CALES Outstanding Research Mentor

CALES Outstanding Research Mentor Award

This award recognizes researchers who have gone above and beyond to conduct impactful research while developing the careers of undergraduate and graduate students during the five years immediately prior to award. This award will be given annually along with a plaque and $1,000.

Eligibility:

• Must hold a faculty or equivalent position with a research FTE assignment
• Must have directly trained undergraduate and/or graduate students through independent studies, internships, Honors theses, graduate degrees, or other well-justified formal research training activity
• Must have published scholarly works with student co-authors who worked directly under their supervision. All scholarly works will be considered (e.g. authorship credit in conference presentations and co-authorship in peer-reviewed research articles, invited reviews and book chapters, patents)
• Self-nominations are encouraged
• Nominations of individuals from underrepresented populations are especially encouraged

Nomination Materials

• Nomination letter (no more than 2 pages) describing the importance of research achievements and role played by undergraduate and graduate students (provided by nominator or self-nominating candidate)
• A list of students trained, separated by type (undergraduate and graduate) and their achievements (e.g., scholarly works, presentations, awards and honors received, etc.)
• Full list of publications with trainee co-authors clearly marked (must include direct link or doi)
• At least two support letters from previous or current trainees who can describe the following in no more than 500-words:
  • the nature of their research training relationship with the nominee
  • examples of ways in which the nominee went above and beyond to deliver outstanding research training
  • impact of the nominee’s efforts on their subsequent and future career goals

Submission Method and Deadline:

• Anyone can nominate someone for this award
• Self-nominations are strongly encouraged
• Submission Deadline: February 28th by close of business (or next business day if holiday or weekend)
• Nomination packets should be submitted as single PDF file via email to zaidaz@arizona.edu by close of business on February 28th annually.

Notification and Award Process:

• Tuesday, March 25th, 2025: CALES ADR notifies winner
• Thursday, April 24th, 2025: Award presented at the ALVSCE Research Showcase’s Discovery and Innovation Awards Dinner (Student Union Ballroom, 5:00-7:00pm)

Review Criteria:

• Nomination letter: describing the importance of research achievements and role played by undergraduate and graduate students (provided by nominator or self-nominating candidate); how they went above and beyond to accomplish outstanding research achievements with students
• List of students and achievements: number of undergraduate students trained and quality of achievements (e.g., associated publications, post-graduation outcomes when applicable
  • Nomination and Trainee letters: Applicants must have demonstrated research training efforts that go above and beyond standard practices. Standard research training practices are defined as providing training for students in their laboratory for a grade. Above and beyond efforts include but are not limited to activities that substantially contribute to the long term success and career of their trainees. Priority (higher scores) will be given for achievements that are rare and/or difficult to achieve at the student career stage
    • Examples of activities include, but are not limited to:
      • Co-authorship in scholarly works (e.g. first and/or co-authorship in peer-reviewed articles, review articles, book chapters, patents, etc.)
      • Local, national and international conference abstracts and presentations (trainee first/presenting author)
      • Sustained impactful mentoring and coaching beyond the active phase of the training (e.g. relationship is active, writes letter of recommendation for student, prepares students for interviews, continues to provide professional development for the trainee, etc.)
      • Direct involvement in building the trainee’s professional network
    • Each nomination packet will receive 1 to 3 points based on the scale below where 3 is the highest, best rating possible.
      • 3 = Nominee went above and beyond for trainees to significantly exceed
        standard efforts and practices to ensure outstanding research training for
        students (achieves more than 80% of listed activities above or equivalent
        extraordinary achievement)
      • 2 = Nominee went above and beyond for trainees to moderately exceed standard
        efforts and practices to ensure outstanding research training for students
        (achieves at least 50% but does not reach 80% of listed activities or equivalents
        from above)
      • 1 = Nominee went above and beyond for trainees to slightly exceed standard
        efforts and practices to ensure outstanding research training for students
        (achieves at least 50% of listed activities or equivalents from above)
• Each package will receive an overall score composed of the following:
  • 1-3 points based on the score from the entire packet
  • 1 point for each student trained in the past five years
  • 1 point for each graduate student scholarly work published in the past five years
    • 2 points if the work is a peer-reviewed original research article and the graduate student was first author
  • 1 point for each undergraduate student scholarly work published in the past five years
    • 2 points if the work is a peer-reviewed original research article co-authored by the undergraduate student
    • 3 points if the undergraduate student was first author of the peer-reviewed original research article
• Packages will be ranked based on the total score and total score normalized to the nominee’s research FTE