John F. Engelhardt and Adalaide “Dee” Morris each earned top recognition from the University of Iowa Graduate College for excellence in mentoring graduate students.

The 2011 Graduate College Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in biological and life sciences was awarded to Engelhardt, professor of anatomy and cell biology in the Carver College of Medicine and faculty member in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. Morris received the outstanding mentor award in humanities and fine arts. She is professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The professors were nominated by their students and colleagues and honored during a ceremony Nov. 29, 2011, at the Levitt Center for University Advancement.  

“This is lovely recognition of work that is often not visible to anybody other than the person who is mentored,” Morris says. “This award is about making visible a commitment that is a huge pleasure but generally an invisible pleasure.”

John Engelhardt

Engelhardt is head of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, director of the Center for Gene Therapy, and the Roy J. Carver Chair of Molecular Medicine in the Carver College of Medicine. Despite his busy schedule, Engelhardt is always there for his graduate students.

Engelhardt’s philosophy on good mentoring is summarized by the following traits :  Malleable, Enthusiasm, Nurturing, Teacher, Open-minded, Responsible.

“When you accept a graduate student as a mentee, it is a lifelong commitment to support them through the good and hard times and long after they fly from the nest, just like you would for your children or a family member. It’s not a business transaction,” says Engelhardt, who joined the UI faculty in 1997. “We are lucky to have outstanding graduate students at the UI; they are a large part of the research engine that makes this University an outstanding place to do science.

“Mentors can also benefit tremendously from the mentor-mentee relationship if they are receptive.  This has been the case for me. Much of my professional and personal development stems from my mentoring relationships and the invisible reverse-mentorship that is associated with the process of mentoring.”

Dongsheng Duan, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri, owes much of his professional success to Engelhardt. Duan, a native of China, was Engelhardt’s first graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and later followed him to the University of Iowa as a postdoctoral scholar and assistant research scientist from 1997 to 2002.

“If it were not for John’s mentorship, I never would have been as successful as I am today,” Duan wrote in his nomination letter on Engelhardt’s behalf. “Besides teaching me to do great science, John taught me how to ‘sell’ my research in the form of presentations, manuscripts, and grants.

“John spent countless hours teaching me how to develop a central theme, how to make the science flow, and of course how to speak and write English in the academic world.”

Engelhardt’s laboratory at the UI researches genetic and metabolic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, organ transplantation, and sepsis.

Adalaide “Dee” Morris

Morris has been a UI faculty member in the English Department since 1974. Her research focuses on the intersection of poetry and technology; she also studies digital poetics. A current UI graduate student, mentored by Morris, is the first in the department to write a dissertation on new media poetics and theory.

A highlight of her 37-year tenure at the UI came in 2007, when one of her students, Mike Chasar, won the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation Award in the arts and humanities category. This award is the nation’s most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations.

The UI, with five winners, has garnered more national awards than any other public institution.

“The triumph that students like Mike have is all his, but it’s a privilege to be part of such an exhilarating trajectory,” Morris says. “It’s nothing you can pull out of a hat. It’s a collaboration that is nurturing to both parties. And it is fun.”

Chasar, assistant professor of English at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., credits Morris for providing valuable guidance during his academic career.

“What I and other students admire so much about Dee as a mentor is her commitment to the integrated scholar and person and not just to the single project or job,” Chasar wrote in his nomination letter on Morris’ behalf. “She is committed to the graduate student who will become a peer in the field, who will become a teacher and departmental administrator, who will go on to do further work, who will participate in many communities in many ways, who will give back to the discipline as generously as she has given to it.”

Morris feels she has as much to learn from her students as they do from her.

“No mentor has all the answers. If I thought I had all the answers, I would lead people down a dead end,” Morris says. “If you teach people to ask questions to which you know the answers, you’re teaching them half of the catechism. You’re not doing much of anything if you don’t ask questions that stretch both of you. You both learn together.”