Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 18, 2001Volume 29, Number 30



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Graduate School to honor
outstanding faculty mentors

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will again honor faculty members for their exemplary mentoring of graduate students.

This year's winning faculty mentors are Daniel DiMaio, professor of genetics; John Mack Faragher, the Arthur Unobskey Professor of American History; and Joshua Gamson, professor of sociology.

Thirty-eight names were placed in nomination this spring, based on letters from 70 appreciative graduate students. The honorees were chosen by the Graduate Student Assembly's Awards and Evaluation Committee, working with the Office of Teaching Fellow Preparation and Development. The committee chose one mentor each from the humanities, the natural sciences and the social sciences. Each will be presented with a Yale chair (the wooden, not the endowed kind) following the Convocation ceremony, which is set for Sunday, May 20, in the Hall of Graduate Studies courtyard.

"There were so many nominees who were deserving of a mentoring award that it was very difficult to choose among them. I kept wishing we could give out more than just three," says committee member Matthew Green, a graduate student in political science.

"It is rare that an award taps so directly into people's deepest sense of appreciation and gratitude," says Bill Rando, director of the Office of Teaching Fellow Preparation and Development at the Graduate School. "The Graduate Mentoring Award does that for graduate students at Yale. For the second year now, the letters of nomination written by the students have told of unwavering guidance, challenge, caring, and deep personal and intellectual commitment. Anyone who ever wondered what it means to be a great mentor should read these letters: it's all there."

It's not only the students who benefit from a good mentoring relationship, notes DiMaio, one of this year's honorees. "Being a mentor of graduate students is one of the most rewarding aspects of being on the Yale faculty. It is wonderful to help transform entering students with limited research experience into confident and accomplished young scientists ready to make their own discoveries and contributions."

Brief profiles of this year's winners follow:

Dr. Daniel DiMaio. In nominating DiMaio for the mentoring award, one student wrote, "In every aspect of my graduate training, he has been the perfect mentor for me. He has made me a more accountable scientist, a better critical thinker, and has inspired me toward a career in academic research and teaching."

A 1974 graduate of Yale College, DiMaio is studying the molecular biology of tumor viruses, and the mechanisms by which they affect cell proliferation and induce the development of cancer. He also studies the molecular basis of cell growth regulation. He is director of the Molecular Virology Research Program of the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center and an editor of the Journal of Virology. In recognition of his research contributions, DiMaio has received a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, where he chaired the DNA Virus Division.

John Mack Faragher. Placing Faragher's name in nomination for the award, one of his students noted, "In addition to what I have learned from him as a historian, he has helped me to better understand and negotiate the academic world."

Faragher, who earned his doctorate from Yale in 1977, focuses his research on the American West. He is author or editor of nine books, most recently "The American West: An Interpretative History," a revision of Robert V. Hine's monumental work, which was honored by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum of Oklahoma City as the most outstanding non-fiction book on the American West for the year 2000. His other books include "Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer," which received the State of Kentucky Governor's Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and an award from the American Revolution Round Table of New York.

Joshua Gamson. One student wrote of Gamson: "I knew that when I came to Yale that I would have access to great books and great minds. I did not know how important it would be to have great teachers, mentors and friends. I have found Professor Gamson to be all of these things at once, and I believe that he made my graduate experience something for which I will always be grateful."

Gamson studies the sociology of culture, mass media and communications, social movements and the sociology of sex and gender. His scholarly books on popular culture include "Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity" and "Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America." "Freaks Talk Back" won awards from the Society for Cinema Studies, the American Sociological Association's Culture Section, and was designated one of the Voice Literary Supplement's 25 favorite books of 1998.


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

New center supporting legal reform in China

Team finds 'surprising ability' in bone marrow cells

Notable speakers will highlight this year's Commencement

Manipulating molecules through nanotechnology

Developing lightweight batteries for field missions

Summertime at Yale


ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

Devoted Yale alumnus and benefactor John J. Lee dies

Noted legal scholar and humanist Charles L. Black Jr. dies

Commencement Information


MEDICAL NEWS

Graduate School to honor outstanding faculty mentors

Architecture students rise to the task of making a home

Psychologist Edward Zigler is lauded for lifetime achievements

Men's golf team to compete in regional championship

Yale recognized as 'good neighbor'

New 'Smile Carts' honor Yale nurse practitioner and the memory of alumnus

Grant to fund F&ES scholarships

YUWO scholarships to further studies and enhance careers awarded to Yale affiliates

Commencement Concert to mark closing of Morse Recital Hall for renovations

Yale senior's essay on life in New Haven wins first Hegel Prize



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