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.

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Awards, grants and honors

A distinguished career devoted to Bruins

Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Development and Health at UCLA Student Affairs Suzanne Seplow has been recognized with the Distinguished Career Award by UCLA's Administrative Management Group. She has made significant contributions to the campus community. Congratulations, Seppy!

A great immigrant, a great Bruin

Hiroshi Motomura, the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law and the faculty co-director of the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, has been named part of the 2026 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The award recognizes naturalized citizens for their achievements that have strengthened America.

Anna Spain Bradley is shaping the law

Anna Spain Bradley, the MacArthur Foundation Professor of International Justice and Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law, has been elected to the membership of the American Law Institute (ALI), among the most prestigious positions for law professors, judges and lawyers. The ALI is the "leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law."

One law professor, dual honors

UCLA School of Law assistant professor Alexander Arnold has earned two honors for outstanding early-career scholars. He has been recognized with a Society of Hellman Fellowship, awarded to the most promising pre-tenure faculty members across all fields of study throughout the University of California system. He recently presented his work at the prestigious Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum at Yale Law School.

Awards and honors - Sciences

A Bruin architect of the AI age

Judea Pearl, a chancellor's professor emeritus of computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named one of 50 AI Pioneers by nonprofit think tank Boston Global Forum and its AI World Society initiative. The recognition honors prominent U.S. scientists, technologists, scholars and business leaders who are described as "most powerfully shaping America's role in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - and, through America, the governance of AI for the world."

Pushing the limits of tiny materials

Distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry Xiangfeng Duan has been selected to receive the 2026 Nano Research Award in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the synthesis, integration and discovery of novel properties in low-dimensional (very thin) materials, including two-dimensional materials, heterostructures and superlattices. The award honors scientists who have made outstanding contributions to nanoscience and nanotechnology, and Duan's discoveries could help build the next generation of smaller, faster electronics.

A rising star in chemical engineering

Steven Chavez, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been selected as part of Scientific American's inaugural class of Young American Scientists for improving the effectiveness of catalysts used in industrial processes. Chavez leads a research group developing custom reactors and spectroscopic tools with applications in energy production, chemical manufacturing and emissions mitigation.

Matthew Nava rethinks manufacturing

Professor of chemistry and biochemistry Matthew Nava has received a Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation, one of NSF's most prestigious awards. The award will support Nava's efforts to develop new ways to transform the basic building blocks of chemicals into valuable products, including medicines, agrochemicals, material precursors and chemical fuels.

Neil Garg breaks the rules - and wins

Distinguished professor Neil Garg, who holds the Kenneth N. Trueblood Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry, has won the Royal Society of Chemistry's 2026 Centenary Prize for "challenging long-standing paradigms in organic chemistry through the creative generation and use of strained intermediates in synthesis, and for excellence in communication." The Centenary Prize commemorates the centenary of the society's founding in 1841 and recognizes outstanding international chemists who are also exceptional communicators. Each year, only three awards are given worldwide across all fields of chemistry.

Awards and honors - Health sciences

Leading the way in neuropathy care

UCLA Health's Neuropathy Program, founded and led by Dr. Anasheh Halabi, has earned a prestigious Center of Excellence designation from the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA), recognizing the program's exceptional, tailored care for patients living with genetic neuropathies, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease. A Center of Excellence designation exemplifies CMTA's rigorous standards for clinical expertise, patient-centered care and commitment to the CMT community.

AI tech takes aim at nerve pain

Three researchers at UCLA Health (Dr. Bryan Burt, Bijan Najafi and Dr. Hugh Gelabert) have received a grant expected to total $2.4 million over five years from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, to develop digital biomarkers and remote testing tools for patients with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome - a nerve compression disorder that results in pain, numbness, tingling and weakness radiating from the neck through the hand.

Decoding a rare, aggressive cancer

Dr. Alexis LeVee, a clinical instructor in the division of hematology/oncology and investigator at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has received a grant from Kure It Cancer Research to support her research into metaplastic breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer with few effective treatment options.

What makes our cells grow old?

Assistant professor of dermatology Dr. Amy Vandiver has received a Burroughs Wellcome Fund award, which supports early-career physician-scientists to help advance their independent academic careers. The $700,000 award will support Vandiver's research focused on uncovering the biological mechanisms that drive aging and identifying new strategies to target them before they contribute to functional decline with aging and age-induced diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disease.

A Bruin voice for critical care nurses

UCLA Health clinical nurse specialist Olena Svetlov has been named director of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses' (AACN) board of directors. Svetlov, who specializes in cardiology care at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, will serve as a director for a three-year term ending in June 2029. The AACN is the world's largest specialty nursing organization, with 136,000 members across 170 chapters in the United States.

Extraordinary impact

Big wins for UCLA's storytellers

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has recognized UCLA Alum and UCLA College with multiple honors in its global 2026 Circle of Excellence Awards, highlighting the university's standout work in communications, alumni engagement and digital storytelling. The nonprofit's annual awards recognize excellence across higher education institutions worldwide. Excellent work, indeed!

Tom Poveromo is going places

For nearly 27 years, UCLA Transportation's Tom Poveromo has helped acquire close to 4,000 vehicles that support the university and surrounding communities, but his latest project is different. The first-of-its-kind, all-electric "preschool on wheels" that brings early education, health screenings and family resources to children in Van Nuys, joining others he has helped create, including UCLA's Mobile Stroke Unit and Mobile Eye Clinic.

Bringing the arts to L.A. kids

Theresa Willis Peters grew up in a family of teachers and thought she wanted to be one, too. After starting college on the teacher track, she quickly realized it wasn't for her. Luckily for the Bruin community, she transferred to UCLA and earned an English degree instead. It was here that she discovered the Student Committee for the Arts - the student branch of UCLA Center for the Art of Performance (known then as UCLA Live) - and it changed her life.

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

Transitions and appointments

James takes the lead

Gareth James, a higher education leader and scholar with deep expertise in statistics, data science and machine learning, has officially started his tenure as dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. James was formerly the John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School at Emory University, a role he has held since 2022. He assumed his new post on July 1. Welcome to UCLA!

Championing Pacific Islander student success

The UCLA Pacific Islander Center for Student Excellence has welcomed its inaugural director, Natasha Saelua. The center is dedicated to enhancing UCLA's intellectual community devoted to Native American and Pacific Islander peoples, supporting inclusive and equitable student experiences, and providing meaningful support for Native American and Pacific Islander staff. Congratulations, Natasha!

In memoriam

A public health leader

Dr. Roger Detels, distinguished professor of epidemiology in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, died July 25. Detels' passing is felt deeply by the UCLA Fielding community due to his incredible professional accomplishments and 56 years of service to the school, but even more so because of his integrity and generosity. Over the course of his illustrious career, Detels conducted research on air pollution, multiple sclerosis and other neurologic diseases, hypertension, and several infectious diseases, including trachoma, capillariasis and Japanese encephalitis. Yet he is perhaps best known for his research on HIV/AIDS, which he began in 1981 when he initiated a natural history study of AIDS in young homosexual men in Los Angeles.

See more on Newsroom's faculty and staff page.

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