Mentor of the Year Award

This service is provided by TRANSFORM.

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

The Mentor of the Year Award is presented each year by the Irving Institute and the Office of Academic Affairs to faculty on the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) campus in recognition of their outstanding guidance and support provided to students, fellows, and colleagues in research.

See a list of current and past Mentor of the Year awardees here.

Eligibility

There are two types of Mentor of the Year Awards, one for senior investigators (Senior Mentor of the Year Award) and one for junior investigators (Junior Mentor of the Year Award).

Nominations for the Mentor of the Year Award may come from students, postdocs, and/or faculty members. Mentors must be affiliated with one of the schools on the CUIMC campus (Mailman School of Public Health, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, College of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing, or Graduate School of Arts and Sciences). Past awardees are ineligible to be nominated.

For the Senior Mentor of the Year Award, mentor nominees must hold a title of Associate Professor or Professor, or equivalent (i.e. Senior Research Scientists or Scholars or Research Scientists or Scholars).

For the Junior Mentor of the Year Award, mentor nominees must hold a title of Assistant Professor or equivalent (i.e. Associate Research Scientists or Scholars).

The following are criteria which will be used to evaluate the Senior Mentor of the Year Award and Junior Mentor of the Year Award:

Senior Mentor of the Year Nomination Criteria: 

(A) Professional Development - is there evidence for the following:

• Support for overall professional goals and career choices
• Providing opportunities for professional development
• Direct mentor-mentee contact and support
• Development of academic scholarship
• Provides training in skills gaps

(B) Independence - is there evidence for the following:

• Fostering independence
• Success of the mentees in publishing manuscripts as first or senior authors, and obtaining research funding as a Principal Investigator

(C) Networking - is there evidence for the following:

• Helping mentees in networking with senior colleagues or others in the field
• Providing opportunities for the mentees to make new collaborations

(D) Psychosocial or Expressive Career Function - is there evidence for the following:

• Serving as an exemplar or model to other mentors
• Serving as an exemplar or model to mentees
• Serving as an advocate
• Promoting scholar values and professional integrity
• Providing emotional support
• Demonstrating and promoting work/life balance

(E) Communication - is there evidence for the following:

• Demonstrating effective communication
• Aligning expectations
• Demonstrating understanding

(F) Multidisciplinary Mentorship - is there evidence for the following:

• Advising mentees outside the mentor’s field
• Working with a team of mentors from multiple disciplines to advise mentees
• Mentees are at different institutions

Junior Mentor of the Year Nomination Criteria: 

(A) Professional Development - is there evidence for the following:

• Support for overall professional goals and career choices
• Providing opportunities for professional development
• Direct mentor-mentee contact and support
• Development of academic scholarship
• Provides training in skills gaps

(B) Psychosocial or Expressive Career Function - is there evidence for the following:

• Serving as an exemplar or model to other mentors
• Serving as an exemplar or model to mentees
• Serving as an advocate
• Promoting scholar values and professional integrity
• Providing emotional support
• Demonstrating and promoting work/life balance

(C) Communication - is there evidence for the following:

• Demonstrating effective communication
• Aligning expectations
• Demonstrating understanding

(D) Multidisciplinary Mentorship - is there evidence for the following:

• Advising mentees outside the mentor’s field
• Working with a team of mentors from multiple disciplines to advise mentees
• Mentees are at different institutions

Deadline

The application deadline is October 24, 2025, by the end of the day.

Cite it, Submit it, Share it!

If your research has benefited from one or more Irving Institute resources, please remember to:

• Cite our CTSA grant in any relevant publications, abstracts, chapters, and/or posters.
• Submit your publications to PubMed Central (PMC) for compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
• Share your research updates with us by sending an email to: irving_institute@cumc.columbia.edu