University Times

Four faculty members have been named recipients of the 2008 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring.

They are: Louise Comfort, professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs; Don DeFranco, professor and vice chair of education in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology; Leon Gleser, professor in the Department of Statistics, and Kenneth Jordan, professor and director of the Center for Molecular and Materials Simulations in the Department of Chemistry.

The award, now in its third year, recognizes up to four faculty members for their mentoring of doctoral students.

Any current, active graduate faculty member who supervises graduate students pursuing PhD or other research doctoral degrees, and who has had five or more doctoral students graduate and placed, is eligible to be nominated.

Each awardee receives a cash prize of $2,500.

Among the criteria for nomination are evidence that the faculty member:

• provides intellectual leadership, respects students’ goals and helps students work to accomplish them;

• actively guides students’ research and training;

• clearly articulates expectations and holds students to high standards;

• actively involves students in professional situations and publications, and

• helps students achieve meaningful goals including post-degree employment.

Award nominees and winners will be honored at an April 15 reception.