2024 Mendelsohn Awards Celebrate Outstanding Mentors

The 25th annual Everett I. Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, March 28, in Lehman Hall and organized by the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Council (GSC). Faculty members, student nominees, family members, Student Council leaders, and school administrators gathered to listen to students read brief remarks about how their mentors have guided their academic lives and supported their personal growth during their time at Harvard Griffin GSAS.

The Mentoring Awards began in 1999 by the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Council as part of a program sponsored by the National Graduate and Professional Students Association. In its 25th year, the group is proud to continue the tradition of recognizing Harvard faculty who go above and beyond to support the academic, personal, and professional development of graduate students at Harvard Griffin GSAS. The Mentoring Awards connect with the goal of improving graduate student advising. To learn more about advising, please visit the website: gsas.harvard.edu/academics/advising. The history of the award and past winners can be found in this Engage article.

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Top row from left to right: Aden Solway, Maria K. Lehtinen, David Atherton, Catherine Elgin, Kathryn Davidson, Catherine McKenna, Jessica Chen; Bottom row from left to right: Sonya Gupta, Sophie Barton, Victor Arul, Rachel Martin

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Photo credit: Ricardo Lopez

About the Winners

David Atherton is a scholar of literature, focusing primarily on Japan’s early modern period (also known as the Edo or Tokugawa period, ca. 1600-1867). As a professor, he has engendered a reputation for being “warm, compassionate, and highly caring”.

Rosie Bsheer is a historian of the modern Middle East. She is described as having a “profound commitment to the personal and professional well-being of her graduate students”.

Kathryn Davidson is a professor of linguistics at Harvard University where her research investigates our unique capacity to understand an infinite number of sentences that we've never encountered before, how we incorporate contextual information into these meanings, and how we ever learn to do this. Kathryn puts “utmost emphasis on fostering an inclusive environment”.

Catherine Elgin is a philosopher whose areas of study include the theory of knowledge, philosophy of art, and philosophy of science. Catherine maintains a “profound engagement” with her students’ writings and thoughts.

Catherine McKenna, the Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures, has taught at Harvard since 2005. Catherine acts as a beacon for her students, “an unwavering source of academic and non-academic guidance, mentorship, and professional inspiration”. 

Laura Hatfield, PhD, is an associate professor of health care policy (biostatistics). Her research focuses on trade-offs and relationships among health outcomes. “Laura has been a key figure in the experiences of many PhD students through her formal and informal teaching roles”.

Maria K. Lehtinen is a neuroscientist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “[Maria] is a rising star in our field and an incredibly kind mentor.”