UCLA Student, KN Ngo, NIH Scholarship

UCLA psychology student wins NIH Undergraduate Scholarship

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By Kayla McCormack | January 6, 2026

Fourth-year psychology major Khoa-Nathan Ngo has been selected as one of the recipients of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Undergraduate Scholarship Program. This highly competitive award is typically offered to about 12 to 15 students annually.

“It just feels incredible to be selected as a winner. Thanks to this award I don’t have any student loan debt. It also brings me a lot of pride, especially in the ecosystem that scientific research is going through right now, to earn this distinction from the NIH.”

The scholarship provides $20,000 per academic year to support students with tuition, education, and reasonable living expenses. As part of the award, recipients complete a 10-week summer internship and commit to a year of full-time work at the NIH after graduation. Ngo compares the NIH’s role in health research to NASA’s role in space exploration, underscoring his excitement for the opportunity.

Ngo, a transfer from Foothill College, chose his major after discovering a passion for mental health advocacy. As a policy intern with Santa Clara County, he helped lobby for Senate Bill 1318, requiring schools to implement suicide intervention plans.

He also serves as a youth fellow with the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, a statewide effort to improve mental health support for young people. Currently, he works on the CAL-MAP project, which connects rural primary care providers with psychiatric consultations through a secure online portal to expand behavioral health access.

“Working in policy, I met many lawyers and policy analysts but also doctors and scientists who stepped beyond academia,” Ngo said. “I saw how advocating for greater access gave their clinical work and research more meaning. I couldn’t pursue the physician-scientist path if I couldn’t continue to advocate for increased mental health access.”

At UCLA, Ngo began his start in research journey through the Psychology Research Opportunities Programs, more commonly referred to as PROPS. He worked with Patrick Wilson investigating the role that race-related mistrust plays in medication adherence amongst queer men with HIV.

This year, he’s working in the Brain Body Lab led by Bridget Callaghan, associate professor of psychology, studying the impacts of loneliness during the Covid-19 pandemic on the gut microbiomes of adolescents.

“Undergraduate research, without exaggeration, gave meaning to my academic journey,” Ngo said.  “I am still blown away by the sheer amount of knowledge I have yet to acquire. It makes me admire my mentors even more.”

Ngo hopes to get his M.D./Ph.D. in health psychology or social neuroscience after completing his undergraduate degree.

“I’d love a role that would allow me to do research and clinical care,” said Ngo. “I would also really like to make mentorship and advocacy a huge part of what I do. I’d like to put an emphasis on training those who might not have had the opportunity to enter medicine or science.”

The UCLA Center for Scholarships and Scholar Enrichment empowers students to discover, apply for, and secure scholarships through personalized guidance and support. Learn more.

Read original publication here.

Amit Rand

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Meet Amit Rand! Amit is a fourth-year Mathematics of Computation major currently conducting research in the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Lab (CVIRL). In addition, Amit was recently accepted into the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP), a three-quarter scholarship program that supports students who are conducting a life science, physical science, or engineering research project with a UCLA faculty. After completing his PhD, Amit hopes to work at a foundational research lab (industry or academia) focused on cutting-edge mechanistic machine learning, and eventually pursue entrepreneurship. Learn more about Amit and his UCLA research experience below.

1. How did you first get involved in your research project? Tell us a bit about the lab you are in and the research you are conducting (if possible)!

I joined the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Lab (CVIRL) under Prof. Kim-Lien Nguyen and Prof. J. Paul Finn at the David Geffen School of Medicine shortly after transferring to UCLA, and I’ve been in the lab since July 2024. I’m fortunate to be mentored by Dr. Kim-Lien Nguyen and her post-doctoral fellows, Dr. Thomas Coudert and Dr. Mostafa Mahmoudi, and to work with her collaborator,  Prof. Dan Ruan, as part of a broader effort to accelerate MRI using machine learning.

A core challenge in MRI is that scans can be time-consuming, which often requires patients to hold their breath to reduce motion and improve image quality. Our long-term goal is to enable free-breathing MRI that improves the patient experience without sacrificing diagnostic fidelity. My work focuses on using generative modeling methods to reconstruct images from faster, more limited measurements. I initially joined the lab through a different project and later transitioned into this direction. Along the way, working closely with postdoctoral scholars and project scientists has been especially formative.

2. How would you describe your research experience at UCLA?

My research experience at UCLA has been incredibly positive and impactful. Through the Student Research Program (SRP), I have been able to dedicate structured, accredited time to research while staying on track academically. In addition to participating in SRP throughout the past year, this quarter I have been able to conduct full-time research through a 12-unit SRP enrollment, which has been especially aligned with my goal of pursuing a PhD. I have also felt strongly supported by mentors across the lab, including faculty, postdocs, and graduate researchers, who consistently make time to teach, give feedback, and help students grow.

Working in a clinical research environment has been uniquely motivating because I can see the real-world importance of the problems we’re solving and how they connect to patient care. I’ve also benefited a lot from URC resources and research-focused seminars, especially sessions that demystify topics like getting started in research and preparing for graduate school.

Additionally, I have felt supported more broadly within UCLA’s academic environment as I have pursued research. I have been fortunate to take multiple graduate-level courses through instructors’ consideration and encouragement, and those experiences have strengthened my technical foundation and clarified the research directions I want to pursue going forward.

3. What is your year and major?

Senior (Class of 2026) and Mathematics of Computation

4. What is one piece of advice you have for other students thinking about getting involved in research? As a transfer student yourself, do you have advice specific to other transfer students?

If you’re even considering research, try it. There’s no “perfect time” to start, and it’s often the best way to discover what you enjoy. Many faculty and labs are genuinely excited to mentor motivated undergraduates, especially when you reach out with a clear interest, willingness to learn, and commitment.

For transfer students specifically, leverage UCLA’s structured programs, especially URC Sciences, early, because they can accelerate your integration into the research community. And if it’s hard to get traction at first, don’t be discouraged. Reach out to postdocs and graduate students, too. They can often offer a smaller, well-scoped project that helps you build confidence, skills, and momentum toward a deeper research role. However, be mindful of postdocs’ and graduate students’ time, and always reach out to the Principal Investigator before starting any project.

5. Have you attended a conference before? If so, can you describe your experience on preparation, presenting, etc.?

I recently attended my first conference, The Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), where I presented a workshop paper. It was an amazing experience to be surrounded by experts in the field and to have so many conversations across a wide range of topics.

In preparation, I created my first poster, applied for grants to help cover the cost of attendance and travel, and made sure I could clearly explain my work. For presenting, it helps to have a strong two to five minute overview ready, then be prepared to answer questions and engage in deeper discussion. Most interactions move quickly, but the best conversations are with people working on closely related problems. I was fortunate to speak with teams from Microsoft Research, professors from Cambridge and Emory, and researchers at Toyota Research Institute about parallel ideas and directions.

One piece of advice I would carry forward is to attend the full conference if you can. Being there for the entire week makes a big difference for learning and networking.

6. Have you had your work published? Can you talk about what that process was like?

I have published a peer-reviewed workshop paper at NeurIPS as a co-first author, based on independent research with a peer.

The review process was a valuable first-time experience. I learned how to interpret reviewer feedback, respond thoughtfully to critiques, and iterate on the work to strengthen the final submission. Because NeurIPS workshops are peer reviewed, I was also assigned a few papers to review, which gave me experience seeing the process from the reviewer’s perspective and helped me better understand what makes a submission clear, rigorous, and compelling.

7. What are your future career goals?

After completing my PhD, I hope to work at a foundational research lab (industry or academia) focused on cutting-edge mechanistic machine learning, and eventually pursue entrepreneurship. I believe we are at the start of a major transition, and I want to help build the systems that will shape our world by making them safer, more reliable, while being grounded in the real-world. Longer term, I would also love to return to academia in a teaching-focused role at the university level.

8. Please list any URC/departmental programs you are/were involved in. How has your experience been in these programs?

This year (2025–2026), I have been part of the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) Sciences, and I also took the RES PRC 194B graduate school application seminar.

URSP is a scholarship program and provides a strong support system. It supplies resources that make it easier to navigate research and build a clearer path forward to ultimately achieve your goals. One of the most memorable parts was access to the research practices courses (RES PRC).

The graduate school applications seminar with Dr. Hasson was especially helpful. The course is designed to help you build every component of a graduate application end-to-end, then refine it through structured feedback from peers and professors who have either gone through the process or are going through it alongside you.

9. What was the impact of undergraduate research on your career path?

Undergraduate research has been the main reason I am now committed to pursuing a PhD and building a long-term career in research. As a transfer student, my path into research was not straightforward, and community college made it clear how challenging it can be to access both research and industry opportunities. Over the past few years, I completed about five industry internships and three research experiences, which gave me a meaningful basis to compare the two.

While I initially expected to go directly into industry, my research experiences were more fulfilling on an intellectual and technical level, and they gave me a stronger sense of purpose and curiosity in my work. Ultimately, undergraduate research shaped my career direction by helping me realize that I want to contribute by doing deep, long-term research and mentorship in the field.

