Follow this link to Nominate your candidate for the Award
Nominations will close on 2/28/2023 at 11:59 PM EDT.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact pda-mentoringaward@mit.edu.
The goal of the Award
The goal of the proposed award is to honor and acknowledge principal investigators (PI)s for excellent postdoctoral scholar mentoring, and to recognize both the value of quality mentoring and its impact on the career path of postdoctoral scholars. It will highlight the unique opportunities and challenges of mentoring postdoctoral scholars, who are poised to become the next generation of academic and scientific leaders. This award is seen as an effective way to spread the culture of awareness of the critical role the faculty play in academic/career development of postdoctoral scholars, and further, to recognize the importance of postdoctoral scholars to MIT’s mission.
Eligibility
All current MIT faculty, principal research scientists, and senior research scientists, who are in good standing at MIT, and mentoring current postdoctoral scholars are eligible for the award. The primary nomination must be submitted by a current MIT postdoctoral scholar, who may organize supporting statements from additional current and former postdoctoral scholars.
Criteria
The nominees will be reviewed based on demonstrated strengths in some or all of the following areas:
- Excellence in fostering and encouraging professional skills development and growth toward independence
- Ability to foster an inclusive work environment where postdoctoral mentees across a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives are empowered to engage in the mentee-mentor relationship
- Ability to support postdoctoral mentees in their pursuit of a chosen career path
- A commitment to a continued professional mentoring relationship with mentees, beyond the limit of the postdoctoral term.
Nomination and Selection Process
The MIT PDA will appoint a Postdoctoral Mentoring Award Committee to manage this process. The Committee will advertise the award and solicit nominations of mentors from current MIT postdoctoral scholars. Nominations will be collected via a standard online form that the primary nominator should fill out. The primary nominator may organize supporting statements from other current and former MIT postdocs. Nominations will end on February 28, 2023, following which the Committee will compile and verify the nominations.
The Postdoctoral Mentoring Award Committee will work with Postdoctoral Services in the Office of the VPR to transmit the completed nominations to a selection panel. The selection panel will consist of 3-5 members, including the Director of Postdoctoral Services and faculty chosen from the Faculty Postdoctoral Advisory Committee. The selection panel will review the nominations based on the listed criteria. The awardee will be selected by the VPR based on the recommendation of the selection panel.
Ceremony and Award
The award recipient will be announced jointly by the VPR and the PDA tentatively, during the Postdoctoral Appreciation Week at MIT. The winner will be awarded a present and a recognition luncheon for the awardee and their research group.
Past winners
- Muriel Médard (2022)