About the Award

Nominations for the 2025 Distinguished Graduate & Postdoctoral Mentorship Award will be open from January 13 2025. These awards are offered to faculty to recognize the vital role mentoring plays in the academic and professional development of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at the University of California, Davis.  A certificate and a $1,000 education enrichment fund will be conferred to each awardee. The nomination deadline for the 2024 Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentorship Award is March 14, 2025.

• Award Eligibility
• All faculty members of graduate programs (department-based and graduate group) consistent with Graduate Council policy who are currently employed by UC Davis and who have a minimum of four years of service at UC Davis may be nominated.  
• Who May Nominate
• UC Davis faculty, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students are invited to nominate a distinguished mentor of graduate students or postdoctoral scholars for this award.  
• Qualifications
• Nominees must have an outstanding record of mentoring graduate students or postdoctoral scholars. Selection will recognize the following principles:
  • An outstanding mentor has an extraordinary impact on students, including and especially beyond the faculty members own research group.
  • An outstanding mentor plays a supportive role for students broadly and goes beyond the administrative roles of graduate group service..
  • An outstanding mentor maintains high ethical standards and guides mentees to emulate such standards.
  • An outstanding mentor fosters the development of oral and written communication skills required for mentees to be successful in their professional careers.
  •An outstanding mentor provides career guidance applicable to professions both inside and outside of academia, and helps mentees network with other scholars and practitioners in their field.
  • An outstanding mentor demonstrates sensitivity to the unique needs of individual mentees and adjusts his or her guidance accordingly.
  • An outstanding mentor is accessible and communicates effectively and respectfully to all.
  • An outstanding mentor recognizes that mentoring is a lifelong activity that does not end with commencement or the completion of a postdoctoral appointment.
  • An outstanding mentor assists the student through the three critical transitions in the career of a graduate student: applicant to student, coursework to research, and research to professional career.
  • An outstanding mentor prepares postdoctoral scholars to become mentors themselves, and how the mentor has assisted scholars in building and managing their own independent research activities.
• Nominations
• Initial nomination materials consist of:
  • A nomination letter from a current or recent mentee or group of mentees and/or faculty member or program chair. The nomination should describe the nominee’s record of exemplary mentorship, especially related to the criteria above.
  • A letter of support from a colleague or chair familiar with the nominee’s qualifications for the award which notes the candidate’s graduate and professional affiliations. Please include details on nominee’s service record relative to mentoring e.g. involvement in graduate mentoring programs, graduate group service, and university or career service activities involving graduate students or post docs.
• Selection
• Graduate Council’s Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Welfare Committee recommends finalists to the Dean of Graduate Studies. If a nominee is chosen as a finalist, Graduate Studies may request a current CV or solicit additional letters of support from:
  • Present and previous graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
  • Faculty and staff from graduate programs, groups, labs and departments with which the nominee is affiliated.