Lenore Fahrig, a Director of the Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Lab has been awarded with a Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award.
Each year the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs and the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International) host the awards which recognize faculty who render exceptional service to graduate students as supervisors and research mentors. The effect of such faculty on the careers of students is frequently transformational.
Testimonials from her students were key to her nomination and subsequent confirmation. They included:
Lenore has really fostered a unique and friendly lab environment with annual traditions that have gone on for years. These traditions carried out by Lenore are what make a graduate student’s experience such a pleasure, creating an environment that is not only stimulating and supportive but one that also has a sense of community, fostering long-lasting friendships and future collaborations.
Her magic is in the atmosphere. Instead of counting the hours students spend at their desks or standing over them as they work, she invites them to add to the ongoing academic conversation. This enriched conversation takes place in the daily lunches she attends, the weekly discussions she has instituted, the regular potlucks she hosts, the annual camp-outs she organizes, and, of course, the pub visits she encourages. Every lab member is invited to use these events, especially the lab discussions, as opportunities to share and improve their ideas.
Her pleasant and cheery disposition makes her easily approachable and her brilliance makes her aid and suggestions highly valuable. Students feel like they are a priority with Dr. Fahrig and, as such, she develops excellent relationships with her students.
Working with Dr. Fahrig and seeing her effects on others, as well as knowing the benefits I have gained from her mentorship, have given me a model for how to be a successful and effective supervisor. Thus Dr. Fahrig’s supervision has not only improved my research skills, but also has shaped the way I will approach supervision of students in the future.
Lenore Fahrig is the ideal academic mentor. She has very sharp critical-mind that never failed to find the flaw in my logic or in the details of the analytical approach. At the same time, she is never out of sight of the broad-scale context of the work and excels at helping her students see how their work fits (and could/should fit) into that bigger picture. She is also—and this is a rare gift—able to apply those critical skills in a thoroughly constructive and sensitive way that nurtures the minds and souls of her students.
Lenore Fahrig is an excellent mentor of graduate students. She has provided rigorous and detail-oriented oversight to a host of students over the years, while maintaining an open and warm environment where people are free to explore important and relevant concepts in ecology.