Meet Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D.

Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D., is one of two UNMC faculty members who will receive Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Awards at the April 24 annual faculty meeting.

• Name: Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D.
• Title: Dr. and Mrs. Tim D. Leon Professor
• Joined UNMC: 1991
• Hometown: Deerfield Beach, Fla.

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring?
Laying the groundwork for my students’ future success, observing their progress during their tenure in the lab and observing their success after they leave.

Describe a moment when you realized your influence made a difference in someone’s career.

Almost all of my former students are currently working as faculty members, in significant positions in drug companies, as postdoctoral fellows, or they are engaged in medical or dental practice that involves a research component — I hope that I have positively influenced their careers. Former students often state that they appreciate the freedom I gave them in the lab to pursue scientific questions that were of interest to them, and the responsibility to test hypotheses related to their questions by designing and conducting experiments. We work on a very difficult disease – pancreatic cancer. I believe that students who work on difficult problems learn how to overcome adversity and be successful in their careers and in life.

List three things few people know about you.

• I ate scorpions with UNMC’s Ken Bayles, Ph.D. (pathology/microbiology) in Beijing.
• The only TV show I watch consistently is “Big Bang Theory.”
• If I put on a wig I look like my mother.