“Having a good mentor early in one’s career can mean the difference between success and failure in any career,” said Beatriz León-Ruiz, assistant professor of Microbiology at UAB. In 2008, her most impactful mentorship began when León-Ruiz joined the lab of Frances Lund, Ph.D., (now chair of the UAB Department of Microbiology), in New York as a postdoctoral associate at Trudeau Institute.