Each year, the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences honors students who have demonstrated outstanding achievements and accomplishments throughout their time at UCR. Below are the descriptions of each award and the award winners. Congratulations to our students!

Rosemary S.J. Schraer Award
In honor of Rosemary S.J. Schraer, who served as UCR Chancellor from 1987-1992, the Schraer Award recognizes the academic excellence of two outstanding graduating seniors in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. 

Academic Excellence Awards
The Academic Excellence Awards for the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences recognizes students who are selected by their faculty for achieving excellence in their academics and research or creative activity. 

Outstanding Achievement Award
Selected by the CNAS divisional deans, the Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes one student from all the Excellence Award nominees for their exemplary achievement in academics and research or creative activity, their breadth of involvement in the college, and for their commitment to service and citizenship.  

Jesus Gonzalez Camba '22
Academic Excellence Award
Jesus’ passion and drive for research are immediately apparent in the eagerness with which he jumps to learn new skills in the lab. A first-generation college student having immigrated to the United States at the age of 18, Jesus overcame significant adversity in his academic journey. But this only further fueled his passion. A transfer student from Chabot Community College, Jesus completed two internships prior to attending UCR. At his first internship at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Jesus worked to help bring historically marginalized groups into STEM. His second internship at UC Berkeley studying Mycobacterium developed his interest in microorganisms. Carrying that interest to UCR, he took Dr. Glassman's Field Mycology class in Winter 2022 and simultaneously joined the Glassman Lab as a MCBL 197 student where he has been assisting in the research of post-fire microbial traits. Jesus plans to continue his pursuit of research after graduation, with an eventual goal of earning a doctoral degree.

Beatrice Diep '22
Academic Excellence Award
Beatrice has worked in Dr. Rasmussen’s lab since the summer of 2019 where she presented her work on TANGED1’s localization in a maize mutant with division plane defects at the RISE Symposium. She received the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship in 2021 and is the current president of Queens of STEAM, a student-led organization dedicated to empowering women to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. Beatrice will be the first in her family to earn a Bachelor’s degree and will pursue a Ph.D. this fall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program.

Valeria Figueroa '22
Academic Excellence Award
As a transfer student, UCR provided Valeria with exciting opportunities to explore career options through the many upper-division classes she took. In particular, the intensive laboratory experiences in senior Microbiology and Neuroscience courses, along with a Human Genetics course, have cemented her long-term goals of pursuing graduate study in a molecular genetics field and to pursue a career in research. Valeria is proud to be graduating cum laude as the first-generation STEM graduate in her family.

Celeste Hofstetter '22 
Rosemary S.J. Schraer Award
Academic Excellence Award
Celeste has had an unconventional route to a Bachelor’s degree in Geology. After graduating high school she worked as a bookkeeper, a full time mom, a teacher’s aide, and a lunch lady – before a visit to the famous Mt. St Helens volcano inspired her to return to school to study the Earth. Since transferring to UCR in 2020, Celeste has conducted research on magnetostratigraphy of marine sediments, via an REU placement at Oregon State University — generating results that she presented at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting — and has continued that work for a senior thesis at UCR. She has also worked as an undergraduate grader, has received Dean’s List honors every quarter, and earned a cumulative GPA of 3.97, all while raising two teenage daughters. After graduation and completing the capstone Geology field camp, Celeste will return to UCR to start Ph.D. research on the oxygen fugacity of lavas from Hawaii, working with Dr. Maryjo Brounce.

Gabriel Johnshon '23
Academic Excellence Award

Jun Yim Lum '22 
Academic Excellence Award
Jun Yim completed his Honors capstone project under Dr. Chow-Yang Lee on the anthropogenic influence on long-legged ant and Argentine ant distribution, receiving an Undergraduate Education Mini-Grant and the Carl Strom/Western Exterminator Company Scholarship. He presented his research at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Symposium and is presently drafting the work for submission to the Journal of Economic Entomology. Jun Yim has served as the Natural History Museum Club secretary since 2020 and has consistently received the Dean’s Honors List while completing his B.S. in Entomology in three years with a 3.93 cumulative GPA.

