Athanasiou, Boles honored for mentoring

Athanasiou, Boles honored for mentoring

BY DAWN DORSEY and
JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

Rice’s 2006 Presidential Award for Mentoring has been presented to bioengineering’s Kyriacos Athanasiou and history’s John Boles.

Athanasiou

Athanasiou, the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Bioengineering, is internationally known for his research, actively involved in professional organizations and leader of one of the largest research groups on campus. But he said interacting with students is the primary reason he is a faculty member.

“Finding time for students is a duty I consider sacred and the cornerstone of being an academician,” he said.
Athanasiou has mentored more than 130 postdoctoral researchers, medical residents, graduate students, undergraduates and high school students. In 2003, he won the Graduate Student Association Teaching and Mentoring Award.

“It exhilarates me when I see young people reach for the stars,” he said. “It is such a joy to see students garner prestigious awards and accolades and then leave the program knowing they have what it takes to be at the very top. It’s also rewarding when they keep in touch professionally and personally.”

From his own Ph.D. mentor, Athanasiou learned that the unwavering pursuit of rigor and excellence is fundamental.

“When things don’t work out the way you hoped, step back, take a deep breath and look at the big picture — then continue with your journey,” he said. “When excellence is accompanied by passion and excitement, only the sky is the limit.”

Boles

Boles, the William Pettus Hobby Professor of History, decided when he was a boy that he wanted to be a college professor, even though he knew nothing about it. “I just knew that I loved to read and to talk about things, and I thought being a professor meant a whole life of all reading, writing and talking,” he said. “I didn’t even know what I’d be a professor of. I just thought it would be a wonderful profession.”

Hundreds of Rice students are happy he didn’t fancy being a cowboy or a fireman, for they have been beneficiaries of his skill at writing, talking, teaching and advising. But it is his outstanding achievement in mentoring that has earned Boles the 2006 Presidential Mentoring Award.

Former students roundly lauded Boles for his patience, engagement, wisdom and advocacy and voiced their appreciation in letters nominating Boles for the award:

“John teaches not only the mechanics of being a professional historian — writing book reviews, producing publishable essays, crafting dissertation topics, developing research strategies and writing chapters — but also the intangibles: collegiality, service to the profession and respect for the work of others.”

“At every turn he advised, suggested, cajoled and inspired better research, better writing and better critical analysis. I will never be able to repay him for the training and expertise he imparted.”

“I regard him as the finest living example of how to mold and shape future colleagues in academia.”

“Those of us who have studied with him consider ourselves fortunate not only for the respect he gives students and the trust he places in them, but also for the caring and humane guidance he affords them.”
Boles thinks just as highly of his students, who themselves inspire and gratify.

“It’s a real privilege to be able to have students as good as we have at Rice, both the undergraduate and the graduate students,” Boles said. “My sense is that if you don’t like teaching here, then you’re in the wrong profession. It seems almost unreal that I get paid to do this.”