Chemistry Awards
ACS Excellence in Chemical Sciences Award
Chemistry Recipient: Rawit Assamongkol
Biochemistry Recipient: William Wang
Awarded to a top senior who has completed analytical coursework.
ACS Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
Recipients: Lu Yao Friedmann
Awarded to a top senior who has demonstrated excellence in organic chemistry through coursework, research and a desire to pursue a career in chemistry.
Albert Borgman / Phi Beta Kappa Thesis Prize
Nominee: Ilan Pesselev
Awarded to a senior with the top honors thesis in science.
Arthur E. Hill Prize in Chemistry
Recipient: Diego Quintana Licona
Created in memory of Arthur E. Hill, a member of the Department of Chemistry for 35 years and head of the Department from 1912 to 1937, this anonymously donated prize is awarded for excellence in chemistry to a senior who has majored in the subject.
Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Recipients: JJ Adler, Jesse Howard, Bearach Miwatani-Minder, Ilan Pesselev, Diego Quintana Licona, Michael Zheng
This is awarded to a student with a double grade point average (chemistry course GPA and overall GPA) of 3.8 or above. The student must also have exhibited a talent for research.
Departmental Scholar Award
Recipient: Michael Zheng
This is awarded to a student with a double grade point average (chemistry course GPA and overall GPA) of 3.8 or above. The student must also have exhibited a talent for research.
Edward J. McNelis Thesis Prize in Chemistry
Recipient: JJ Adler
Established in memory of Edward J. McNelis, a member of the Department of Chemistry faculty and chair of the Department in the 1980's, this prize is awarded for an outstanding thesis to a student planning to pursue research in the chemical sciences at the graduate level and beyond.
George Granger Brown Scholarships
Recipients: JJ Adler, Shan Chowdhury, Jesse Howard, Kareen Mohamed, Diego Quintana Licon, Ibrahim Sheikh, Zifeng Tang, William Wang
Established in 1967 to honor the memory of Dr. George Granger Brown, Dean of the University of Michigan School of Engineering, this scholarship is awarded for academic excellence to science majors in their senior year.
Harold Seidenstein Award
Recipient: Jesse Howard
Established in memory of alumnus Harold Seidenstein (BS in Chemistry 1934; MD in 1937), this award is for a student who shows exceptional ability in chemistry.
Isidore Rubiner Award
Recipient: Zifeng Tang
Established in honor of alumnus Isidore Rubiner (B.S. in chemistry 1922), this award is for outstanding chemical research.
Neville R. Kallenbach Award
Recipient: Lu Yao Friedmann
Established in honor of Neville R. Kallenabch, NYU Chemistry Professor Emeritus and chair of the department from 1987-1995, this award is for the best undergraduate thesis in the field of Chemical Biology, broadly defined.
Lillian Lindhardt-Solotoroff Prize in Chemistry
Recipient: Marzena Nguyen
Established in memory of Lillian Lindhardt-Solotoroff (class of 1924), this prize is awarded to a woman student who has taken at least three years of her college work in CAS and exhibited excellent scholarship in chemistry and in her overall studies.
Morris Fishman Award for Excellence in Organic Chemistry
Recipient: Ilan Pesselev
Established in memory of Morris Fishman, a longtime educator in the Department of Chemistry, this award is for a senior exhibiting excellence in organic chemistry and planning to pursue a career in medicine.
New York University Chemistry Alumni Association Award
Recipient: Navkawal Mattu
Awarded to a junior or senior with an outstanding record in chemistry.
Awards traditionally presented at the Department Graduation Ceremony
Morris Fishman
Neville R. Kallenbach
Harold Seidenstein
Edward J. McNelis
The Morris Fishman Award
The Morris Fishman Award for Excellence in Organic Chemistry was established with a generous gift from an anonymous donor. Morris Fishman was a beloved instructor of organic chemistry at New York University. A devoted teacher, Professor Fishman served NYU for over 20 years, training several generations of doctors with rigor and humor. In honor of the contribution of Professor Fishman to the education of pre-medical students, this prize is designed to encourage the best and brightest who choose a career path in medicine or scientific research. The prize includes a monetary award and a commemorative plaque.
