March 6, 2008

Sixteen UAB professors from five schools and the Joint Health Science departments are recipients of the inaugural Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentorship. The awards will be presented on Friday, March 7 at 2 p.m. at the Hill University Center Great Hall.

The award recognizes exceptional faculty mentorship and demonstrates that UAB is a university that values the commitment to excellence in mentorship that is exhibited by its faculty says Bryan Noe, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School and creator of the award. Honorees will receive an engraved plaque and a bound volume that contains the nomination letters written on their behalf.

This past fall, the Graduate School invited current and former undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to nominate faculty whom they believe provided excellent mentorship. They considered personal characteristics, excellence in teaching and communication and mentoring characteristics in considering whom to recommend for the award.

The 2008 inaugural Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentorship recipients: Gypsy Abbott, Ph.D., Education-Human Studies; Susan Appel, Ph.D., Nursing- Adult/Acute Health); Susan Bellis, Ph.D., Physiology and Biophysics; Jeffrey Clair, Ph.D., Sociology; Christine Curcio, Ph.D., Ophthalmology; Retta Evans, Ph.D.,  Education-Human Studies; John Hablitz, Ph.D., Neurobiology; James Hagood, M.D.,  Pediatrics; Gary Hunter, Ph.D., Education-Human Studies; Raymond Ideker, M.D.,  Medicine; Robin Lorenz, M.D./Ph.D., Pathology; John Mountz, M.D., Medicine; Peter Prevelige, Ph.D., Microbiology; Robert Thacker, Ph.D., Biology; Dan Welch, Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Physiology; and Dale Williams, Ph.D., Preventive Medicine.