Shana Stoddard of Rhodes College in Memphis Wins Mentoring Award

Shana Stoddard, an associate professor of chemistry at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, is the 2023 recipient of the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award. The award recognizes original and insightful research work by a young investigator working with undergraduates that has had significant impact on chemistry and the STEM careers of the students involved. Dr. Stoddard will be recognized at the Council on Undergraduate Research’s upcoming conference.

At Rhodes, Dr. Stoddard has mentored 98 research students in her Molecular Immunotherapeutics Research lab, using a combination of computational and experimental approaches. Ninety of her students have been undergraduates, and together, Dr. Stoddard and her students have pioneered worked in predicting extremely large protein structures and in the design of protein-based biotools that can be used to understand kidney function. They also have worked on the development of drug compounds to treat COVID and various cancers and are working on novel autoimmune disease therapeutics.

“I really feel that research is a way of life that allows scholars to be able to embark upon a journey that can bring good to the world. I most enjoy that journey when I have students by my side,” said Dr. Stoddard. “The opportunity to mentor students and to teach them that it is the scientist who is the connection between science and society is a truly rewarding experience. This award allows me to continue to reflect on how the platform of being a teacher-scholar-mentor has been impactful and affirms the work we do at primarily undergraduate institutions in investing in students to become the world’s next generation of scholars.”

Dr. Stoddard is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Mississippi.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Four African American Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties

Channon Miller is a new assistant professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and Quienton L. Nichols is the new associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. M. D. Lovett has joined Clark Atlanta University as an associate professor of psychology and associate professor Robyn Autry was named director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

U.S. News and World Report’s Latest Rankings of the Nation’s Top HBCUs

Spelman College in Atlanta was ranked as the best HBCU and Howard University in Washington, D.C., was second. This was the same as a year ago. This was the 17th year in a row that Spelman College has topped the U.S. News rankings for HBCUs.

University of Georgia’s J. Marshall Shepherd Honored by the Environmental Law Institute

Dr. Shepherd is a professor of geography, the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor, and the director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia. Before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia, he was a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. Shepherd is an expert in the fields of weather, climate, and remote sensing.

Early Shaw University Dean and Acting President Honored With Historical Marker

During a 50-year tenure at the educational institution, Nicholas Franklin Roberts (1849-1934) served as Shaw’s dean of faculty, dean of the School of Theology, vice president, and acting president from November 1893 to March 1894.

Featured Jobs