Mentorship is key to shaping the next generation of scientists.
And mentorship is why Rytis Prekeris, Ph.D. decided to join the external advisory board of the Nebraska INBRE program.
Dr. Prekeris is a professor of cell and developmental biology, and director of the molecular biology graduate program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo.
"I was really impressed by the shear quality of the students and level of mentorship built into the program," Dr. Prekeris said.
When you have good mentors, he said, it can really shape a person’s interests and the trajectory of their career.
"Often a grad student comes in with a preconceived idea based on whatever research they got exposed to, but then it changes due to mentorship, often in unexpected and delightful ways," he said.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Maine, Dr. Prekeris studied genetics and thought at the time that this was the field of research he would end up in.
That all changed when he attended East Carolina University in North Carolina for his doctoral degree where he met a researcher working on cell biology.
"It was fascinating research," Dr. Prekeris said.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, Dr. Prekeris studies the mechanisms of cell polarization and the functional consequences of this polarization during cell development and cancer-ogenesis.
A native of Lithuania, Dr. Prekeris grew up during communist rule by the Soviet Union on a subsistence farm. His father, a theoretical physicist still teaches at the university in Vilnius and his mother is a retired pharmacist. Dr. Prekeris said his childhood shaped how he sees the world, "it makes a person more tolerant."
As a scientist, Dr. Prekeris said it is part of his mission to help educate students who have the capacity to think critically, independently and be able to apply those abilities in any career they choose.
"We need smart people in all aspects of society," he said.
Three things most people don’t know about Dr. Prekeris:
- I love the mountains, hiking biking and skiing. Aurora is a remarkable city to live in because it allows me to enjoy those things.
- I love history, and if I weren’t a biologist I would’ve been an archeologist.
- My wife also grew up in Lithuania in a farming community, and we prescribe to this idea of self-sustainability. We buy local foods, grow as much as we can and try to leave a small carbon footprint.