2024 Spring STAR Educator Recipient: Pei Wang, PhD
Pei Wang, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy
Nomination Submission:
Teaching and mentoring aspiring biomedical researchers is one of Pei’s most important and rewarding roles as a scientist/educator and it is as equally important as her basic research. A central focus is to cultivate a passion for research among students and postdocs and help them become life-long learners who can realize their full potential. As a result, four Ph.D. and three master’s students have graduated with her primary mentorship. She also trained four postdoctoral fellows and currently supervises one Ph.D. student and one postdoctoral fellow. Their achievements include awards from Cell Systems & Anatomy, the Long School of Medicine, and external organizations, and they attest to the effectiveness of her mentoring and teaching approaches. Her career has been built on the shoulders of her mentors and she firmly believes that sharing knowledge and expertise is essential for the advancement of science.
Being the Deputy Director for the Cancer Biology discipline of the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program and Student Advisor affords her a wonderful opportunity to engage with every cancer biology student each semester to monitor their research progress, provide support and guidance and to address any academic or life challenges they may encounter and to celebrate their achievements. She writes supporting letters for students’ fellowship applications and postdoctoral positions. She is one of multiple principal investigators of the T32 Cancer Biology Training Grant. Additionally, the two town hall meetings that she organized provided cancer biology students with an open forum to facilitate discussions on pertinent academic issues. She takes pride in nominating deserving cancer biology students for prestigious awards, resulting in notable recognitions such as the GSBS Presidential Ambassador for 2023 and 2024, as well as the 2023 GSBS Senior Student of the Year and the 2023 GSBS Robles Leadership Award.