Congratulations to 2026 Postdoc-as-Mentor Award Recipient, Dr. Timothy Kistner!

Postdoctoral Affairs is happy to announce the recipient of the 2026 Postdoc-as-Mentor Award, Dr. Timothy Kistner! 

Dr. Timothy Kistner graduated with his PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology (with a focus on Exercise Physiology) in 2023. He joined the Katsanis-Simpson lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in late 2023 and is now a T32 Postdoctoral Fellow affiliated with the University of Arizona Cancer Center. His research focuses on understanding why and how exercise helps protect against cancer. He is currently investigating how physical activity mobilizes the immune system and how signals released by muscles during exercise may influence the body's ability to fight disease. 

The Postdoc-as-Mentor Award honors postdoctoral scholars who provide intellectual leadership, foster independence, offer constructive feedback, and create supportive training environments for their mentees. Dr. Kistner was recognized for his dedicated and thoughtful mentorship of undergraduate honors thesis students, graduate students, and summer research fellows, as well as his role as a peer mentor within the T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship. His mentees describe him as intuitive, collaborative, and deeply invested in their growth — one noting that he creates "steady and easy progression" toward independent work, while a doctoral mentee highlighted his ability to "keep space for you to bring and bounce ideas off him." His nominators describe him as already "functioning with the independence, creativity, and rigor expected of an early-stage principal investigator" and note that his combination of scientific excellence and intentional mentorship makes him a standout emerging leader in cancer prevention research.