The Faculty Mentor of the Year Award recognizes a faculty member who has engaged in exceptional mentoring of postdoctoral scholars. The recipient of this award must have demonstrated a desire to encourage and implemented practices such as enhancing networking and career planning skills, and will have made an active effort to help their postdoc(s) prioritize professional development, work towards future career goals or create career plans.
The recipient of the Faculty Mentor of the Year Award will then be nominated for the NPA Gallagher Mentor Award.
The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs is currently accepting nominations for the 2023 Faculty Mentor of the Year Award.
- To nominate someone: If you have a faculty mentor to nominate for this award, please complete the application here.
- Nomination deadline: nomination materials for 2023 are due by January 5, 2024, 11:59 PM.
Please reach out to our office if you have any questions about the nomination process!
Bruce Weinberg and Monica Cox are 2022’s Faculty Mentors of the Year
The OPA is excited to announce that Bruce Weinberg is the winner of 2022’s Faculty Mentor of the Year Award and that Monica Cox is the inaugural recipient of the 2022 Faculty Outstanding Postdoctoral Service Award!
2022 Faculty Mentor of the Year Award
The OPA is excited to announce that Bruce Weinberg is the winner of 2022’s Faculty Mentor of the Year Award! He was nominated by a current postdoctoral scholar in his lab.
Bruce Weinberg, PhD
Eric Byron Fix-Monda Endowed Professor
Department of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Weinberg is an endowed professor in the Department of Economics whose research focuses on changes in the wage structure and family and neighborhood determinants of youth outcomes. His research has been supported by the NIH, NSF, and Kauffman, Sloan, and Templeton Foundations. He has advised policy makers at a variety of levels and served on two working groups of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director focused on the next generation of the biomedical research workforce. In one of his recent publications published in Nature, he shows using national datasets that the gender gap in the number of papers produced in the sciences can be attributed to women receiving less credit for their contribution and not to the productivity differences between men and women.
Over the last two decades, he has mentored 59 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, 29 of whom have subsequently gone on to secure tenure-track positions at leading institutions across the world. He is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion and has promoted the retention and recognition of women scholars in the field of economics throughout his research career. He is committed to ensuring the success of his mentees and devotes substantial time to their mentorship, professional and career development, and to expand their professional networks for research collaborations and career pursuits.
2022 Faculty Outstanding Postdoctoral Service Award
The OPA is excited to announce that Monica Cox is the inaugural recipient of the Faculty Outstanding Postdoctoral Service Award for 2022! She was nominated by the entire cohort of postdoctoral scholars in the College of Engineering’s LEGACY Program.
Monica Cox, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Engineering, College of Engineering
Dr. Cox is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at The Ohio State University College of Engineering. Her research is focused upon the use of mixed methodologies to explore significant research questions in undergraduate, graduate, and professional engineering education, to integrate concepts from higher education and learning science into engineering education, and to develop and disseminate reliable and valid assessment tools for use across the engineering education continuum. She has led and collaborated on multidisciplinary projects totaling approximately $15 million, and she has authored over 130 publications.
She was the Inaugural Chair of the Department of Engineering Education. There, she navigated an often turbulent environment, which led to the creation of her Stop Playing Diversity brand, which offers resources for people and organizations that want to move beyond performative allyship. No stranger to conflict, Dr. Cox transformed the fabric of the department and the larger organization as an advocate for people and women of color. She grew up an only child in a rural southeast Alabama community, where she was raised by her educator parents to persist in the face of personal and professional adversity. Her inquisitive nature contributes to her passion for educating others and sharing what she has learned via her experiences.
Dr. Cox has worked with Dr. Ayanna Howard, dean of the College of Engineering, over the 2021-2022 academic year to establish the LEGACY Postdoctoral Program, which has the goal of preparing and diversifying the next generation of engineering leaders in academia. Her efforts included recruiting, hiring, and mentoring a cohort of postdoctoral scholars from diverse backgrounds and ensuring that they have an inclusive research and teaching environment during their time at Ohio State so that they can develop the skills, experiences, and professional colleague networks needed to become independent investigators and leaders in their respective disciplines. Her devotion to these scholars on an individual and cohort level speaks to her passion and commitment to mentorship and service across the postdoctoral community at Ohio State. Her cohort-wide mentorship and service efforts were the catalyst to OPA creating this new award. To read more about her efforts with the LEGACY program, please visit the program’s website here.
