This award recognizes an SSR member who as a mentor has had significant impact on Trainees within the SSR. The Trainee Mentoring Award will be presented each year at the SSR Annual Meeting to an SSR member who has consistently demonstrated a measure of support and guidance to Trainees that far exceeds the basic responsibilities required of an academic advisor. An individual may receive this award only once. Candidates must be nominated by Regular and/or Trainee members of SSR who were significantly influenced by the nominee. Nominations must include a one-page objective summary highlighting the candidate’s contributions to trainees in SSR and no more than four additional letters of support demonstrating how this candidate is an outstanding mentor.  View the procedures for guidelines regarding the length of the nomination and supporting letters. 

Award Criteria

  1. Outstanding service as a mentor: the nominee has exceeded the basic roles of an academic advisor, becoming a mentor to those with whom they interact.
  2. Knowledge of the discipline: the nominee has demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge and passion for reproductive biology and its implications in the broader world of scientific research, which significantly shapes intellectual interactions with trainees.
  3. Scope of mentorship: the mentoring may be concentrated in the classroom, laboratory, or in the field. The number of Trainees who have been mentored by the nominated individual will be considered, with special attention given to mentorship of Trainees who have subsequently made an impact in reproductive biology.
  4. Other activities: selfless service as a teacher and trusted mentor to undergraduate, graduate, and/or post-doctoral Trainees in reproductive biology; instruction inside or out of the classroom with a passion that is passed on to those mentored; evidence that the nominee has significantly enhanced the careers and potential for success in advisees.

The deadline to submit a nomination is October 28, 2024. The 2025 Major Awards recipients will be announced in March 2025.

View previous Trainee Mentoring Award recipients below:

2024: Paula Cohen, Ph.D.
2023: Carmen Williams, M.D., Ph.D.
2022: Thomas E. Curry, Jr. , Ph.D.
2021: Joy Pate, PhD
2019: Barbara Vanderhyden, Ph.D.
2018: Teresa Woodruff, Ph.D.
2017: Jodi Anne Flaws, Ph.D.
2016: Thomas Spencer, Ph.D.
2015: Martin M. Matzuk, M.D., Ph.D.

2014: Bruce D. Murphy, Ph.D.
2013: Gordon D. Niswender, Ph.D.
2012: R. Michael Roberts, Ph.D.
2011: Patricia Hoyer, Ph.D.
2010: Peter J. Hansen, Ph.D.
2009: Fuller W. Bazer, Ph.D.
2008: Michael F. Smith, Ph.D.
2007: Janice M. Bahr, Ph.D.

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