The University of California today (April 24) announced the 2025 cohort of UC President’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows, 42 outstanding young scientists and economists from across the UC system who will join Nobel laureates from around the world at two renowned scholarly gatherings in Lindau, Germany.
Funded by UC Investments and UC National Laboratories, the fellowship supports travel and expenses for participants to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, one of the most celebrated academic exchanges in the world. The meetings bring together laureates and the next generation of scientific leaders for a week of dialogue across generations, disciplines and cultures.
The 2025 Lindau Meetings will focus on two areas:
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Chemistry Meeting (June 29–July 4, 2025): Themed around circular chemistry, artificial intelligence and science diplomacy.
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Economic Sciences Meeting (August 26–30, 2025): A separate session dedicated to the economic sciences.
“This fellowship reflects the University of California’s deep commitment to advancing discovery, fostering global dialogue, and preparing the next generation of scientific leaders,” said UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D. “We are proud to support these exceptional students and postdocs as they represent the very best of UC on the world stage.”
The annual Lindau Meetings, held in a small island town in Bavaria, host 30 to 40 Nobel laureates and approximately 600 early-career researchers from more than 100 countries.
“These meetings are nothing short of phenomenal,” said UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher, who has attended several sessions. “Lindau is a beautiful island, the Nobel laureates are generous with their time and wisdom, and the energy from all the brilliant young minds in one place is unparalleled.”
Since the UC program’s inception six years ago, 170 UC students and postdocs have been named fellows — 130 from the 10 UC campuses and 42 from the UC-affiliated national laboratories. More than 35,000 young scholars worldwide have taken part in the Lindau program overall since its founding in 1951.
The UC fellows are nominated by faculty and selected through a rigorous process that includes essays, letters of recommendation, evaluation of research achievements, and approval by the Lindau Foundation in Germany. A UC faculty workgroup — including two Nobel Prize winners — helped narrow down the candidates, with final approval from President Drake, Bachher, and June Yu, vice president for UC National Laboratories.
“Our national labs are dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing scientific challenges — and that mission begins with cultivating extraordinary talent,” said Yu. “These fellows exemplify the curiosity, drive, and collaborative spirit we need to shape the future of science and innovation.”
This year’s fellows from UC campuses for the chemistry meetings are:
Daniel Chabeda, UC Berkeley
Fuhar Dixit, UC Berkeley
Alyssa Mathiowetz, UC Berkeley
Brandon Harris, UC Davis
Sangeetha Ramesh, UC Davis
Madeline Cooke, UC Irvine
Esther Hessong, UC Irvine
Haleh Alimohamadi, UCLA
Yongjia He, UCLA
Luca McDermott Catena, UCLA
Yessica Nelson, UCLA
Kishwar-E Hasin, UC Merced
Ashley Pimentel, UC Riverside
Ting Zhao, UC Riverside
Antonio Garcia IV, UC Santa Barbara
Divya Iyer, UC Santa Barbara
Robert Shepherd, UC Santa Cruz
John Wenger, UC Santa Cruz
David Zeitz, UC Santa Cruz
Anne Lyons, UC San Diego
Sural Ranamukhaarachchi, UC San Diego
Sagar Bhattacharya, UC San Francisco
Nick Shin, UC San Francisco
The chemistry fellows representing the national laboratories are as follows:
Manjeet Chhetri, Los Alamos
Eamonn Murphy, Los Alamos
Ruiwen Hu, Lawrence Berkeley
Ershuai Liu, Lawrence Berkeley
Stephanie Ribet, Lawrence Berkeley
Pinchen Xie, Lawrence Berkeley
Ian Colliard, Lawrence Livermore
Nicholas Cross, Lawrence Livermore
Vidia Gokool, Lawrence Livermore
Jonas Kaufman, Lawrence Livermore
The fellows for the Economics Sciences meeting are as follows:
Chiara Motta, UC Berkeley
Jonathan Old, UC Berkeley
Wenni Yang, UC Davis
Shohini Kundu, UCLA
Noah Kwicklis, UCLA
Tiffany Ho, UC Merced
Bhavyaa Sharma, UC Santa Cruz
Caspar Donnison, Lawrence Livermore
Cristian Poliziani, Lawrence Berkeley