-Magdalen Lindeberg

Chase Mayers, former postdoctoral associate with Teresa Pawlowska (SIPS PPPMB) and recently hired instructional support specialist, has received a 2020 Postdoc Achievement Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Cornell Office of Postdoctoral Studies. The award is given in recognition of an unwavering commitment to promoting the personal and professional development of undergraduate and graduate students as well as trainees from diverse backgrounds.

Mayers began work in Pawlowska’s program in 2018, supported by a NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with a focus on Research Using Biological Collections. In her nomination letter, Pawlowska cited Mayers’ strong record of training scientists at various levels of experience including five undergraduates, one graduate student, and one visiting professor. Mentees expressed their particular gratitude for his patience and enthusiasm in addition to the technical training they received.  Eileen Tzng ’21 commented,

Chase always showed me how I was contributing, even if my results were not always aligned with my initial goal …. As my mentor, he helped me learn that mistakes and failures are all part of science – experiments rarely go as expected, thus requiring trouble shooting and patience. This is an important realization as undergraduate lab courses are often completed within 3 hours by the student with behind-the-scenes work done by teaching assistants and anticipated success.

Mayers was recently hired by SIPS to lead instructional support for the mycology and plant pathology classes formerly supported by Mary McKellar and where his mentorship skills will be greatly appreciated!