UW-Madison Postdoc Excellence Awards

Postdoc Excellence Awards

The Postdoc Excellence Awards recognize current postdocs on the UW-Madison campus that contribute their time, knowledge, energy, and enthusiasm to mentoring, teaching, and service. Postdocs are nominated by themselves, current or former mentors and mentees, or colleagues. 2024 is the fourth year we are offering these awards and anticipate receiving numerous nominations for postdocs to be recognized for their outstanding efforts. Every year, we can only select a few of the of the outstanding nominations to receive the awards, but are grateful for all the work every postdoc at UW-Madison engage in that makes UW-Madison an excellent place to work and develop. Winners from every year will be listed below.

2024 Postdoc Excellence Awards

Submit your nominations for this year’s Postdoc Excellence Awards!

Nominations due 5 PM, March 31st 2024. Submit your nomination via this form.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Postdoctoral Association (UWPA) is soliciting nominations for its 2024 Postdoc Excellence Awards. The awards were established to encourage and reward excellence, innovation, and effectiveness in the mentoring, teaching, and service of UW-Madison postdocs. There are three categories of award:

  • Postdoc Excellence in Mentoring
  • Postdoc Excellence in Teaching
  • Postdoc Excellence in Service

Current postdocs may be nominated by themselves, current/former mentors and mentees, or colleagues. If postdocs nominate themselves we ask that they have either a mentor or mentee, as applicable, submit a letter of support simply stating that they have read your nomination letter and support it. Nomination letters (2 page maximum) should provide specific details as to how the nominated individual excels in a given category and why they are deserving of the award. It is important that you address the specific criteria listed in the provided rubrics, as they will be used to judge nominations for each of the awards: mentoring, teaching, and service

Winners of the 2024 Postdoc Excellence Awards will be recognized at the UWPA Celebration of Postdoc Excellence on 17th May 2024. Nominations should be submitted via this form.

Applications must be submitted electronically by 5 PM on March 31, 2024. Questions? Contact the UWPA Postdoc Awards Committee (uwpa@postdoc.wisc.edu)

2024 Celebration of Postdoc Excellence

May 17th, 2024  from 5-8 pm

RSVP here by May 2nd, 2024

Location : Great Hall of the Memorial Union

The Postdoc Excellence Awards will be publicly announced at this event.

This event  is sponsored by the Office of Postdoctoral Studies, WiSolve and WARF.

 

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2024 Awardees

Postdoc Excellence Award in Teaching

 

Nate Fisher, PhD

Mathematics

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Service

 

Joshua K. Brown, PhD

School of Human Ecology

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

 

Babita Rahar, PhD

Medicine

 

Usman Arshad, PhD

Animal & Dairy Sciences

 

Linda Horianopoulos, PhD

Wisconsin Energy Institute

 

 

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2023 Awardees

Postdoc Excellence Award in Teaching

 

Robert (Rob) Mooney, PhD

Biocore

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Service

 

Wasikul Islam, PhD

Physics

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

Yili Qian, PhD

Biochemistry

Melinda Soares-Furtado, PhD

Astronomy

2022 Awardees

Postdoc Excellence Award in Teaching

 

Sam Waterworth, PhD

Pharmacy

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Service

 

Alison Deatsch, PhD

Medical Physics

Morgan Howe, PhD

Chemistry

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

 

Adam Schafer, PhD

Chemistry

Laura Swan, PhD

Population Health Sciences

Lauren Zebertavage, PhD

Human Oncology

2021 Awardees

Postdoc Excellence Award in Teaching

 

Anna Kowalkowski, PhD

Biology Core Curriculum

Cooper Rosin, PhD

Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Service

 

Anahid Ebrahimi, PhD

Mechanical Engineering

Nell Maltman, PhD

Waisman Center

Daniel Z. Radecki, PhD

Comparative Biosciences

 

Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

 

Liza Chang, PhD

WISCIENCE

Anna J. Finley, PhD

Center for Healthy Minds

Natascha Merten, PhD

Population Health Sciences

Cara Moravec

Laboratory of Genetics

Quotes About 2024 Awardees

“Dr. Fisher has taught a wide variety of courses and ahs succeeded in creating a welcoming classroom environment in which students are engaged and feel comfortable sharing their ideas and questions.  Nate Fisher, PhD, 2024 Postdoc Excellence Award in Teaching

“Dr. Rahar exemplifies all the qualities of an excellent mentor : supportive, patient, compassionate, committed, thorough, empowering, and well versed at explaining experimental design and techniques to each mentee. ” Babita Rahar, PhD, 2024 Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

“Dr. Arshad prioritizes mentoring, contributes to collaborative work and forming a multi-disciplinary research team.” Usman Arshad, PhD, 2024 Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

“Dr. Horianopoulos helps them formulate and meet career and training goals that are tailored to their needs, and continues to advise and connect with them professionally after their graduation.” Linda Horianopoulos, 2024 Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring

“Through his ability to identify unmet needs and work across groups, Dr. Brown has guaranteed that when he leaves UWMadison
the postdoc community will continue to benefit from his substantial contributions.” Dr. Joshua Brown, 2024 Postdoc Awardee in Service

Quotes About Previous Awardees

“Anna is endlessly creative in solving problems, thinking about learning goals first, but balancing that with flexibility based on in-the-moment formative feedback on student learning.” Anna Kowalkowski PhD, 2021 Postdoc Excellence Award in Teaching

“The defining feature of Dan’s work with the UWPA and others is his commitment to bettering the lives of all postdocs. He envisions how each event and initiative can best impact the individual, through the lenses of diversity and inclusion, immigration status, postdocs’ personal lives (e.g. childcare considerations), department/discipline, and more.” Daniel Z. Radecki PhD, 2021 Postdoc Excellence Award in Service

“Cara mitigated my doubts as an early career researcher by maintaining that not all knowledge is easily gained and reminding me that it takes many years and practice to become an expert in a field. Cara’s feedback was honest, yet encouraging, and made me feel optimistic that I will develop into a successful scientist if I keep working hard and follow her example.” Cara Moravec PhD, 2021 Postdoc Excellence Award in Mentoring