Special report: Mentoring awards

摘要

We all know a special person who has inspired us. Paul Smaglik learns from the winners of the first UK award for excellent mentoring in science. What makes a good supervisor? Someone who allows students to ask questions, no matter how silly they might seem? Someone who lets students grapple with problems before jumping in with answers and explanations? Or someone who emphasizes the positive, even when an experiment goes awry? The winners of the first Nature/UK National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) awards for mentoring in science have all these qualities. The winner of the lifetime mentoring award is Tom Kibble, senior research fellow and emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College, London. The mid-career mentoring award was presented to Innes Cuthill, professor of behavioural ecology at the University of Bristol. The winners demonstrate that intellect and humanity can combine to advance both the mentor's and the protege's careers, say the scientists who proposed them for this award.