2 UCI Students Win Research Fellowships

Two graduate students at UC Irvine have won fellowships from national organizations to continue their research into building blocks for medicines that fight cancer and other ailments.

Both students are third-year doctoral candidates focusing on new methods of chemical synthesis--exposing molecules to one another in new ways to determine if the resulting syntheses have therapeutic value.

Jacqueline Smitrovich, who works with silicon compounds, received a $14,500 fellowship from the American Assn. of University Women. She was one of 54 winners nationwide among 700 applicants.

Jared Shaw, who studies reactivity in sugars, received a $15,000 American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowship. Pharmaceutical companies sponsor the grant.