated his 27th work anniversary at UCLA! Learn more about why he loves his job handling a lot of caps and gowns.

Tiny tools, giant breakthroughs

Dr. Steven J. Jonas, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is a physician-scientist who treats children with blood disorders and different types of cancers - and he's using nanotechnology to do it.

A UCLA first, one year later

One year after the first human bladder transplant, the patient is thriving and UCLA Health Dr. Nima Nassiri, who performed the operation, has already completed a second bladder transplant, laying a solid path for a field of surgery that until now has not been feasible.

Around campus

Get your safety training here

The UCLA Office of Campus and Community Safety has launched a brand new hub for students, faculty and staff. Sign up for a group safety training session with the UCLA Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management for your office or department - and get the tools you need to make an informed decision during a crisis or emergency.

Turning flashpoints into dialogue

Sociology professor Abigail Saguy, who has been helping students tackle tough conversations about gender for a long time, is the first professor in the world to bring an AI-guided discussion app, Sway, into the classroom. Her new book, "Gender Flashpoints: The Power of Dialogue," explores how tools like Sway can help people move through heated debates with more thought, care and productive conversation.

Training the next chipmakers

UCLA has joined a new regional consortium to help prepare more people for careers in semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics. The new five-state consortium brings together 47 partners across Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Southern California to expand industry education, hands-on training, and promote careers in semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics.

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

Transitions and appointments

A stellar run in physical sciences

Miguel A. García-Garibay, senior dean of the UCLA College and dean of the division of physical sciences, will be stepping down from his roles at the end of the next academic year in 2027 to return to a faculty position. Under his distinguished tenure, faculty in physical sciences accumulated multiple honors - including eight Nobel Prizes. Thank you, Dean García-Garibay!

Still leading the class

The UCLA School of Education and Information Studies (Ed&IS) has reappointed Christina (Tina) Christie as dean following the completion of her customary five-year administrative review. She was commended as a thoughtful, strategic leader who has guided Ed&IS through an exceptionally complex period while advancing equity, academic innovation and growth. Congratulations, Tina!

Big data, new role

Michele Guindani, professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's department of biostatistics, will serve as interim chair of the department beginning on July 1. He is internationally renowned for his work in Bayesian statistics, biostatistics and data science, where his research focuses on the analysis of complex, high-dimensional biomedical data with particular emphasis on neuroimaging, radiomics, integrative genomics, microbiome data, clustering and Bayesian nonparametric modeling.

In memoriam

A plant chemistry pioneer

Charles A. West, a member of the UCLA chemistry and biochemistry faculty since 1952, died May 5. He was 98. A renowned expert in plant chemical defenses, West was instrumental in building UCLA's chemistry department, and his research provided key insights into how plants' stress responses help them defend against pathogens in their environment.

See more on Newsroom's faculty and staff page.

Tags: faculty news | staff news