Annual faculty awards: Scot Ouellette, PhD

Scot Ouellette, PhD, will be a recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Award during the UNMC Faculty Senate annual meeting on April 16. The award recognizes faculty who exemplify excellence in the mentoring of graduate students at UNMC.

• Name: Scot Ouellette, PhD
• Title: Professor, UNMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UNMC College of Medicine
• Joined UNMC: 2017
• Hometown: Peripatetic

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring graduate students?

Seeing students learn to master techniques and grow in confidence as critical-thinking, hypothesis-driven scientists is certainly one reward. Perhaps greater is instilling, or at least trying to instill, a love of science and the joy of exploration and discovery – and the need to pass those traits along to the next generation.

Can you describe a moment in your career when you realized you had picked the right profession?

When I was a graduate student, I had too many ideas of my own and knew I had to have my own lab. But earlier than that, I knew I wanted to be a scientist as early as seventh grade. Good teachers who make learning fun are a rare treasure.

What are the biggest challenges you face as a mentor?

Knowing how to help students when they’re struggling. Also, knowing when to use the disappointment switch.

How do you know when you’ve been successful as a mentor?

When a mentee has achieved their goals. You hope that the things they’ve learned will prove useful beyond the lab.