The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs in partnership with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association announced the 2024 award winners at the Spring Postdoc Awards Ceremony on May 23. The award winners will be highlighted in the Graduate School Sesquicentennial time capsule to be opened in 2074.
“Our postdocs play an integral role in the research enterprise and are fundamental to the discovery and learning mission of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Recognizing these postdocs, faculty, and campus partners is an important annual activity,” commented Vice Provost for Graduate Education C. Christie Mizell, PhD, Dean of the Graduate School, and Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.
The award recipients are as follows:
POSTDOC OF THE YEAR
Eric Moses Gurevitch, PhD
Gurevitch is a National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow led by Teresa Goddu, PhD. His scholarship focuses on the history of science in early modern South Asia. His first book, “Everyday Sciences: Making Knowledge Local in South Asia,” is currently under advance contract with the University of Chicago. Gurevitch is described as “a meticulous and creative teacher, an energetic and dependable colleague, and a delightful conversationalist which Vanderbilt is lucky to have”.
Suzanne Nolan, PhD
Nolan is in the lab of Cody Siciliano, PhD, in the Department of Pharmacology. She established herself as an expert in understanding how presynaptic and postsynaptic adaptations to the mesolimbic dopamine pathway underlie contingency learning. She is regularly invited to give talks and chair symposia at national and international meetings. Her work is published in top outlets and is having high impact across her areas of study.
POSTDOCTORAL MENTOR OF THE YEAR
Zer Vue, PhD
Vue was nominated by Antentor Hinton Jr., PhD, in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. As a postdoc in the Hinton lab, Vue mentors five of 15 undergraduate students. Her previous students have continued in PhD programs, dental schools and medical education. Many of her undergraduate mentees have won distinguished research awards at conferences, with Vue’s guidance and encouragement.
FACULTY MENTOR OF THE YEAR
Antentor Hinton Jr., PhD
Hinton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, an Ernest E. Just Early Career Investigator, and a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Science Diversity Leadership Investigator. Hinton’s research is remarkable, and to date, he has published 99 papers, won over 60 awards and given 200 invited talks. He has worked to dramatically increase diversity in the scientific workforce by officially mentoring over 95 individuals, and hundreds of others in shadow and informal mentoring.
OUTSTANDING CAMPUS PARTNER
International Student & Scholar Services, led by Julie Wilbers.
ISSS supports university J1 postdoctoral scholars. They also provide guidance to the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs as they work with the international postdoc population. ISSS has partnered with OPA to provide workshops for international students and postdocs across campus and information sessions for administrators to better support our international community. The knowledge and resources that ISSS provides to the OPA are immensely valuable. They are constantly looking for more ways to provide resources to the international community and advocate on behalf of Vanderbilt’s international scholars.
The award ceremony can be viewed here. For more information on past winners, please visit the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs website.
Vanderbilt postdoctoral fellows, commonly known as postdocs, are professionals who have earned doctoral degrees and are pursuing additional scholarly training, experience, and research progress necessary for a wide range of career paths. Postdocs play an important role in Vanderbilt’s research enterprise and are integral to the discovery and learning mission of Vanderbilt University and Medical Center. Vanderbilt has approximately 500 postdocs across both VU and VUMC.
