Suzie Pun, the Robert F. Rushmer Professor of Bioengineering, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Mentor Award. This award, sponsored by UW’s Graduate School and Office of the President, recognizes the outstanding mentoring of graduate students by faculty members.

Dr. Pun will receive the award at the academic year-end Awards of Excellence ceremony, to be held at 3:30 p.m. on June 7 in Meany Hall. The ceremony honors faculty and staff University-wide for their achievements in teaching, mentoring, public service and support. Her award will be accompanied by $5,000 in discretionary funds to support her scholarly activities.

The award honors UW faculty who exemplify excellence in graduate education, and the profound, lifelong impact that faculty mentorship can have on students. It acknowledges how mentorship can inspire and give confidence to graduate students and provides faculty members valued colleagues. It is named after late Graduate School Dean Marsha Landolt, a beloved administrator and researcher who spent her entire 29-year career at UW, and has been awarded annually since 1999.

Awardees are selected based upon the strength of their efforts to recruit, support and engage graduate students in the Husky Experience. As student advocates, they help their mentees solve problems, and overcome economic and cultural barriers to successfully advance their studies and progress towards the start of their careers. They inspire with their intellectual leadership, and actively involve students in teaching, research and training. They empower students who belong to underrepresented groups or are from disadvantaged backgrounds, to expand the diversity of their respective fields.

Dr. Pun’s research focuses on developing bioinspired materials for medical applications. Her lab is developing door-opening technologies in drug delivery, innovations for macromolecule delivery to the central nervous system, injectable hemostatic polymers and materials for controlled modulation of the immune system for cancer treatment. She received the College of Engineering’s Faculty Award for Research in 2017 and BioE’s Faculty Teacher/Mentor Award in 2015. and is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.