Outstanding faculty: Dong Wang, PhD

Dong Wang, PhD, a professor in the UNMC Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy, will receive the Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Award during the annual faculty meeting to be held virtually on April 18, beginning at 3 p.m.. Details are available on the faculty senate page online.

• Name: Dong Wang, PhD 
• Title: Professor 
• Joined UNMC: 2005 
• Hometown: Beijing, China 

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring graduate students? 

• To marvel at the student’s transformation from a layperson to a brilliant scientist. 
• To discover an untold talent of a student. 
• To celebrate the career and/or life achievements of a student.  

Describe a moment in your profession when you realized you had chosen the right profession? 

It was a few years after joining UNMC, when my first group of students graduated. They ended up working for the pharmaceutical industry and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As a professor of pharmaceutical sciences, I was able to mentor those wonderful students of mine while doing exciting research. I wouldn’t exchange it for anything. 

What are the biggest challenges you face as a mentor? 

The mental health status of our students is one of the biggest challenges we face right now. The COVID pandemic has certainly negatively affected our students’ mental health. As mentors, we need to provide our students with a supportive environment to help overcome this challenge. 

How do you know when your mentoring has made an impact? 

Most of my students have been very successful in their careers. Several of them are serving in different leadership capacities. I am pleased that I have been a positive influence on their career development.