Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students: Howard Gendelman, M.D.

Howard Gendelman, M.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: Howard E. Gendelman, M.D.
• Title: Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and chair, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience
• Joined UNMC: March 1993
• Hometown: Philadelphia

How many graduate students do you work with?

Nine currently.

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring?

My greatest fulfillment in mentoring comes from being an active participant in the professional and personal journeys of our students. Sharing the happiness, when goals and destinations are reached, is simply extraordinary. Every student is unique, as is their climb in science and medicine. I always hope to bring out the student’s inner greatness and help facilitate their growth potential. This is done as an alternative to fashioning student milestones based on any preconceived model.

Chancellor to speak at event UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., will give his annual address to the faculty at 4 p.m. on April 24 in the Durham Research Center Auditorium as part of the annual faculty meeting. Following the address and the award presentations, Dr. Gold will host a reception in the center’s foyer.

I have been a faculty member of UNMC for more than 21 years and have directly engaged in the training of scores of students and postdoctoral fellows. I also feel honored to have assisted in the training of many junior faculty, administrators and students from middle school onward. The ability to provide each, to his or her needs, with professional growth opportunities, has been personally rewarding.

Mentoring, clearly, extends beyond the boundaries of graduate education. I believe a mentor is best described as a farmer; you plant, you sow and you reap. Very careful attention must be played to each of these steps along with offering needed help along the way.

Mentoring, like research, also is a process that poses various obstacles along the way. The joy received at the conclusion is witnessing the maturation, growth and development of those mentored. Their success becomes yours and friendships are built along the way.

Describe a moment when you realized your influence made a difference in someone’s career.
There have been many moments, but each one is equally important. Mentoring is not just about a single paper accepted for publication, a new job acquired, a patent obtained or grant funded. Mentoring is a continuum. The knowledge that my influence, my time and my energies have made a positive difference in someone else’s professional journey is one of life’s biggest rewards.

List four things few people know about you.

• I bicycle 20 miles to and from work nearly every day even in harsh weather.
• I am a good jazz pianist.
• I am addicted to chocolate chip cookies.
• I teach proper behavior and ethics to preschoolers during weekends.