Five Guggenheim Fellows at UCLA

UCLA’s 2025 Guggenheim Fellows are (clockwise from top left): Mona Jarrahi, Park Williams, Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni, Jingyi Jessica Li and Suk-Young Kim. Credit: UCLA

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Eleven UC faculty have been awarded 2025 Guggenheim fellowships, a prestigious honor granted to distinguished artists and scholars that provides support for their creative and research endeavors. Five are from UCLA:

Mona Jarrahi, engineering: Jarrahi, who holds the Northrop Grumman Chair in Electrical Engineering, focuses on the development and application of novel electromagnetic techniques. As director of the Terahertz Electronics Laboratory at UCLA, she studies ultrafast electronic and optoelectronic devices with a focus on expanding the capabilities of terahertz sensing, imaging and communication systems for applications in a variety of areas, ranging from atmospheric research and biological analysis to medical imaging. Jarrahi is also a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.

Jingyi Jessica Li, data science: An interdisciplinary expert in statistics and genomics and professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Li focuses on developing statistical and computational tools to answer biological and biomedical questions, including reducing false positives in the analysis of large RNA sequencing data sets. Her research aims to provide more reliable information about genetics and cell biology, with significant potential positive impacts in the prevention and treatment of disease. Li is also a faculty member in the interdepartmental doctoral program in bioinformatics and leads the Junction of Statistics and Biology, a research group focused on bridging methodological innovation with impactful biomedical applications.

Suk-Young Kim, theatre arts & performance studies: Professor and head of theater and performance studies at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Kim’s research interests cover a wide range of disciplines, from East Asian performance and visual culture to Russian and Slavic literature and folklore. Her work focuses primarily on body politics, transmedia, the entertainment industry and the historical roots of today’s popular culture. She is the author of several books on Korean pop music and television and is a sought-after media commentator on Korean politics, culture and media.

Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni, Earth science: Lithgow-Bertelloni, who holds UCLA’s Louis B. and Martha B. Slichter Chair in Geosciences, studies the connections between Earth’s surface processes and the subsurface forces that drive and shape them. As the leader of the KGB Lab, her recent work has reexamined the strength of Earth’s mantle and explored the ways in which the mantle’s fluid dynamics and thermodynamics may have influenced the planet’s thermal and biological evolution. She has developed and applied techniques of particle image velocimetry and thermometry to visualize vigorous flow in very viscous fluids, aiding our understanding of Hawaiian volcanoes.

Park Williams, climate studies: Williams, who holds a joint appointment in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, is a hydroclimatologist who uses statistical analyses of climate data, reconstructions of past ecosystem behavior and a detailed understanding of plant ecology to study the impacts of climate on Earth’s water and land systems. His research aims to improve our understanding of how climate change influences the hydrological cycle and ecological dynamics and how extremes like drought, floods, heat waves and wildfires affect life on the planet. Williams, who runs the HyFives research lab at UCLA, was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2023.

Full release at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/11-uc-faculty-honored-2025-guggenheim-fellowships.