 

Russel Ahmed, student researcher, running in race

Running for research

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UCLA Health featured URSP alum, Russell Ahmed, as he raises awareness on the importance of critical scientific research by running the ASICS LA Marathon.

“Russell Ahmed will be running his first marathon – the ASICS Los Angeles Marathon – on March 8, one eye on the road in front of him and the other on scientific research that changes lives around the world.

Ahmed, 22, graduated from UCLA in June with a BS in neuroscience. Since his freshman year, he had worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the lab of Scott Wilke, MD, PhD, studying the brain’s circuitry and how it is disrupted in psychiatric disorders.

In his senior year, Ahmed was awarded a fellowship under UCLA’s Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Ahmed was in line to be hired at the lab for a two-year stint before entering an MD-PhD program in 2027, but due to funding freezes he instead worked as an unpaid volunteer for three months. He was then hired by the Wilke lab as a research technician to work with Michael Gongwer, a trainee in UCLA’s Medical Scientist Training Program in the lab of Laura DeNardo, PhD.

The experience and the hurdles stuck with Ahmed, so when it came time to consider running the LA Marathon, he decided to use the opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of critical scientific research. At the same time, he would raise money for event host The McCourt Foundation, which supports research into the cure of neurological diseases.

Ahmed has set out to raise $675 for the McCourt Foundation and, as part of his efforts, was featured in an LA Marathon Instagram post on Giving Tuesday in November.

“I figured fundraising for The McCourt Foundation, while it did not directly address research funding crises here at UCLA, it was a way for me to fight back,” Ahmed said. “It’s just the fact I’m even able to raise awareness even if it doesn’t result in any amount of money. Just spreading awareness that there is lifesaving research, to protect this pursuit to understand diseases and come up with new ways to treat them.””

Read full article by Leo Smith. 

 

3 alumni Nobel laureates recount how UCLA set them on a path to the prize

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Three alumni Nobel laureates speak about the impact of their UCLA research experience in this Newsroom article. Frederick J. Ramsdell, Ardem Patapoutian, and Randy Schekman “highlight the national importance of accessible and well-funded higher education, and how the opportunities and resources they first found in Westwood played a vital role in their scientific journeys”.

Read the full article here: 3 alumni Nobel laureates recount how UCLA set them up on a path to the prize

 

Many scientific and medical studies at UCLA face an uncertain future amid federal cuts. Pictured is UCLA Medical Center. (Mel Bouzad / Getty Images North America )

Potential stroke and dementia therapies, along with oral health discoveries, put on hold at UCLA

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In an LAist report, researchers describe how suspended funding endangers critical advances and risks a ‘brain drain’ from science

Click to read Newsroom article here

Click to read LAist article by Jacob Margolis

“The UCLA neuroscience program and UCLA Undergraduate Research Center had a tremendous impact on my early career development as a scientist. Along with learning from directly from the exceptional faculty, through these funding sources I was able to work for several years in the Istvan Mody laboratory and build foundational research skills. The financial support provided by UCLA enabled me to pursue graduate education in neuroscience and continue to my current role in neuroscience drug discovery. These funding cuts will have an impact on the similar path for neuroscience research trainees. Please consider supporting UCLA neuroscience students at this time. Reach out Tama Hasson or Gina R. Poe for ways to provide support.” – Matt Kelley

An illustration of a pencil, scissors, a DNA molecule, a fish, a bird, a penguin, medical supplies, a heart, a brain, leaves, a light bulb, a microscope, laboratory testing tubes, three screens depicting people in a virtual meeting, a thermometer, planet Earth and a recycling sign in front of a blue and yellow background.

The Next 100 Years

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Did our wise forebears have any idea just how much incredible progress would occur in the first century of the UCLA College? Their highest hopes would be borne out by the world-changing research, education and service spearheaded by the Bruins who came after. As we find ourselves at the beginning of the UCLA College’s second century, we asked a selection of our leaders those same true-blue-and-gold questions: What’s next? And how will the UCLA College lead the way?

Read full UCLA Magazine article here. (August 2025)

“We hope that the next 100 years of undergraduate research at UCLA will bring more: more research opportunities, more mentorship, more scholarships for our students, more research, more knowledge, more discovery! Every day the Undergraduate Research Centers work to make undergraduate research more accessible at UCLA, and we hope that in 100 years (or even better, much sooner), every undergraduate at UCLA who wants to do research will have the opportunity to do so!”

