Third-year organic chemistry graduate students Ana Bulger, Matthew McVeigh, and Billy Treacy have been named the 2022 Senior Foote Fellows.
The awards were presented to the fellows at our annual departmental awards ceremony on May 13, 2022.
The Senior Foote Fellowships are awarded to our most outstanding organic graduate students in their third year upon completion of their qualifying examination for their Ph.D. degree. Foote Fellows are chosen by the UCLA organic chemistry faculty. In addition to be honored, all Foote Fellows receive a stipend for two academic years.
The Christopher S. Foote Fellowship in Organic Chemistry was established in 2005 by his former co-workers and UCLA colleagues to honor UCLA organic chemist Professor Christopher S. Foote on his 70th birthday. Foote and his wife, Professor Judi Smith, donated the remaining funds needed to fully fund the endowment. Sadly, Foote passed away soon after the fellowship was established. His 43-year academic career at UCLA established Foote as one of the world leaders in the field of physical organic chemistry. UCLA is fortunate to benefit from the continuing outstanding service and support of Smith, who was the Dean of Undergraduate Education and the Founding Dean of the UCLA Herb Albert School of Music.
About the 2022 Senior Foote Fellows
Ana Bulger was born and raised in Maynard, Massachusetts. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Westmont College in 2019, where she performed research under the mentorship of Professor Amanda Silberstein. She then began her graduate studies at the UCLA where she is currently a third-year organic chemistry student in Professor Neil Garg’s group. Her graduate research is focused in the areas of asymmetric nickel-catalyzed transformations of amides and in probing the reactivity of strained intermediates.
Matthew McVeigh was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Houston, Texas. In 2019, he received his B.S. in Chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin. There, he worked under the tutelage of Professor Eric Anslyn, where he investigated the mechanism behind aniline-catalyzed hydrazone formation. He is currently a third-year organic chemistry graduate student in Professor Neil Garg’s group, where he works on developing new synthetic methodologies that leverage strained cyclic allenes with transition metal catalysis.
Billy Treacy was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan and was raised in Rogers, Arkansas. He received his B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Mathematics from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2019. There, he worked under Professor Marcey Waters and Professor Michel Gagné investigating how peptide catalysts can exploit non-covalent interactions to perform acyl transfer catalysis. Billy is currently a third-year organic chemistry student in the groups of Professor Kendall Houk and Professor Heather Maynard where he is working toward developing novel organometallic reagents for cysteine arylation.
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Read about this year’s other graduate student award and fellowship recipients at the links below:
2022 Ralph & Charlene Bauer Graduate Student Awards2022 Excellence in Research Awards
2022 Michael E. Jung Excellence in Teaching Awards
2022 Jim and Barbara Tsay Excellence in Second Year Research and Academics Awards
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
