MIT professors Laura Lewis and Jing Kong have been acknowledged with the MIT Postdoctoral Affiliation’s Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring. The award is given yearly to college or different principal investigators (PIs) whose present and former postdoctoral students say they stand out of their efforts to create a supportive work atmosphere for postdocs and help postdocs’ skilled growth.
This 12 months, the award recognized distinctive mentors in two classes. Lewis, the Athinoula A. Martinos Affiliate Professor within the Institute for Mechanical Engineering and Science and the Division of Electrical Engineering and Laptop Science (EECS), was acknowledged as an early-career mentor. Kong, the Jerry McAfee (1940) Professor In Engineering within the Analysis Laboratory of Electronics and EECS, was acknowledged as a longtime mentor.
“It’s a really various form of mentoring that you simply want for a postdoc,” stated Vipindev Adat Vasudevan, who chaired the Postdoctoral Affiliation committee organizing the award. “Each postdoc has completely different necessities. Among the folks will likely be going to trade, a few of the individuals are going for academia… so everybody comes with a special goal.”
Vasudevan introduced the award at a luncheon hosted by the Workplace of the Vice President for Analysis on Sept. 25 in recognition of Nationwide Postdoc Appreciation Week. The annual luncheon, celebrating the postdoctoral group’s contributions to MIT, is attended by a whole lot of postdocs and school.
“The award acknowledges school members who go above and past to create an expert, supportive, and inclusive atmosphere to foster postdocs’ development and success,” stated Ian Waitz, vice chairman for analysis, who spoke on the luncheon. He famous the important position postdocs play in advancing MIT analysis, mentoring undergraduate and graduate college students, and connecting with colleagues from across the globe, whereas working towards launching unbiased analysis careers of their very own.
“One of the best a part of my job”
Nomination letters for Lewis spoke to her potential to create an inclusive and welcoming lab. Within the phrases of 1 nominator, “She invests appreciable effort and time in cultivating customized mentoring relationships, making certain every postdoc in her lab receives steering and help tailor-made to their particular person objectives and circumstances.”
Different nominators commented on Lewis’ potential to facilitate collaborations that furthered postdocs’ analysis objectives. Lewis inspired them to work with different PIs to construct their independence {and professional} growth, and to develop their very own analysis questions, they stated. “I used to be by no means pushed to work on her initiatives — fairly, she guided me in the direction of discovering and creating my very own,” wrote one.
Lewis’ lab explores new methods to picture the human mind, integrating engineering with neuroscience. Enhancing neuroimaging methods can enhance our understanding of the mind’s exercise when asleep and awake, permitting researchers to know sleep’s impression on mind well being.
“I like working with my postdocs and trainees; it’s actually the perfect a part of my job,” Lewis says. “It’s necessary for any particular person to be in an atmosphere to assist them develop towards what they wish to do.”
Acknowledged as an early-career mentor, Lewis seems ahead to seeing her postdocs’ profession trajectories over time. Group members returning as collaborators come again with contemporary concepts and inventive approaches, she says, including, “I view this mentoring relationship as lifelong.”
“No ego, no bias, simply strong info”
Kong’s nomination additionally speaks to the lifelong nature of the mentoring relationship. The 13 letters supporting Kong’s nomination got here from previous and present postdocs. Almost all touched on Kong’s kindness and the tradition of respect she maintains within the lab, alongside excessive expectations of scientific rigor.
“No ego, no bias, simply strong info and direct proof,” wrote one nominator: “In discussions, she would ask you a lot questions that make you suppose ‘I ought to have requested that to myself’ or ‘why didn’t I consider this.’”
Kong was additionally praised for her potential to take the lengthy view on initiatives and mentor postdocs by short-term challenges. One nominator wrote of a interval when the outcomes of a mission had been much less promising than anticipated, saying, “Jing did not push me to change my path; as an alternative, she was at all times glad to hear and talk about the brand new outcomes. Due to her encouragement and long-term help, I finally acquired excellent outcomes on this mission.”
Kong’s lab focuses on the chemical synthesis of nanomaterials, comparable to carbon nanotubes, with the aim of characterizing their constructions and figuring out functions. Kong says postdocs are instrumental in bringing new concepts into the lab.
“I study so much from every certainly one of them. They at all times have a special perspective, and in addition, they every have their distinctive skills. So we study from one another,” she says. As a mentor, she sees her position as creating postdocs’ particular person skills, whereas encouraging them to collaborate with group members who’ve completely different strengths.
The collaborations that Kong facilitates lengthen past the postdocs’ time at MIT. She views the postdoctoral interval as a key stage in creating an expert community: “Their networking begins from the primary day they be part of the group. They already on this course of set up connections with different group members, and in addition our collaborators, that may proceed on for a few years.”
In regards to the award
The Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring has been awarded since 2022. With help from Ann Skoczenski, director of Postdoctoral Companies within the Workplace of the VPR, and the School Postdoctoral Advisory Committee, nominations are reviewed on 4 standards:
- excellence in fostering and inspiring skilled expertise growth and development towards independence;
- potential to foster an inclusive work atmosphere the place postdoctoral mentees throughout a range of backgrounds and views are empowered to have interaction within the mentee-mentor relationship;
- potential to help postdoctoral mentees of their pursuit of a selected profession path; and
- a dedication to a continued skilled mentoring relationship with mentees, past the restrict of the postdoctoral time period.
The Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring gives a celebratory lunch for the recipient’s analysis group, in addition to the chance to take part in a mentoring seminar or panel dialogue for the postdoctoral group. Final 12 months’s award was given to Jesse Kroll, the Peter de Florez Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, professor of chemical engineering, and director of the Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory.
