Alumni
Details:
CBI Alumni have used their training in research methods at the intersection of chemistry and biology to build careers in both academia and the private sector. Many have become leaders of their field, directing crucial research in pharmaceuticals, sustainability, and the health sciences. Some have founded their own companies, others have gone on to do research at some of the most prestigious firms in the country. Below, prospective students and trainees can find a comprehensive list of alumni since 1996.
Professional development:
One of the grant's goals is to foster professional development among its trainees during and after their time at UCLA. CBI staff maintain relationships with students during and after their time at UCLA, and facilitate connections between current and previous grantees. Alumni are invited back to speak at CBI Day, and are encouraged to connect with current trainees on their research and career aspirations. See the CBI page for more information on the event’s career development workshops.
The internship which is completed during trainees’ time working under the grant often leads to fruitful connections which greatly improve alumni outcomes after finishing graduate study at UCLA.
UCLA tracks career outcomes in Life and Biomedical Sciences here.
A detailed list of CBI alumni can be viewed below.
A breakdown of alumni outcomes can be viewed here:
Alumni list:
| Name | Year of Program Completion | Position |
| Kunkel, Grace | 2022 | PhD Candidate, UCLA |
| Soule, Jessica | 2022 | Graduate Research Assistant, UCLA |
| Julio, Ashley | 2022 | PhD Candidate, UCLA |
| McVeigh, Matthew | 2022 | Graduate Student Researcher, UCLA |
| DeWhitt-Gonzalez, Kristofer | 2021 | Research Scientist, Varda Industries |
| Kane-Barnese, Lindsay | 2021 | Associate Professor, UC Irvine |
| Kiss, Gert | 2021 | Head of Scientific Computing, REVOLUTION Medicines |
| Lee, Christopher | 2021 | Staff Scientist, Los Alamos |
| Lim, Irene | 2021 | Visiting Professor, UC Irvine |
| Ochoa, Jessica | 2021 | Postdoc, Caltech |
| Forsythe, Neil | 2021 | Senior Scientist, Amgen |
| Go, Eun Bin | 2021 | Scientific Developer, Emerald Cloud Lab |
| Murray, Kevin | 2021 | Neurology Resident, Brown University |
| Richards, Logan | 2021 | Postdoc, UCLA |
| Meador, Kyle | 2021 | Graduate Student, UCLA |
| Palafox, Maria | 2021 | Graduate Student Researcher, UCLA |
| Misa, Joshua | 2020 | Scientist, Zyma Research Group |
| Creech, Amanda | 2020 | MD-PhD Candidate, UCLA |
| Gassman, Natalie | 2020 | Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| Malek, Kevin | 2020 | CEO, Pherros Biosciences |
| Mensah, Samantha | 2020 | Passed away |
| Velasquez, Erick | 2020 | Drug Development Training Fellow, Genentech |
| Lerch, Michael | 2019 | Assistant Professor of Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin |
| Evans, Declan | 2019 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington |
| Sportsman, Richard | 2019 | Scientist, Sportsman Consulting |
| Valliere, Meaghan | 2019 | Senior Research Investigator, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals |
| White, Jonelle | 2019 | Associate Director, Office of Student Persistence, New Jersey Institute of Technology |
| Torres, Eric | 2018 | Marketing Manager, Biotium |
| Pham, Hung | 2017 | Faculty, UCLA Organic Chemistry |
| Perez, Felix | 2017 | Graduate Student, UCLA |
| Jones, Eric | 2017 | Rare Disease Lead, Octant |
| DeNicola, Anthony | 2017 | Research Scientist, Hexagon Bio |
| Barber, Joyann | 2017 | Senior Scientist, Pfizer |
