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Smiling woman in lab coat in lab

This year, we have combined the awards for mentorship and supervision made by RDM and WIMM into the RDM - WIMM Sir Andrew McMichael Award for Excellent Supervision and Mentorship. This award recognises those supervisors who have gone above and beyond what is required of them in terms of their mentorship and pastoral care of their students, post-docs and other lab members.

We are very pleased to announce that the winner of this award for 2021 is Dr Bethan Psaila.

Beth was nominated by all the members of her lab, from graduate students to Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Fellows. All were unanimous in their praise of Beth’s mentorship and pastoral care, her generosity in devoting time to her lab members to provide practical help in the lab, constructive advice on their research and advice on their professional and personal development.  

As a mentor Beth is described as patient, sensitive, supportive and mindful of the wellbeing of her mentees. As a supervisor, her students say that ‘Beth’s optimism and belief that the most unexpected results are sometimes the most interesting, never fails to inspire and uplift dispirited students’. She is an advocate for women in science and is an inspirational role model to her colleagues.

These are just a few of the comments made about Beth by her team:

2020 was a challenging year for all of us and having a mentor that always kept a positive and constructive attitude and "an open door" really made the difference.

She is generous with her time and enthusiasm for my work and helps me retain perspective and optimism whenever things hit a roadblock. Perhaps unusually for a senior mentor, she is both extremely helpful in being able to take the broader view of a scientific question, while also able to input on the minutiae of experimental planning – and indeed willing to pick up a pipette and physically help with technically challenging experiments.

Beth is always extremely supportive of my career progression and I really feel that she cares about the future and the long-term progression of those she supervises. 

Beth offers advice in the form of suggestions which gives us the opportunity to explore ideas, develop independence and think critically. 

She is always open-minded, happy to collaborate with others and continually seeks opportunities that benefit my project and aids it’s development.

As a female scientist, Beth understands, cares for, and supports the female students, postdocs, and colleagues in their career development as best she can 

Beyond being an incredibly supportive supervisor, always full of enthusiasm, great ideas and approachable, Beth is a particular inspiration for me as I develop my path in science, showing that it is feasible to combine a rewarding scientific and clinical career with family life! 

Many congratulations to Dr Psaila.