—Jacquelyn Ardam, director, URC – Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
—Tama Hasson, assistant dean for undergraduate research and director, URC – Sciences

Banner for 'Finding confidence through research' Newsroom article

Finding Confidence Through Research

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By Kayla McCormack

May 22, 2025

This article originally appeared on the UCLA Newsroom. 

 

Ananya Ravikumar moved from Bangalore, India, to Los Angeles, to start her journey at UCLA, she was stepping into the unknown. New place, new school, new independence — it was a lot to take in.

“I came in feeling very overwhelmed,” she said. “Now, standing on the other side, I feel more secure and know that I can handle change a lot better than I would have before.”

Ravikumar is graduating this June with a bachelor’s degree in molecular, cell and developmental biology with a minor in biomedical research. She sees her time in college as a journey toward self-confidence — in the lab, classroom and life.

Academically, she found clarity early on. Her high school interest in biology evolved into a passion for understanding disease at the molecular level.

“I was interested in immunology because it connects to public health,” she said. “But I’ve always wanted to know why things happen in the body. Studying molecular biology helped me understand cellular processes, the basis of disease and where therapies can make a difference.”

Her experiences in the lab deepened her interest, and programs like the Beckman Scholars Program, which allowed her to devote entire summers to research, were especially valuable.

“Summers in the lab taught me what it’s like to be a Ph.D. student,” she said. “During the school year, it can sometimes be stressful to balance classwork and other engagements with experiments in the lab. The full-time experience helped me effectively deepen my skills.”

Outside the lab, Ravikumar joined student organizations that helped her find community and purpose. One of the most impactful was Swipe Out Hunger, a club focused on addressing food insecurity on campus and in Los Angeles.

“Being part of that club helps me give back to the community in a meaningful way,” she said. “We work to support students and the larger Los Angeles population suffering from food insecurity. The people I met at Swipe Out Hunger became close friends.”

That sense of support, she said, is critical in every space, especially in research environments.

“You want a lab that’s collaborative,” she said. “An encouraging lab will help you find the strength to navigate the ups and downs of research. Choosing the right environment matters.”

Her experience in the Lowry Lab, where she uses stem cell cultures to model and study intellectual and developmental disorders, reinforced to her that research was the right path forward. This fall, she’ll begin her Ph.D. program in gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I’m excited to further build my research and critical thinking skills,” she said. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity to do this.”

Two undergraduate research students in a lab.

Undergraduate Research Week showcases student innovation and creativity

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This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom.
See how two undergraduate researchers spend their days — in the lab and in the community

From lab breakthroughs to community-based inquiries, UCLA students are tackling some of today’s most pressing questions and Undergraduate Research Week offers a front-row seat to their work. 

The weeklong event, kicking off Monday, May 19, features more than 1,700 students presenting original research and creative work across various disciplines. Among this year’s participants are Satema Lopez and Wilson Zheng, two students whose work highlights the diverse and impactful undergraduate research at UCLA.

Exploring cancer at the cellular level

Wilson Zheng

For Zheng, research means digging deep into the cellular mechanisms that fuel cancer. A fourth-year student studying molecular, cell and developmental biology, with a minor in biomedical research, Zheng works in the Lowry Lab, under William Lowry, associate director of education and technology transfer at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology.

Zheng’s project focuses on targeting metabolic pathways with pharmacological inhibitors to try and prevent the development and progression of squamous cell carcinomas. These increasingly common skin cancers, often linked to UV exposure and aging, carry the risk of metastasis and serious health consequences.

Spend a day in the lab with Zheng:

Advancing health equity through culturally competent care

Satema Lopez

Lopez is a fourth-year student majoring in education and social transformation, with a minor in American Indian studies. Her research sits at the intersection of public health, social justice and advocacy for Indigenous communities. 

Lopez began her research journey with the UCLA School of Dentistry, where she worked in Dr. Yvonne Hernandez-Kapila’s lab studying the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and periodontal disease. She has since expanded her focus to explore broader questions of health equity for Indigenous communities.

Her current research project, “Restoring Trust: Experiential approaches to culturally competent health care for American Indians in Los Angeles,” involves surveying Native patients in L.A. County to better understand their experiences within the health care system. In addition, she is interviewing Native physicians to illuminate their paths through pre-med and medical training, stories that speak to both systemic barriers and resilience.

See a day in Lopez’s life as a researcher: 

Undergraduate Research Week is one of UCLA’s largest celebrations of student discovery. From STEM to the arts and humanities, these projects reflect the passion, purpose and potential of UCLA’s undergraduate scholars.

Learn more about Undergraduate Research Week here.

Sohan Talluri, Class of '25; We wanted every student to feel like they belonged. Click here for full article.

