The Graduate School honors exceptional students and faculty at each spring commencement ceremony. This year, five people were recognized and presented awards by Dr. Jennifer Richer, dean of the Graduate School.
Chancellor’s Teaching Recognition Award from the Graduate School
Dr. Sean Reed, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, was awarded the Chancellor’s Teaching Recognition Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize and reward outstanding teaching. Nominees were evaluated on their commitment to a high-quality learning experience, maintenance of high scholarly standards and rigor, and demonstrated mentorship ability.
A dozen students spanning three cohorts in the Nursing PhD program came together to nominate Dr. Reed. Nominators commended his emphasis on exploration and curiosity while ensuring high standards of academic rigor. They feel his mentorship features growth, feedback and experiences that help them while in the program and set them up for success in their next steps. The impact of his teaching is evident in the accomplishments of his students as well as the profound admiration they have for him.
Outstanding Doctoral Mentoring Award
Dr. Katharine Smith, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology, received the Outstanding Doctoral Mentoring Award. Evaluation criteria included the maintenance of high standards of scholarship, demonstrated commitment to providing students with high-quality training experience, and effective mentorship.
Dr. Smith had many nomination letters from students and postdocs. Her chair also stated that Dr. Smith has set the bar for how faculty should approach mentoring and always takes opportunities to elevate her mentees.
Outstanding Master’s Mentoring Award
Dr. Natalia Vergara, assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, received the Outstanding Master’s Mentoring Award. Nomination criteria included the maintenance of high standards of scholarship, demonstrated commitment to providing students with high-quality training experience, and effective mentorship.
Dr. Vergara has consistently demonstrated commitment to providing high-quality education through scholarly excellence, tireless dedication to student development, and extraordinary personal qualities. Her nominators said her teaching style exemplified her ability to foster inquiry, exploration, and understanding.
Dean’s Outstanding Master’s Student Award
Brendan Hinckley, who earned his Master of Science in Modern Human Anatomy, received the Outstanding Master’s Student Award. Criteria for nominations included student performance in coursework and experiential learning as well as the student’s accomplishments such as presentations, publications, contribution to campus culture, and community outreach.
Hinckley is an exceptional example of all that can be accomplished in the two, short years of a master’s program. He was highly productive in multiple experiential learning projects that will lead to multiple publications, presented at multiple research symposia, and will present his capstone work at a prestigious Gordon Conference this summer.
This is in addition to an impressive track record of campus involvement, having served as a tutor and cadaveric dissector, member of CU Anschutz Donor Memorial Committee, and co-president of his Modern Human Anatomy cohort.
Click here to read more about Hinckley and what’s next after graduation.
Outstanding Dissertation Award
Dr. Eric Stokes, who earned his PhD from the Pharmacology and Molecular Medicine program this spring, received the Outstanding Dissertation Award. This is the Graduate School’s most competitive award each year. The doctoral student selected for this award has achieved the very top tier of academic research accomplishments, which includes scholarship, science communication and outreach activities.
Stokes’ thesis work has garnered local and international accolades. His publications in The Journal of Neuroscience and Nature provided critical and novel mechanistic insight into synapse function in neuropsychiatric diseases and opened new therapeutic avenues to manage post-traumatic stress disorders.
He was supported by a highly competitive and prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellowship, which is awarded to students with outstanding promise as leaders in science and in the community.
Stokes has also enhanced the scientific landscape at CU Anschutz and our community as director of J-KOA. In this role, Stokes worked closely with students at the Aurora Science & Tech Middle School to help them propose and complete their own research to compete at the regional Denver Science Fair.
Click here to read more about Stokes and what’s next after graduation.