Being nominated for this award is an indication of high quality mentoring, For this reason, we would like to honor the 2022 nominees by listing them here.
2022 Faculty Mentor of the Year Nominees
- Andreia Arruda, Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine
- Megan Ballinger, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine (Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine), College of Medicine
- Shyam Bansal, Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, College of Medicine
- Richard Bruno, Professor, Department of Human Sciences, College of Education and Human Ecology
- Osvaldo Campanella, Professor and Carl E. Haas Endowed Chair in Food Industries, Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
- Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine (Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) and Director, Molecular and Cellular Biology Program and Laboratory, College of Medicine
- Konrad Dabrowski, Professor, School of Environmental and Natural Resources, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
- Thomas Darrah, Professor, School of Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
- Nicholas Ferrell, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine (Division of Nephrology), College of Medicine
- Datta Gaitonde, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering
- Joel Johnson, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
- Asimina Kiourti, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
- Laura Kubatko, Professor, Department of Statistics and Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Kichoon Lee, Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
- Zihai Li, Professor and Klotz Chair in Cancer Research, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine; Director, Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-oncology, Comprehensive Cancer Center
- David Mackey, Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
- Leah McHale, Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
- Shayne Piasta, Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Ecology
- Ruchika Prakash, Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Rin Reczek, Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Ajay Shah, Professor, Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
- Sheng Ce, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine (Division of Medical Oncology)
- Steven Spencer, Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Matthew Sullivan, Professor, Department of Microbiology, College of Arts and Sciences and Director, Center of Microbiome Science
- Matthew Summers, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, College of Medicine
Eben Kenah and Grzegorz Rempała are 2021’s Mentors of the Year
The OPA is pleased to announce that Dr. Eben Kenah and Dr. Grzegorz Rempała are the winners of 2021’s Faculty Mentor of the Year Award!
Dr. Eben Kenah is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics. Prior to joining Ohio State, he held academic positions at the University of Florida and the University of Washington. Dr. Kenah’s primary research interest is in infectious disease epidemiology. He has developed novel statistical methodologies based on causal inference, survival analysis, and statistical inference for improved study design and analysis of epidemic data. Besides his prolific academic credentials, he has also gained experience infield epidemiology as a biostatistical consultant at ICDDR,B in Bangladesh. Dr. Kenah has been a continuous grantee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) including multiple R01s.
Dr. Grzegorz (Greg) Rempała is a Professor of Biostatistics and Mathematics. He was the Interim Director of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) from September 2016 to December 2017. He was one of the leading figures at Ohio State in the Infectious Diseases Institute’s pandemic response modeling during the COVID-19 pandemic. His mathematical interests are classical probability theory, mathematical statistics, and the theory of stochastic complex systems. He also works in computational genomics and bioinformatics, as well as mathematical epidemiology. Dr. Rempała has been a continuous grantee of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is also an elected fellow of the Collegium of Eminent Scientists of Polish origin at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York.
Wasiur Khuda Bukhsh stressed their commitment to fostering independent research among their advisees, their dedication to helping their mentees connect with other researchers, and their willingness to guide trainees along their larger career paths.
Being nominated for this award is an indication of high quality mentoring, For this reason, we would like to honor the nominees by listing them here.
2021 Nominees
Megan Ballinger, Internal medicine
Nominated by Caymen Novak
Margaret Kalcic, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Nominated by Sushant Mehan
Elizabeth Kirby, Psychology
Nominated by Jiyeon Denninger
Laura Kubatko, Statistics – Evolution Ecology, and Organismal Biology
Nominated by Kristina Wicke
Jinghua Li, Materials Science and Engineering
Nominated by Yan Dong
Jianjie Ma, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program
Nominated by Dathe Benissan-Messan
Antonio Ramirez, Materials Science and Engineering
Nominated by Rafael Giorjao
Kentaro Fujita is 2020’s Mentor of the Year
The OPA is excited to announce that Dr. Kentaro Fujita is the winner of 2020’s Faculty Mentor of the Year Award!
