Champion Mentors: 2023-2024 FDMA Winners

Posted: March 4, 2024

Each academic year, the Graduate School at the University of Florida bestows the Faculty Doctoral Mentoring Award (FDMA) to spotlight outstanding, innovative, and effective mentoring of doctoral and Master of Fine Arts student through their final dissertation or fine arts thesis project.

Nominations for this award come from current UF graduate students, faculty members, and administrators, and alumni

This award gives $3,000 to each of five or so faculty members, plus $1,000 to each winner's academic unit to use to support doctoral or Master of Fine Arts students.

The Graduate School is pleased to announce that these six graduate faculty members were chosen as 2023-2024 FDMA recipients — click on the personal statement link to learn more about their mentoring experience and philosophy:

Professor Ronald Castellano, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Personal statement (PDF file)

Professor Martin Cohn, Ph.D.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
College of Medicine
Personal statement (PDF file)

Professor Nicolas DiLorenzo, Ph.D.
Department of Animal Sciences
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Personal statement (PDF file)

Professor Aysegul Gunduz, Ph.D.
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Personal statement (PDF file)

Associate Professor Holly Lane, Ph.D.
School of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies
College of Education
Personal statement (PDF file)

Professor Kirk Ziegler, Ph.D.
Department of Chemical Engineering
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Personal statement (PDF file)

Congratulations to this year’s FDMA recipients! Thank you for your extraordinary efforts in guiding our Grad Gators to new heights in learning, research, and professional development while advancing graduate education at UF!