The CHP Shines Brightly at Lauds and Laurels

Lauds and Laurels is the UCI Alumni Association’s annual awards banquet that recognizes distinguished alumni and outstanding students, faculty, and staff and raises funds for UCI Alumni Association scholarships. This year the CHP was particularly honored to have two awardees! CHP alumna Vy Dong (Chemistry, ’98) won this year’s Distinguished Alumni award for the School of Physical Sciences. Dong, a Professor of Chemistry at UCI, has established herself as a world leader in organic chemistry, and a star in the pioneering of novel synthetic methods minimizing chemical waste, increasing synthetic convergence, and reducing steps to prepare intricate and valuable compounds. CHP graduating senior Iman Siddiqi (Political Science and Global Middle East Studies) received the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award. In addition to being a Dalai Lama Scholar and an exemplary student, Iman is an outspoken advocate for diversity and inclusion, and the catalyst behind the new UCI Refugee Scholarship Fund, which raised close to $100,000 to be given out in the 2019 academic year. CHP alumni and staff cheered on the winners from a CHP table generously supported by CHP alumni Michael and Kimberly Ong (’93 and ’95). Many congratulations to our two winners!