The 2022 Fishman Award recipient is Ilan Pesselev. Ilan conducted research in the laboratory of Professor Teresa Davoli, culminating in his thesis, titled “Development of a Cas9 Mediated Approach for Inducing Chromosome-Specific Aneuploidy Enables A Comparative Phenotypic Study of Isogenic Aneuploid and Euploid Cell Lines”. Ilan has also been awarded a Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship and has been nominated for the Albert Borgman thesis prize. Ilan will continue his research at the Davoli group and volunteer with the Cardiac Surgical Unit at NYU Langone Hospital during a gap year as he applies to medical schools. Kudos to Ilan!
Recipient: Ilan Pesselev
The Neville R. Kallenbach Award
The Neville R. Kallenbach Award in Chemical Biology was established by friends and alumni in honor of its namesake, NYU Professor Emeritus and chair of the Department from 1987-1995. This award is for the best undergraduate thesis in the field of Chemical Biology, broadly defined, and includes a monetary award.
The 2022 Kallenbach Award recipient is Lu Yao (Lulu) Friedmann. Lulu conducted research in the laboratory of Professor Marcus Weck under the guidance of her graduate student mentor, Eman Ahmed, culminating in her thesis, titled “Hydroxy-L-Proline Functionalized Polymeric Micelles for Aqueous Asymmetric Catalysis”. Lulu has also been awarded the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry. Lulu will be working at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp this summer and studying for the MCATs during a gap year as she applies to medical schools. Kudos to Lulu!
Recipient: Lu Yao Friedmann
The Edward J. McNelis Thesis Prize
The Edward J. McNelis Thesis Prize in Chemistry was established in 2011 by Joseph and John McNelis in memory of their father, Professor of Chemistry at New York University until his passing in 2003. An active scholar and devoted teacher, Ed McNelis served NYU for 36 years, making numerous contributions to organic chemistry. He was Department Chair in the 1980s, where he provided leadership in all aspects of our science. In honor of the contribution of Edward McNelis to academia, this prize is designed to encourage students to pursue research in the chemical sciences at the graduate level and beyond.
The prize includes a monetary award and a commemorative plaque. The design on the plaque includes a typical product of a reaction known as “The McNelis Rearrangement,” coined by Professor Gerald F. Koser of The University of Akron, in his review article in the anniversary issue of Aldrichimica Acta, "1951-2001: Fifty Years of Chemists Helping Chemists." Special thanks to alumnus Pakorn Bavonsombat (currently Chair of Science at Mahidol University in Thailand) for the design concept.
The 2022 McNelis Thesis Prize was awarded to JJ Adler. JJ conducted research in the laboratory of Professor Bobby Arora , culminating in his thesis, titled “Design and Synthesis of Two-Component Organocatalysts for Peptide Bond Formation”. JJ has also been awarded a Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship as well as a George Granger Brown Scholarship. JJ will take a gap year, during which he will continue his research in the Arora lab and apply to MD/PhD programs for Fall 2023. Kudos to JJ!
Recipient: JJ Adler
The Harold Seidenstein Award
The Harold Seidenstein Award in Chemistry was established by Mrs. Florence Bankoff Seidenstein in memory of her husband. Harold was a two-time alumnus of NYU, receiving his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1934 and a degree in medicine in 1937, and even completing his medical residency at NYU. The award is presented to a high-achieving senior in chemistry and includes a monetary award.
In recent years, the award has been lovingly maintained by family members, each of whom carries on the family tradition of being linked to NYU science and medicine in various ways: Harold's son Michael K. Seidenstein, daughter Carole Seidenstein Landman, daughter-in-law Shelley Grodner Seidenstein and granddaughter Alexandra H. Seidenstein.
The 2022 Seidenstein Award recipient is Jesse Howard. Jesse conducted research in the laboratory of Professor Michele Pagano, culminating in his thesis, titled “Biologically Mapping Poly-Ubiquitinated Substrate Binding Protein”. Jesse has also been awarded a Dean’s Undergraduate Research fellowship as well as a George Granger Brown Scholarship. Jesse will continue research at NYU Langone while also applying to medical schools. Kudos to Jesse!
Recipient: Jesse Howard