The Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award

The Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award is provided by the HSGSA to recognize excellence and distinction in mentorship, teaching, and research.  This award is named after Dr. Edwin A. Kroeger [Professor of Physiology and Pathophysiology in the Max Rady College of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies in Medicine (1987-2017)], who has set the highest example of  mentorship by providing an environment for students to reach their fullest potential; supporting them with wisdom, guidance and patience; and for being an example to which they can aspire, as researchers and as people within the community.

The student-governed Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award acknowledges current professors who have exemplified excellence in graduate and professional teaching, have been portrayed as noteworthy mentors, and strive to enhance student abilities and potential. We define a mentor as: Advisors, people with career experience who is willing to share their knowledge and provide feedback on one’s performance; Supporters, people who give emotional and moral encouragement; Tutors, people who give specific instruction and guidance to one’s activities; Leaders, employers to whom one is apprenticed who exhibit leadership through knowledge, professionalism, collaboration and communication; Sponsors, sources of information in obtaining opportunities; and Models, of identity, generating mutual respect, trust, understanding and empathy.

2021 Recipient Dr. Pingzhao Hu 

Dr. Pingzhao Hu is a tenured Associate Professor in bioinformatics and statistical genetics in The University of Manitoba (UM). Prior to joining UM in 2014, Dr. Hu received his Ph.D. in computer science from York University (Canada). His group develops and applies novel computational and statistical algorithms for integrative analysis of high-throughput multimodal (genomic, electronic medical records and imaging, etc) data to understand the causal association between the human genome and phenome for better disease diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Hu has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles with over 5100 citations and H-index 33. Dr. Hu is Associate Editors of Frontiers in Genetics (Section of Statistical Genetics and Methodology) and Annals of Medicine (Section of Medical Genetics and Genomics).