| Paluck, Samantha | 2017 | Senior Materials Enginerr, SpaceX |
| Perlin, Pesach | 2017 | Consultant, Eversana Consulting |
| Simon, Adam | 2017 | Director of Computational Chemistry, QuantX Biosciences |
| Ta, Lisa | 2017 | Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA |
| Tobolowsky, Robert | 2017 | Chemistry Instructor, Los Angeles Pierce College |
| Chun-Chang, Sunny | 2016 | Instructor, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville |
| Qian, Elaine | 2016 | Chemist, Laboratory Skin Care, Inc |
| Woodall, Nicholas | 2016 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Vistera |
| Rose, Tristan | 2015 | Director, Preclinical Development at 1200 Pharma |
| Bracken, Jack | 2015 | Laboratory Safety Program Manager, UCLA |
| Laganowsky, Arthur | 2015 | Associate Professor of Chemistry, Texas A&M University |
| Weitz, Sara | 2015 | Program Manager, Siemens Healthineers |
| Chan, Pik K (Becky) | 2013 | Material & Metabolic Scientist, Amgen |
| Alconcel, Steevens | 2013 | Scientist and Health and Sustainability Advocate, Amgen |
| Patel, Ashay | 2013 | Research Associate, UC San Diego |
| Silberstein, Amanda | 2013 | Department Chair, Chemistry, Westmont College |
| Noey, Elizabeth | 2012 | Senior Scientist II, AbbVie |
| Ladi, Ena | 2011 | Scientist, Genentech |
| He, Cuiwen | 2011 | Chief Science Officer, Evolugate LLC |
| Morris, Carl | 2011 | CSO, Solid Biosciences |
| Sayegh, Joyce | 2011 | Adjunct Asst. Professor, Johnson County Community College |
| Lee, Cynthia | 2010 | Research Scientist, Texas A&M |
| Aghajan, Mariam | 2010 | Director, Ionis Pharmaceuticals |
| Kaddis, Catherine | 2010 | |
| Miller, Margeaux | 2010 | Snr Scientist II, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research |
| Petrossian, Tanya | 2010 | CEO, EndoCyclic Therapeutics |
| Sea, Kevin | 2010 | Program Coordinator, Wine Studies, Santa Rosa Jr. College |
| Rodriguez, Jorge | 2009 | Associate Professor, Biochemistry, UCLA |
| McCallum, Jeremy | 2009 | Professor, Loyola Marymount University |
| McCarren, Patrick | 2008 | Associate Director, Tango Therapeutics |
| Dechancie, Jason | 2008 | Principal, Chief Growth Office, Booz Allen Hamilton |
| Fukuto, Jon | 2008 | |
| Hurlow, Evan | 2008 | Scientist, Snapdragon Chemistry |
| Chang, Howard | 2008 | Stanford, Professor of Cancer Research |
| Heredia-Guillen, Karina | 2008 | Executive Director, Global Affairs, Abbvie |
| Clement, Matthew | 2008 | Director, Partnerships and Scientific Stragegy, Alzheimer's Disease Initiative |
| Cho, Jennifer | 2008 | VP Marketing, Soundable Health |
| Sowa, Glenna | 2008 | Director, LS Technologies |
| Chu, Hiufung | 2007 | Director Regulatory Science, 2Seventy Bio |
| Henry, Chris | 2007 | Senior Director, CoA Therapeutics (BridgeBio) |
| May, Grace (nee. Quaker) | 2006 | Senior Project Manager, Gilead |
| Selander, Jeffrey | 2006 | |
| Lee, Albert | 2005 | Research and Development, Agilent |
| McAlpine, Shelli | 2005 | Professor, University of New South Wales |
| Doucette, Peter | 2005 | Instructor, El Camino Community College |
| Eissa, Hisham | 2005 | Director, Eli Lilly and Company |
| Hedge, Sayee | 2003 | Celgene |
| Yohannan, Sarah | 2003 | Affiliate Consultant, Cardiomed Device Consultants |
| Cook-Ludwick, Natalie | 2002 | Toxicologist, Reynolds America |
| Lyons, Thomas | 2002 | Chief Science Officer, Evanoa Bioscience |
| Jacobs, Aaron | 2002 | Associate Professor, CSU San Bernadino |
| Murphy, Jennifer | 2002 | Associate Professor, Molecular Pharmacology, UCLA |
