Faculty award winner: Joyce Solheim, Ph.D.

Joyce Solheim, Ph.D., will receive the Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Award at the April 20 annual faculty meeting.

• Name: Joyce Solheim, Ph.D.
• Titles: Professor, Eppley Institute; chair of the Cancer Research Doctoral Program Committee
• Joined UNMC: 1999
• Hometown: Gilman City, Mo.

With how many graduate students do you work?

There are two graduate students in my own laboratory now, and I currently serve on the supervisory committees of 24 UNMC graduate students. I provide a listening ear and advice to all the students in the Cancer Research Program, as well as to students from other UNMC graduate programs who come to me for help.

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring?

The greatest rewards are seeing graduate students grow in confidence and in all the skills needed for them to have the successful careers that they work so hard to achieve.

Describe a moment when you realized your influence made a difference in someone’s career.
One such moment was when my first technician decided to make the transition to become my graduate student. Years later, when he told me that he had been awarded with his own independent NIH R01 grant, I was very, very happy for him.

List three things few people know about you.

• I have lived in eight places in four states in the U.S., always within the Midwest.
• I first met my husband at a regional spelling bee when we were in junior high, and then we met again during my first year in college and started dating.
• My Ph.D. mentor also was the chair of a graduate program committee and was the winner of a university-wide award for mentoring graduate students. I will always remember that he had an inspiring enthusiasm for research and cared greatly about the students in the program.