Derek Ly '22 
Academic Excellence Award

William Mol '22 
Academic Excellence Award
William took on a fascinating and challenging project in the Behavioral Neuroscience area of Psychology in Fall 2021. As a transfer student from Saddleback Community college, Will came to UCR in 2020 and despite the tumultuous pandemic phase, he has excelled. Will has been on the Dean's Honors list, every quarter since he came to UCR and has a stellar 4.0 GPA. His research is focused on understanding timing impairments in Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). Disorientation with respect to time and other timing issues are common to individuals with FXS. Using a novel paradigm that William co-designed with a graduate student, he is using a mouse model of FXS to understand how dysfunctional circuits in the brain contribute to timing impairments in FXS. Will is planning to pursue a Ph.D. in systems neuroscience so he can understand how neurons communicate to give rise to language and thought.

Alexandria Richardson '22 
Academic Excellence Award
Alexandria is a senior undergraduate student at the Department of Statistics. She was part of the Summer Research In Science and Engineering Program (RISE) program where she was supervised by Professor Weixin Yao.  She also participated in the Irvine Summer Institute in Neuroscience Program and the David H. Blackwell Summer ‘21 Scholars Program at the University of Illinois.  After graduating she plans to pursue an MD/Ph.D.

Andrea Romero '22 
Academic Excellence Award
After winning a position in the NIFA-funded Six Legs Program Andrea worked within the Groen Lab on the genetic basis of plant defense against nematode parasites, where she received a prestigious U-SPARC fellowship last fall that funded her research. Andrea’s work on tomato and the genetic model plant Arabidopsis will form an invaluable contribution to a scientific manuscript that will be submitted for publication this summer. In addition to research, Andrea worked tirelessly and selflessly as a mentor in the Six Legs and Chicano Link Peer Mentor programs helping students from underprivileged and/or minoritized backgrounds with pursuing academic studies in STEM serves as secretary and national liaison for the UCR Chapter of the Society for Advancements of Chicano/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

Tyler Rosauer '22 
Rosemary S.J. Schraer Award
Academic Excellence Award
In his undergraduate years, Tyler spent his time researching in Dr. Yongtao Cui’s Nanowave Electronics Lab, and in Dr. Jonathan Richardson’s Experimental Gravity group. This summer he will be serving as a mentor for the prestigious LIGO SURF program at UCR, assisting a visiting student in completing a comprehensive project related to his current research. Along with his involvement as a board member of the Society of Physics Students and the Geology Student Organization, Tyler has been placed on the Dean’s Honors list every quarter and has a 3.99 cumulative GPA. He was awarded two additional awards from the physics department: Outstanding Third and Fourth Year Undergraduate Student. In the fall, he will begin pursuing his Ph.D. here at UC Riverside, continuing in the field of Experimental Gravity. 

Rany Tith '22 
Academic Excellence Award
Research has played a major role in Rany’s life as a student. Before transferring to UCR, Rany worked on LiFePO4 battery synthesis at CE-CERT and published in two peer-reviewed conference journals. In addition to that, his interdisciplinary take on research is what distinguishes his academic history from others. Afterwards he would go on to present research on natural language processing at SocCal NLP at USC and present original research at AMS Fall 2019 on machine learning and category theory. While at UCR, Rany spent time with Dr. John Baez and his students to explore the connections between systems and how category theory can be applied. Now Rany works with Dr. Qixuan Wang on optimizing algorithmic runtime of  biological models to better understand the life cycle of hair follicle cells. He is also on the board of the competitive coding club where he represented UCR at SoCal ICPC regionals.

Walker Woodard '22 
Outstanding Achievement Award
Academic Excellence Award
Throughout his time at UCR, Walker has worked within the Biomedical Sciences Department under Dr. Iryna Ethell investigating a form of genetic autism called Fragile X Syndrome. His contributions have been substantial with two co-author publications within the Journal of Neurochemistry and Neurobiology of Disease. In addition to research, Walker has been heavily involved in the campus community as a CNAS Scholars Peer Mentor and Advancement Ambassador, all while maintaining a 3.96 cumulative GPA. Upon graduating, he will take part in the Coro National Fellowship in San Francisco to merge his interest for scientific research and public policy. Walker plans to be a connection between scientists, policy makers, and business leaders in the future after obtaining his Ph.D. in Biology.

Heather Zechiel '22 
Academic Excellence Award
Heather’s journey to the university has been a nontraditional one. After years in the workforce, she began attending community college at night. In 2020, Heather transferred to UCR from Irvine Valley College, where she earned Associate’s degrees in Chemistry, French, and Physical Science. Along with her coursework, she successfully juggles employment and a long commute, all while maintaining a 3.93 GPA. Heather currently serves as an intern at the Irvine Ranch Water District, where she performs water quality tests with their Inorganic Chemistry group. After graduation, Heather hopes to continue her work as a lab analyst to help keep water clean.