Dr. Fujita is a professor in the Department of Psychology. He was nominated by a former postdoctoral advisee, Laura Wallace. Dr. Fujita works with his mentees to promote their overall professional development, establish a strong community in the research group, connect his advisees with other researchers in the field, and guide them on their career trajectory. You can read the nomination letter for Dr. Fujita here.
Being nominated for this award is an indication of high quality mentoring, For this reason, we would like to honor the nominees by listing them here.
2020 Nominees
Lapo Alinari, Hematology-Internal medicine
Nominated by Youssef Youssef
Bala Balasubramaniam, Food Science and Technology
Nominated by Jie Xu
Richard Bruno, Human Sciences
Nominated by William Quarles
Harris Kagan, Physics
Nominated by Suyog Shrethsa with support from Dr. Kagan’s former mentees Dr. Bin Gui (Postdoc, Carnegie Mellon University), Prof. Paul Jackson (University of Adelaide, Australia) , Prof. Yi Yang (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan).
Eben Kenah, Biostatistics, College of Public Health
Nominated by Wasiur KhudaBukhsh
Rosa Lapalombella, Internal Medicine
Nominated by Lindsey Brinton
Namal Liyanage, Microbial, infection & Immunity
Nominated by Rajni Kant
Ann McAlearney, CATALYST
Nominated by Sarah MacEwan
Antonio Ramirez, Welding Engineering
Nominated by Rafael Giorjao
Amy Shuman, English
Nominated by Sona Hill
Susan Travers, School of Biosciences, College of Dentistry
Nominated by Kalyanasundar Balasubramanian with support from Andrew Harley
Allan Tsung, Surgery
Nominated by Amblessed Onuma
Shiyu Zhang, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Nominated by Wenjie Tao
John Beacom is 2019’s Mentor of the Year
The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) is pleased to announce that John Beacom is the 2019 recipient of the annual Mentor of the Year Award.
Dr. Beacom is the Henry L. Cox Professor of Physics and Astronomy, a Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences, and Director of the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP). He is a member of OPA’s Postdoctoral Advisory Council and is the mentor for Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar Dr. Steven Prohira. Dr. Beacom was nominated by a group of 14 present and recent CCAPP postdocs, led by Dr. Tim Linden. Dr. Beacom takes a comprehensive approach to mentoring, covering scientific development, communication skills, interdisciplinarity, how to teach and mentor, public outreach, and anything else needed to help people do their best work and grow into scientific leaders. This year alone, four of his postdoc and student mentees are starting faculty jobs.
In 2020 the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA), in partnership with Garnett-Powers & Associates, Inc. awarded John Beacom the Mentor Award. The award recognizes a faculty member or advisor who has engaged in exceptional mentoring of postdoctoral scholars.
See his acceptance speech here.
You can read the nomination letter for Dr. Beacom here.
2019 Nominees
Li Wu
Professor
Department of Veterinary Biosciences
Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity
Nominated by Shuliang Chen, Wuxun Lu, and Nagaraja Tirumuru
Tasha Posid
Surgical Educator and Education Specialist
Department of Urology
Nominated by Sabrina Amin
Professor and Department Chair
Department of Engineering Education
Nominated by Julie Aldridge and Meseret Hailu
Assistant Professor
Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering
Nominated by Grey Evenson, Asmita Murumkar, Vinayak Shedekar, and Michael Brooker
Professor
College of Medicine
Nominated by Samantha Boch
Associate Professor
Department of Otolaryngology
Nominated by Chengyu Li, Jennifer Malik, and Zhenxing Wu
Associate Professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences
Nominated by Chi-Hsin Chen, Carrie Davenport, Jongmin Jung, Claire Monroy, Jessa Reed, Terrin Tamati, and Yuanyuan Wang
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Nominated by Jose Lorie Lopez
Assistant Professor
Department of Internal Medicine
Nominated by Ola Elgamal and Amina Adul-Aziz
P. (Saday) Sadayappan is 2018’s Mentor of the Year
The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) is pleased to announce that P. (Saday) Sadayappan is the 2018 recipient of the annual Mentor of the Year Award.
