Dr. Caplan honored for his mentorship of graduate students

According to Steve Caplan, Ph.D., caring is the key to being a good mentor to graduate students.

“Students are not — and should not be treated — as pawns who carry out research for a lab chief,” said Dr. Caplan, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and the recipient of UNMC’s 2011 Outstanding Mentor of Graduate Students award.

Steve Caplan, Ph.D.

• Spending quality time with them, even during stressful times;
  
• The rejection of a “one-size-fits-all” formula for working with students; and
  
• Setting a good example.

Below he discusses other aspects of mentoring graduate students.

How many graduate students do you work with?

I currently mentor four graduate students with another one joining this spring. I also have had my first two students graduate recently and go on to postdoctoral fellowships.

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring?

Being a mentor is a reward in itself — particularly a mentor of graduate students. While it is rewarding to know that I am passing on scientific training and knowledge to the next generation of scientists at a “global level,” it is even more rewarding to observe how new students undergo rigorous training and are molded and shaped into professional and independent scientists right before our eyes.

Describe a moment when you realized your influence made a difference in someone’s career.

Recently, my co-investigator and I were invited to the National Institutes of Health to deliver a seminar and meet other scientists. While there we met with a former student who graduated from our lab and now does exceptional research in his postdoctoral studies. The appreciation of the training and abilities of former students by their postdoctoral mentors really accentuates the influence we mentors have made on our students’ careers.

List three things few people know about you.

• My spouse, Dr. Naava Naslavsky, is my co-investigator and she deserves all the credit for this award.
  
• I have recently published my first novel, “Matter Over Mind,” about a scientific researcher and mentor, and I am currently working on a second novel.
  
• I am an active member of a blog site known as “Occam’s Typewriter,” where a group of scientists from various realms with interests in writing and discussing topics of interest to scientists and non-scientists post their blogs. My own blog is called “No Comment.”