Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award

Award nominations opened September 30, 2024, deadline: April 28, 2025

The Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award was established to recognize and encourage outstanding mentoring of postdoctoral appointees by OSU Faculty members. The recipient will be an individual who has had direct and significant involvement with postdocs and a demonstrated outstanding commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of postdocs. The recipient of this award will be a faculty member who has an extraordinary record of excellence and effectiveness in activities such as:

  • setting mutually agreed upon expectations and goals
  • showing sensitivity to the academic, personal and professional goals and needs of postdocs
  • being accessible and maintaining relationships with postdoc(s) that are based on trust and mutual respect
  • promoting ethical standards for conducting research, including compliance with all institutional and federal regulations
  • providing sufficient opportunities to acquire the skills necessary to become an expert in an agreed upon area of inquiry
  • providing a training environment that is suited to the individual needs of the postdoctoral appointee to ensure their personal and professional growth
  • encouraging (and financially supporting) the postdoc’s attendance at professional meetings
  • recognizing that there are multiple career options available for a postdoctoral appointee and aiding in exploring appropriate options
  • connecting them to appropriate intellectual and professional networks
  • guiding postdocs toward intellectual and professional independence

Award Details

The recipient of this award receives a framed certificate and $2,000, to be transferred to a department fund for use by the faculty awardee. Eligibility

The award is open to faculty members who mentor OSU postdoctoral appointee(s) (Postdoctoral Scholars and Postdoctoral Fellows) and who have done so for a minimum of 12 months prior to the nomination deadline.

Eligibility

The award is open to faculty members who mentor OSU postdoctoral appointee(s) (Postdoctoral Scholars and Postdoctoral Fellows) and who have done so for a minimum of 12 months prior to the nomination deadline.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Extraordinary commitment, effectiveness, and impact as a mentor of postdocs as evidenced by the activities listed above.
  • Demonstrated record of postdoctoral appointee success while at OSU, as well as in their professional careers beyond their OSU postdoc appointment (e.g. scholarships/fellowships, grants, awards, placement, career achievements, scholarly works, leadership roles).
  • Demonstrated commitment to creating an inclusive and equitable environment supportive of postdoctoral appointee success.

A committee assembled by the Director of Postdoctoral Programs will review the nominations and will select the faculty member who is considered to have had the greatest positive impact on their postdoctoral appointee(s). Final selections will be announced to the OSU community.

Nomination Period

The nomination period begins on September 30, 2024. All nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m., April 28, 2025. Awards will be determined in May 2024.

Nomination Procedure

Nominees cannot apply directly for this award. Nominations must be submitted by a current OSU postdoctoral appointee. All OSU postdoctoral appointees (Postdoctoral Scholars and Postdoctoral Fellows) are eligible to submit up to one nomination per year, but the nominator must have been under the mentorship of the faculty member for at least 12 months prior to the nomination deadline.

In the online nomination form, nominators will be required to upload the following materials as one PDF document using the following file name convention: “Nominee’s Last Name_Department_FacMentor.pdf.”

  1. A letter of nomination from a postdoctoral appointee who works directly with the nominated faculty member (maximum 2 pages)
    • Name, Department/School, and email address of postdoctoral appointee
    • Name and Department/School of faculty nominee
    • A description of the faculty member’s mentoring and its impact on the postdoctoral appointee’s development. Mentoring can relate to research design and progress, career and professional advice, personal guidance, and/or other aspects of a postdoctoral appointee’s development.
  2. A supporting letter from the Department Chair, School Head, or equivalent unit leader (maximum 1 page).
  3. Up to two additional letters of support from the nominee’s current or recent mentees who can speak to the nominee’s effective mentoring, citing specific examples aligned with the award details and criteria and pointing to mentorship that goes well beyond the ordinary. (maximum 2 pages per letter).
  4. A copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae that denotes postdocs the nominee has mentored (current and former). The review and selection committee is best able to assess a candidate's excellence in mentorship when the vitae clearly highlights information such as which scholarly works are co-authored or co-produced by postdocs, the nominee's roles in postdoctoral career and professional development, and other relevant activities.

Questions

For questions about this award or any Graduate School administered awards, please contact our Graduate Scholarships and Fellowships team