A.J Zanyk Photography 2015
Dr. Sadayappan is a professor in the department of Computer Science and Engineering. He was nominated by a former postdoctoral mentee, Dr. Aravind Sukumaran Rajam, who has moved on to a senior engineer position. As an exceptional mentor and advisor, Dr. Sadayappan has guided a number of postdoctoral scholars who have moved onto positions in academia and industry. Dr. Sadayappan has prepared his trainees for academic and non-academic positions by providing them with opportunities for professional development such as improving teaching and communication, learning new technical skills, and honing scientific writing.
You can read Dr. Aravind Sukumaran Rajam’s nomination letter for Dr. Sadayappan here.
2018 Finalists
Professor
Department of Physics
Nominated by Katie Auchettl, Ami Choi, Tim Linden, Tuguldur Sukhbold, and Michael Troxel. Read the nomination letter for Dr. Beacom here.
Associate Professor and Associate Director of CAPS
Department of Entomology
Nominated by Hilary Edgington. Read the nomination for Dr. Michel here.
2018 Nominees
Associate Professor and Director of Infant Lab
Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Nominated by Gardenia Barbosa
Assistant Professor
Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering
Nominated by Grey Evenson, Asmita Murumkar, Vinayak Shedekar, Xiaoqiang Liu
Professor and Chair of The Department of Neuroscience
Department of SBS-Neuroscience
Nominated by Manoj Gottipati
Associate Professor
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center
Nominated by Asmita Murumkar, Renato Frasson, Rui Wei
Professor and Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy
Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Developmental Economics
Nominated by Alexandra Tsvetkova
Gerald Frankel is 2017’s Mentor of the Year
The Postdoctoral Advisory Council (PAC) is pleased to announce that Gerald Frankel is the 2017 recipient of the annual Mentor of the Year Award.
Dr. Frankel pictured with Dr. Marcela Hernandez of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and the postdocs who nominated him.
Dr. Frankel is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering and is the Director of the Fontana Corrosion Center at The Ohio State University. He was nominated by four of his postdoctoral mentees, who have articulated the quality of training, support, and mentorship they have received while working in his laboratory. In addition to conducting an extremely productive working atmosphere for his mentees, Dr. Frankel has notably made efforts to enhance the postdoctoral experience for the individuals that nominated him, by providing hands-on experiences for professional and personal development.
2017 Nominees
Professor
Department of Physiology and Cell Biology
Nominated by Keryn Woodman
Ohio Research Scholar
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Nominated by Bo Zhang
Interim Chairperson
Department of Veterinary Biosciences
Nominated by Margaret Martinez
Noah Weisleder is 2016’s Mentor of the Year
The Postdoctoral Advisory Council (PAC) is pleased to announce that Noah Weisleder is the inaugural recipient of the annual Mentor of the Year Award. This award is presented to a faculty member who has shown outstanding service, advocacy, and support of the postdoctoral scholars under his or her mentorship. Mentors are nominated by their mentees.
Dr. Weisleder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology in the College of Medicine and was nominated by two of his postdoctoral mentees who articulated the outstanding training, support and mentorship they have received while working in his laboratory. In addition, Dr. Weisleder has been a strong supporter of the Postdoctoral Association and has become involved in other initiatives through the PAC, such as moderating a peer writing group for postdoctoral scholars working on faculty applications. Through his mentorship and involvement, Dr. Weisleder demonstrates his interest and dedication to serve the postdoctoral community at Ohio State.
2016 Nominees
Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Director of CCAPP
Department of Physics
Ohio Research Scholar
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics
Professor, Graduate Faculty
Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity
Professor
SBS – Physiology & Cell Biology
Nam Lee
Associate Professor
Pharmacology
Professor of Family Medicine, Vice Chair for Research
Department of Family Medicine
Professor
Pharmacy Practice and Administration
Andrew Ward
Professor
Department of Food Agricultural, and Biological Engineering