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. 2025 is the fifth 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.
2025 Postdoc Excellence Awards
Submit your nominations for this year’s Postdoc Excellence Awards!
Nominations due 5 PM, March 14th 2025. Submit your nomination via this form.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Postdoctoral Association (UWPA) is soliciting nominations for its 2025 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 2025 Postdoc Excellence Awards will be recognized at the UWPA Celebration of Postdoc Excellence on 16th May 2024. Nominations should be submitted via this form.
Applications must be submitted electronically by 5 PM on March 14, 2025. Questions? Contact the UWPA Postdoc Awards Committee (uwpa@postdoc.wisc.edu)
2025 Celebration of Postdoc Excellence
May 16th, 2025 from 5-8 pm
Location : Great Hall of the Memorial Union
The Postdoc Excellence Awards will be publicly announced at this event.
This event is sponsored by the Department of Plant Pathology, Office of Postdoctoral Studies 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