Samuel Pirruccello, M.D., professor, pathology/microbiology, for the UNMC College of Medicine, will receive the Outstanding Mentor of Junior Faculty Award at the annual Faculty Senate Awards ceremony at 3 p.m. today in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.
Dr. Gold to speak at meeting
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., will give his annual address to the faculty, titled “Healthcare 2050,” at the annual faculty meeting at 3 p.m. today in the Durham Research Center Auditorium. A reception, hosted by Chancellor Gold, will follow the event.
The ceremony will be broadcast through ZOOM and can be accessed from desktop computers or at the following sites at UNMC’s non-Omaha campuses:
- College of Nursing-Lincoln, Room 336
- College of Dentistry-Lincoln Dixon Auditorium, Room 1145
- College of Nursing-Kearney, Health Science Education Complex, Room 102
- College of Nursing-Norfolk, Room 189
- Scottsbluff – College of Nursing, Regional West Medical Center, Room B132
- Name: Samuel Pirruccello, M.D.
- Title: Medical director, Nebraska Medicine Core Laboratory, Bellevue Medical Center Laboratory, Boys Town National Research Hospital Laboratory and Shenandoah Medical Center
- Joined UNMC: 1987
- Hometown: Lincoln, Neb.
With how many junior faculty members do you work?
I have worked with multiple junior faculty over the past 32 years. My role has been largely involved in helping young faculty in developing their clinical skills in chemistry, hematology, coagulation and flow cytometry interpretation. Having served on the Department of Pathology and Microbiology and the College of Medicine Promotion and Tenure Committees has helped me guide those junior faculty in pursuing activities and collaborations to facilitate promotion.
What are the greatest rewards of mentoring?
My greatest reward is seeing the junior faculty become independent and confident in their academic pursuits whatever direction that may take them and to be able to share in the joy of that success.
Describe a moment when you realized your influence made a difference in someone’s career.
That’s a bit difficult to answer because generally our influence as mentors is incremental and more subtle. That realization is most evident when helping the junior faculty work through a particular issue (whether academic, work-related or even personal) and seeing that staff member incorporate those same techniques to approach similar problems as they mature as a faculty member.
List three things few people know about you.
- I’ve been here so long I have few secrets that my co-workers don’t know about me.
- My wife and I started dating in high school and still kind of like each other.
- We have one daughter who is a pathologist in Flagstaff, Ariz.
- We usually take a yoga vacation somewhere near the beach and ocean every February (Costa Rica in 2020).
Congratulations and best wishes! Thank you for great science and support of experimental research.
Congratulations Dr. Pirruccello! Thank you for the positive impact you have here at UNMC.
Congratulations Sam. Well deserved.
You have been an outstanding member of the COM P&T committee and an excellent faculty mentor. Long overdue recognition. Thankfully, Karla continues to put up with you!!!
Sam…Congrats! Hard to believe its been over 30 years!
Congratulations, Sam! You have and continued to be an amazing mentor.
Well done and well deserved, Dr. Sam!
John M. Bertoni MD PhD
Dear Sam,
Congratulations!
I read this announcement 4 years too late.
You were my best mentor and most influenced my subsequent career. You taught me flow cytometry, and have put me on a path allowing me to develop the flow cytometry laboratories at Oslo University Hospital, Norway and for the last ten years, at University Health Network,Toronto. I am greatly indebted to you, and wish you all the best. Once more, congratulations!
With kind regards,
Anne Tierens, MD PhD