Midwest D-CFAR Awards Inaugural Outstanding Mentor Award
September 21, 2026
The Midwest D-CFAR recently solicited nominations for the inaugural Midwest D-CFAR Outstanding Mentor Award, which honors individuals who demonstrate exemplary scientific and career mentorship to early-career HIV investigators at Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, and Harris-Stowe State University.
Richard Grucza, PhD
We received nine nominations from colleagues and mentees across our partner institutions. Nominators spoke about the impact their mentors have had on their scientific and career development, including guiding research projects and manuscripts, connecting investigators to broader research communities, and fostering a sense of belonging within the HIV research community.
Dr. Richard Grucza, Professor at SLU and Co-Director of the Midwest D-CFAR Developmental Core, was selected as the inaugural Outstanding Mentor Awardee. His nomination reflected an extraordinary depth of impact. Colleagues and mentees described how Dr. Grucza has guided trainees across every career stage with patient, hands-on investment in their methodological growth, from reviewing code line-by-line to working through grant applications down to the smallest analytic decision.
What stood out most was the consistent theme of Dr. Grucza’s influence extending well beyond his own areas of expertise. Nominators highlighted how Dr. Grucza encouraged them to pursue fresh ideas, connected them with new collaborators and mentors, and gave them the freedom to develop scientific identities and directions entirely their own. One mentee put it like this: “[Dr. Grucza] is unusally candid about the boundaries of his own expertise. When a question moves beyond what he knows best, he finds someone who knows more and brings that person into the conversation.”
That thoughtful mentorship has had a clear multiplier effect, with many of Dr. Grucza’s mentees now holding career development awards and mentoring the next generation of investigators themselves. One mentee shared that Dr. Grucza has “shaped how I mentor my own trainees. He sets a very high bar for rigor and is direct when the science can be better… I have now mentored dozens of trainees myself, and much of what I try to do with them comes directly from watching Rick.”
Reflecting on the Outstanding Mentor Award, Dr. Grucza shared that he is “very honored to receive this award. For me, mentorship is really about helping people find their own path as researchers; asking questions that keep them excited and guiding them in answering them rigorously, developing and communicating their own ideas, pointing them to resources and helping them to develop their own networks. It’s incredibly rewarding to see trainees grow into independent investigators and mentors themselves.” Dr. Grucza has played a foundational role in the careers of so many trainees, and this thoughtful and consistent mentorship will no doubt trickle down to the next generation of investigators.
We also congratulate all our nominees: Beau Ances, Michael Durkin, Mark Huffman, Juliet Iwelunmor, Ginger McKay, Priya Pal, and Enbal Shacham. Thank you all for the mentorship you provide to our community!
Written by Kate Gershwin.