Each year, the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering honors alumni, faculty, students and other engineering leaders for outstanding achievements in their fields. The following profiles highlight recipients of the 2026 Edward K. Rice Outstanding Student Award.

Edward K. Rice Outstanding Doctoral Student
Guorui Chen Ph.D. ’25

Guorui Chen earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering from UCLA Samueli in 2025 and is currently a postdoctoral researcher in bioengineering associate professor Jun Chen’s lab. His research integrates medical devices and artificial intelligence to advance data-driven healthcare. He is the first author of papers published in journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature Cardiovascular Research and Nature Chemical Engineering.

Chen has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and has received an Amazon Doctoral Fellowship, an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship and a Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Gold Award. He has also been recognized with the MRS Arthur Nowick Graduate Student Award for mentoring and teaching.

Shaped in part by his own experience as a first-generation college student, Chen is deeply committed to broadening access to research through teaching and mentorship. His long-term goal is to translate his research into tangible social benefit by promoting longer, healthier lives for all.

Edward K. Rice Outstanding Master’s Student
Fang Zhou M.S. ’25

Fang Zhou earned an M.S.  in chemical engineering from UCLA Samueli in 2025 and is now a doctoral student advised by chemical and biomolecular engineering associate professor Nasim Annabi. Her research focuses on developing conductive biomaterials and using biofabrication strategies for cardiovascular tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

As a master’s student, Zhou developed a multifunctional nanocomposite hydrogel to fabricate 3D-bioprinted patches for electroactive tissue repair. She is working on advancing vascularized and anisotropic platforms to better mimic native cardiac tissue architecture. Zhou aims to continue developing translational biomaterials for cardiac tissue repair and bioelectronic tissue interfaces with long-term applications.

Zhou serves as publicity coordinator for the graduate student committee of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at UCLA. She has also mentored several undergraduate students, served as a teaching assistant in chemical engineering courses and contributed to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach programs for K-12 students through UCLA’s Nanoscience Lab.

Edward K. Rice Outstanding Bachelor’s Student
Isabella He ’25, M.S. ’25

Isabella He graduated cum laude from UCLA Samueli in 2025 as a departmental scholar with a B.S. and M.S. in materials science and engineering. As a member of materials science and engineering associate professor Aaswath Raman’s research group, she explored thermal solutions for satellite missions through the Electron Losses and Fields Investigation and a scalable optoelectronic voltage conversion platform.

She was internal technical director for SWE at UCLA, where she coordinated events to help members develop skills beyond the classroom. She also organized the group’s flagship pride-themed hackathon, QWER Hacks, which celebrates the queer community in STEM. He participated in the UCLA dance community as a member of the Association of Chinese Americans All Day, a competitive open-style dance team, and the K-Pop group SEOULA.

She is currently a doctoral student at Stanford University studying active and quantum nanophotonics, and is eager to continue her outreach efforts to help support disadvantaged communities.

Edward K. Rice Outstanding Bachelor’s Student
Natalie Tsubamoto ’25

Natalie Tsubamoto graduated summa cum laude from UCLA Samueli in 2025 with a B.S. in bioengineering. At UCLA, she conducted research in bioengineering professor Dino Di Carlo’s lab, leveraging microfluidics-based particle technologies to advance cell therapies, wound healing, vaccine delivery and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

Tsubamoto served as president of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, as well as cell team project manager and external vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society at UCLA. She was an Amgen Scholar at Caltech and interned at MET Biotechnology, a startup based in the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA’s Magnify Incubator. She also developed clinical skills working as an emergency medical technician and scribe.

She is currently an M.D. candidate at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, where her research spans vascular biomechanics in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and organoid development at the Mills Breast Cancer Institute, reflecting her interests in surgical innovation and translational oncology.