UCLA Samueli Dean Honored with Teaching, Research Awards
Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has recently received a trio of awards in honor of her research and teaching.
Park, who took the helm of UCLA Samueli in September 2023, has been named one of 12 recipients of the 2025 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering Award by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). She also received the Engineers’ Council Distinguished Engineering Educator Award for 2025, and was named a fellow of the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF).
Park’s research focuses on sustainable energy and material conversion pathways with an emphasis on using integrated carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies to address climate change. At UCLA, she leads a research group of more than a dozen students and postdoctoral scholars to investigate direct air capture of carbon dioxide and negative emission technologies, including bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and sustainable construction materials with low carbon intensity. Her recent work includes carbon mineralization integrated with the recovery of energy-relevant critical minerals for clean energy transition.
The biennial IUPAC award recognizes distinguished women in the field of chemistry and chemical engineering for their commitment to research, education and leadership in community service projects. This year’s awardees will be officially recognized at the IUPAC General Assembly and World Chemistry Congress in July in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Established in 1955, the Engineers’ Council seeks to advance the art and science of engineering for the general welfare of humankind. The council’s annual awards celebrate individuals with major accomplishments in engineering education, mentorship and leadership, as well as those with significant professional contributions to their fields. Honorees were recognized at the organization’s annual banquets, which took place late February.
The AASF was established in 2021 and dedicated to advancing Asian American contributions in science, engineering, technology and medicine. Including Park, the AASF now has more than 110 fellows, with more than a third holding memberships in national academies or having served in prominent leadership roles, including university presidents, provosts, deans, department chairs and institute directors.
Prior to joining UCLA, Park was a faculty member at Columbia University in New York from 2007 to 2023. She served as the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change and director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy. She was also the chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering and an executive committee member of The Earth Institute and Columbia Climate School.
Among her numerous awards and honors are an American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Particle Technology Forum’s Shell Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems, a U.S. Clean Energy Education and Research Award, AIChE Particle Technology Forum’s Particulate Solid Research Inc Lectureship Award, Columbia University’s Janette and Armen Avanessians Diversity Award, an American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee Rising Star Award and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. She is a member of numerous editorial and advisory boards, and has led a number of global and national discussions on carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies, including the 2019 National Petroleum Council Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Report and the 2017 Mission Innovation Workshop on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage.