Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring by a Faculty Member Award

Award nominations open September 24, 2025, deadline: April 20, 2026

The Office of Graduate Education invites nominations for the Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring by a Faculty Member Award. This award was established to recognize OSU Graduate Faculty members’ outstanding commitment to mentoring postdoctoral appointees. The faculty recipient of this award will have had direct and significant involvement with OSU postdocs along with demonstrated effectiveness as a postdoc mentor.

The recipient of this award will be a faculty member who has an extraordinary record of excellence and effectiveness in activities including, but not limited to:

  1. Setting mutually agreed upon expectations and goals
  2. Showing interest in and sensitivity to the academic, personal and professional goals and needs of postdocs
  3. Being accessible and maintaining relationships with postdocs that are based on trust and mutual respect
  4. Promoting ethical standards for conducting research
  5. Providing sufficient opportunities and a training environment that is suited to the individual needs of postdocs so they may acquire the skills necessary to become experts in an agreed upon area of inquiry and ensure their personal and professional growth
  6. Encouraging, and when feasible, financially supporting postdocs’ attendance at professional meetings
  7. Recognizing that there are multiple career options available for postdoctoral appointees and aiding them in exploring appropriate options
  8. Connecting postdocs with appropriate intellectual and professional networks
  9. Guiding postdocs toward intellectual and professional independence

Award Details

The recipient of this award receives a framed certificate and $2,000 awarded as a check or transferred to a department index 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. Research Associates are not eligible for nomination.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Quality of nominating letters in specifically describing the nominee’s commitment and effectiveness as a postdoctoral appointee mentor
  • Quality of nominee’s statement and CV in specifically describing their approach and commitment to mentoring postdocs
  • Nominee’s overall commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of postdocs in conjunction with the activities described above (a-i) and as discussed in the nominating letters and nominee’s CV

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).

Nomination Period

The nomination period begins on September 24, 2025. All nominations must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., April 20, 2026. Awards will be determined in May 2026.

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) including (a) the name, department/school, and email address of postdoctoral appointee; (b) the name and department/school of the faculty nominee; and (c) a description of the faculty member’s mentoring and its impact on the postdoctoral appointee’s development with attention given to the activities detailed above (a-i).
  2. A supporting letter from the Department Chair, School Head, or equivalent unit leader who can speak to the nominee’s commitment to and effectiveness as a mentor (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 criteria and pointing to mentorship that goes well beyond the ordinary (maximum 1 page per letter).
  4. A statement from the nominee describing their overall mentoring approach and commitment to postdoc mentoring using the same measures (a-i) listed above (2 pages maximum). Nominees should also discuss any professional development activities that have supported their development as a mentor of postdocs.
  5. A copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae that specifies the current and former postdocs the nominee has mentored. The review and selection committee is best able to assess a candidate's excellence in mentorship when the CV 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.

Nomination Form

Submit a nomination

Scholarships and Fellowships Application Form Overview

Questions

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