Distinguished Professor Steven Austad, Ph.D., Protective Life Endowed Chair in Healthy Aging Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been awarded the inaugural George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, honoring his role in transferring knowledge and leaderships skills to mentees in aging research.
This is one of three awards presented by the American Federation for Aging Research to a faculty member at a United States institution who has played a transformative role in the professional or personal development of their students and mentees.
“George was a good friend, colleague and mentor of mine who set the standard for mentorship and leadership in the biology of aging,” Austad said. “I am more than honored to receive it.”
The award was open to all faculty scientists in the field and required a letter of nomination describing how the person reflects the purpose of the award. Austad was nominated for this award by his former student Darren Baker, who is now a professor at the Mayo Clinic.
“It came as a big surprise to me. I did not know that Darren even considered me a mentor,” Austad said. “I think mentoring is less about guiding someone’s scientific ideas and more about modeling a career path and professional conduct of an emerging scientist.”
Austad attributes receiving this award to the 10 years of co-directing a summer course on molecular biology of aging in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He co-directed the course alongside recent Nobel Prize winner Gary Ruvkun.