Simcox and Gisriel receive mentoring award

Judith Simcox and Christopher Gisriel received the Distinguished Faculty and Staff Postdoc Mentoring Award from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Postdoctoral Association. Given annually, the award recognizes faculty and staff who contribute their time, knowledge, energy and enthusiasm to mentoring postdocs in their labs. The awardees were honored at the association’s Celebration of Postdoc Excellence in May.

Judith Simcox

Simcox is an associate professor of biochemistry at UW–Madison. The Simcox lab studies plasma lipids, which largely serve as signaling molecules to regulate cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. She and her team are striving to identify novel lipids and determine how their production is regulated and how they function in metabolic disease. Simcox was named an Emerging Investigator by the University of Illinois Chicago in 2020 and a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's inaugural class of Freeman Hrabowski Scholars in 2023. She won the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2024 Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator Award in Lipid Research.

“The impact of postdocs on this campus through the classes they teach and the projects they lead makes me realize the true power of mentorship,” Simcox said. “Each person you mentor has the ability to transform the world through their discoveries, good work and teaching. … Since the nomination for this award came from postdocs in my lab, it’s a reminder that all the early mornings and long days to support my trainees are recognized and valued.”

Christopher Gisriel

Gisriel is an assistant professor of biochemistry at UW–Madison. Gisriel’s lab studies the conversion of light energy into chemical energy in photosynthesis and the role of macromolecules called photosystems. Using structural biology techniques, the team is investigating the molecular mechanisms, diversity and evolution of the photosystems involved in oxygenic photosynthesis. Gisriel received a National Institutes of Health Pathway to Independence Award and a Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium's Early-Stage Investigator Award.

“What an honor it is to receive recognition for mentorship from postdocs,” Gisriel said. “I was a postdoc myself not long ago, so I know all too well that it is a pivotal time in the life of a scientist, both professionally and personally. As a new laboratory, we rely heavily on the work of our postdocs, so, really, this award should go to them.”