Congratulations to Dr. Joceline Lega!

Dr. Joceline Lega was presented with the Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award at the 2019 Awards of Distinction Luncheon and Ceremony, on April 1st.

Educated in France, Joceline Lega first came to the University of Arizona as a postdoctoral fellow and was hired in 1997 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, later joining the faculty in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics and the College of Public Health. Dr. Lega, a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute of Physics, has a self-proclaimed “passion for curiosity-driven research, for elegant applications, and for discovering and sharing knowledge.”

In 2016 she assumed the role of Coordinator of the Postdoctoral Mentoring Program in Mathematics, a program that started with 8 postdoctoral scholars and currently serves 28 postdocs. Dr. Lega has developed a model program for this fortunate group of postdocs. She guides each one of them in formulating a Professional Development Plan, arranges weekly group meetings for them to discuss topics such as writing grant proposals and teaching statements, and provides opportunities for them to practice job talks. In the words of the postdocs who nominated her: “It is clear to all of us how much she cares about our futures … We are all grateful for the time and effort Prof. Lega has put into the postdoctoral program and our professional development. We would be thrilled for her to receive this award in recognition of her outstanding hard work.”