‘We wanted every student to feel like they belonged’

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By Kayla McCormack | May 15, 2025

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. 

For Sohan Talluri, science has always been personal. The San Jose, California, native’s academic path was shaped as much by what happened in doctors’ offices as in classrooms and labs.

Talluri grew up managing severe food allergies, often visiting specialists and hoping for a cure. “I had hopes that whatever they would give me would sort of fix this problem,” he said. “This was not the case.”

While Talluri was diligent about managing his allergies and never experienced a severe reaction, his younger brother landed in the emergency room on several occasions. Seeing his brother suffer through those complications sparked Talluri’s interest in understanding immunology.

“I was looking into labs, and I knew that food allergies and asthma had not only affected me, but my family,” he said. “Getting into research about immunotherapy treatments felt like a natural next step.”

Drawing inspiration from research and the lab environment

He got that opportunity at UCLA, where he took on a major in microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics with a minor in biomedical research. An introductory biology course with professor Yvonne Chen later led to an undergraduate researcher position in Chen’s lab. Talluri spent that first summer in the lab “as much as possible,” learning hands-on research techniques in cancer immunotherapy under the guidance of his graduate student mentors.

“I basically picked up all of my tangible research skills that summer,” Talluri said. “That experience had an undeniable impact on my trajectory.”

After establishing his wet lab skill set, Talluri found purpose in clinical research and public health outreach. Working with Dr. Maria Garcia-Lloret, health sciences clinical professor and director of the allergy/immunology fellowship program in the David Geffen School of Medicine pediatrics department, he contributed to multiple food allergy clinical trials as well as a webinar series that educated over 900 nurses across the Los Angeles Unified School District on food allergies and EpiPen usage.

Then, during the summers of 2023 and 2024, he participated in the National Institutes of Health summer internship program, working in Dr. Naomi Taylor’s lab at the National Cancer Institute to continue his research into cancer immunotherapies.

“These experiences gave me so much perspective — in academia, in clinical research and then the government perspective,” he said. “I heard the NIH described as the Mecca of biomedical research, and walking past some of the top labs in the country — it was incredibly inspiring.”

Creating a community tradition

Mentorship has been a through line in Talluri’s UCLA story — both inside and outside the lab. As a learning assistant and subsequently a teaching assistant for several life sciences core curriculum courses, he helped fellow students navigate classes, research and the broader academic transition to the university.

“It’s about being an ideal guide. Someone who can get the students to see that there are opportunities for success, even if you struggle at first,” he said.

Building community has also been a focus for Talluri. Through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Research Associates Program, he mentored high school students from underserved communities, introducing them to clinical research. He guided them through developing research proposals and later welcomed them to campus as a tour guide for their final culmination day.

“It’s amazing; some of the students have never even heard of clinical research before, and at the end of the program they wrote these incredible proposals,” he said. “That kind of outreach is so important.”

Talluri also found a unique opportunity to build community within the life sciences at UCLA. When he arrived as a first-year student in fall 2021, in-person instruction was just returning after the COVID-19 pandemic. While other divisions held welcome events, the life sciences had none — something he was determined to change.

As internal vice president of the Life Sciences Student Association, he helped organize the division’s first-ever Life Sciences New Student Welcome in fall 2022, and the event has since become an annual tradition.

“We wanted every student to feel like they belonged here,” he said.

For one attendee, a student uncertain about her place in the life sciences, the welcome proved transformative. She later became LSSA president and credited the event with helping her find her closest friends at UCLA.

“You can measure success in numbers,” Talluri said. “But it’s the stories like hers that show the event really worked — and that this community will continue to grow.”

Outside academics, Talluri finds balance through the same curiosity and adventurous spirit that drives his research. A lifelong Eagle Scout, he’s backpacked through Alaska, snorkeled in the coral reefs of the Florida Keys, and explored trails around Southern California.

“I think my experience at UCLA would be a lot dimmer had I not gotten involved in things outside of research,” he said.

His undergraduate years weren’t without challenges. From the Omicron wave his freshman year to a campus-wide teaching assistant strike, protests and nearby wildfires, Talluri’s time at UCLA tested his adaptability and resolve.

“In research, resilience is definitely something I’ll take forward,” he said. “Your cells won’t always grow the way you want, your experiments may not work, but that resilience will carry me through the tough times.”

After his graduation in June, Talluri — who continues to manage his food allergies — plans to return to the National Institutes of Health for a year before attending medical school. Whether it is in the lab, clinic or community, he’s committed to helping others find their path, just as he’s found his.