{"id":128568,"date":"2020-11-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=128568"},"modified":"2020-11-20T10:05:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:05:40","slug":"pyszczynski-named-2020-outstanding-research-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=128568","title":{"rendered":"Pyszczynski named 2020 Outstanding Research Mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Thomas A. Pyszczynski, distinguished professor of psychology<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tom Pyszczynski, distinguished professor of psychology, has\nbeen named the winner of the second annual UCCS Outstanding Research Mentorship\nAward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyszczynski is internationally recognized scholar in the\nfield of social psychology and one of the co-creators of terror management\ntheory. The theory\u2019s development led to the creation of a sub-discipline of\nsocial psychology, called experimental existential psychology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyszczynski\u2019s nominators for the award called attention to\nhis dual status as an outstanding scholar and a compassionate mentor. He has\nco-authored more than 150 publications, nearly 100 of which include student\nco-authors. His sponsored research totals more than 2.4 million dollars in\ngrants, which have supported numerous graduate students. 18 of his former\nmentees hold faculty positions at universities across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Molly Maxfield \u201909, one of Pyszczynski\u2019s former mentees\nand now Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at\nArizona State University, wrote, \u201cOn a professional level, he is incredibly accomplished,\npublishing in the most prestigious journals in his field and acquiring numerous\ngrants to fund his work and support his students. And on a personal level, he\nis thoughtful, patient, and constantly encouraging growth in his students \u2013 wonderful\nqualities in a mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research mentors foster the success of their mentees in a number\nof ways. Pyszczynski\u2019s nominators highlighted his individualistic approach, frequently\nhelping students to develop their own research \u201cniche.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTom does not create carbon copies of himself,\u201d Maxfield\nwrote. \u201cHe gets to know students’ interests, helps them take a deep dive into\nthe relevant literature, and supports their development of creative research\nmethods to investigate those interests. His mentees have gone on to develop\nresearch investigating some of the \u2018big\u2019 questions \u2013 meaning, identity,\nconnectedness and life after death, among others. As a result, his mentorship\nhas broadened the scope of the sub-discipline he helped create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nominators write that Pyszczynski treats students as junior colleagues with their own skills, interests and ideas. His style of questioning is \u201cboth challenging and kind,\u201d encouraging students to think through difficult decisions and critically consider their own research trajectory. Above all, former students and colleagues celebrate his willingness to put in additional work to create meaningful research opportunities for students, all while simply saying, “I would have wanted someone to do this for me when I was a student.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a stronger and more confident researcher directly because of Dr. Pyszczynski’s thoughtful mentorship,\u201d wrote McKenzie Lockett, a current UCCS Ph.D. student pursuing her doctorate degree in clinical psychology under Pyszczynski\u2019s mentorship. \u201cHe exemplifies the type of research mentor I hope to be one day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Outstanding Research Mentor Award is awarded by the UCCS Office of Research<\/a> and recognizes the extraordinary efforts by a faculty and\/or staff member for providing outstanding research mentoring to UCCS students, staff, research associates, and\/or faculty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyszczynski was recognized during the Nov. 20 closing ceremony of the first-ever virtual Mountain Lion Research Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For his dedication to developing young researchers’ individuality and his commitment to their professional development, Tom Pyszczynski, distinguished professor of psychology, has been named the winner of the annual UCCS Outstanding Research Mentorship Award. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":128571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,49],"tags":[86,130,302,329],"class_list":["post-128568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-campus-announcements","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-department-of-psychology","tag-office-of-research","tag-research"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/680px-Communique-Images-24.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-xrG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128568"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128579,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128568\/revisions\/128579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}