2022 STAR Educator Recipient: Daniel Lodge, PhD
Daniel J. Lodge, PhD
Professor
Department of Pharmacology
Nomination Submission:
Dr. Lodge strongly embodies the LSOM Stars of Education criteria. Outside of the lab, Dr. Lodge plays an active role in the IBMS Graduate Program. He acts as a course leader for multiple courses, including a micro-elective that he developed, in which he uses a journal club and laboratory format to train students in electrophysiology techniques. This course is popular with the students, including those that do not use the technique in their own research. In addition to his “official” teaching requirements, Dr. Lodge also leads an informal journal club focused on psychiatric disorders. This journal club, which is entirely voluntary, was established by graduate students, who specifically requested Dr. Lodge’s participation. Despite the many demands on his time, he readily agreed to act as the discussion leader. As his former post-doctoral trainee, I can also attest to Dr. Lodge’s service as a mentor. During my time in his lab, Dr. Lodge encouraged me to choose a career path , then provided a great deal of training and support as I worked toward this goal. For example, he worked closely with me to help me learn complex and innovative research techniques. He encouraged me to generate my own ideas and provided support as I published my work and applied for my own funding. As a result, I was very successful, publishing multiple first author manuscripts in high impact journals, securing my own funding, including a highly competitive K99/R00 Award from the NIH and ultimately landing a tenure track faculty position at the Dell Medical School at UT Austin. As I hope is clear, Dr. Lodge embodies the LSOM Stars of Education criteria, developing and implementing innovative curriculum that inspire students to learn and offering exemplary mentorship to his trainees both in and outside of the lab.
There is no better nominee than Dr. Lodge for the LSOM Stars of Education award. As a trainee in Dr. Lodge’s laboratory, I have had the privilege of learning from him both in the classroom and as I conduct research. He excels at training students to think critically about the experiments they are performing and the data they collect. In addition to his expert mentorship, Dr. Lodge also directs and teaches numerous courses, across multiple disciplines and departments. Dr. Lodge is truly a great teacher and represents the neuroscience discipline and UT Health exceptionally well. He is more than deserving of the Stars of Education award.