| Tantillo, Dean | 2002 | Researcher, Tantillo Group, UC Davis |
| Hollibaugh, Ryan | 2001 | Scientist, Jnana Therapeutics |
| Cannizzaro, Carina | 2001 | Research Scientist II, Gilead |
| Chan, C. | 2001 | Staff, U of Hong Kong |
| Aldrich, Courtney | 2001 | Professor, University of Minnesota |
| Barkovich, Robert | 2001 | Director, Infomatics and Visual, Agilent Technologies |
| Columbus, Linda | 2001 | Professor, University of Virginia |
| Thomas, Jason | 2001 | Vice President, Operational Warfighting Division, Center for Naval Analyses |
| Nosrati, Geoffrey | 2000 | CBO, Nutcracker Therapeutics |
| Argus, Joseph | 2000 | Senior Scientist, Nitto BioPharma |
| Chan, Albert | 2000 | Scientist I, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research |
| Dutton, Andrew | 2000 | Scientist/Lecturer, Iowa State University |
| Jackson, Matt | 2000 | Senior Scientist, Hills Pet Nutrition |
| Baker, Brian | 2000 | Chemist, Lawrence Livermore National Lab |
| Stevens, Derek | 2000 | |
| Mitchell-Blois, Tracy | 1999 | Amgen, Head of Alliance Management |
| Smith, Adam | 1999 | Radiation Oncologist |
| Lopez, Brenda | 1998 | |
| Anderson, Karen | 1998 | Associate Director, GlaxoSmithKline, PA |
| Davidov, Pablo | 1998 | Influencer Marketing Consultant at the Influencer Marketing Factory |
| Thanos, Chris | 1998 | CEO and Cofounder, Actym Therapeutics |
| Martinez, Orlando | 1997 | Vice President, Program Management, Kronos Bio Inc. |
| Johnson, Scott | 1997 | Scientific Associate Director, Bristol Meyers-Squibb |
| Balbirnie, Melinda | 1996 | Research Scientist, UCLA |
| Nyquist, Rebecca | 1996 | Senior Regulatory Writer, Novartis |
| Dong, Timothy | Associate Professor, Santa Monica College | |
| Firestone, Susan | ||
| Horton, Ronald | ||
| Jarrett, Deborah | Chemistry Account Manager, Waters Corporation | |
| Ko, Jeong Hoon (JK) | Postdoc, MIT | |
| Hasson, Samuel | Associate Director, Voyager Therapeutics | |
| Lomenick, Brett | Senior Scientist, Oncovalent Therapeutics | |
| Nistanaki, Sepand | Graduate Student, UCLA | |
| Cacho, Ralph | Baker Lab, Protein Design at University of Washington | |
| Chung, Joan- Jung | ||
| Lau, Uland | Scientist, Lumen Bioscience | |
| Salehi-Rad, Ramin | Pulmonologist, Westwood VA Medical Center | |
| Ku, Peihua | US Navy Captain | |
| Captain, Illya | Elucidata | |
| Green, Nora | Associate Professor, Randolph-Macon College | |
| Sanchez, Raylene | ||
| Easter, Jesse | ||
| Chen, Cecilia | ||
| Freitas, Siobhan | Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Riverside Community College | |
| Lelie, Herman | CEO, Constitution Laboratories LLC | |
| Murray, Matthew | ||
| Sand, Gregory | Area Sales Manager, Ion Chromatography, Metrohm USA | |
| Shinyashiki Brenda | Principal Toxicologist, Edgewell Personal Care | |
| Shipp, Eric | ||
| Shirasaki, Dyna | Criminologist, LAPD | |
| Silverman, William | Executive Director, Coulter Program, University of Miami | |
| Switzer, Christopher | Research Fellow, King's University London | |
| Um, Joann | Professor, Southwestern Community College | |
| Vinokur, Jeffrey | CEO, Generation Genius; "Jeffrey Vinokur, The Dancing Scientist" | |
| Wallace, Matthew | Founder, Owner, CEO, Berryline (Postdoc Ventures) | |
| Wang, Jay | ||
| Wang, Sining (Cindy) | ||
| Wei, Jennifer | Medical Director, Agendia | |
| Yamin, Ghiam | Adjunct Clinical Professor, Radiology, Stanford University | |
| Yang, Jane | Chemist and Patent Agent, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | |
| Zittin-Potter, Soshanna | ||
| Davis, Diana | ||