Michael Marsiske honored for doctoral student mentoring

Michael Marsiske, Ph.D., is such an exceptional teacher that the only years other instructors have won the teaching award in the department of clinical and health psychology are those in which he recused himself from the competition. He has won his department’s outstanding graduate teaching award six times and outstanding graduate mentorship award twice.

Marsiske, an associate professor of clinical and health psychology, is one of five faculty members to receive the UF Graduate School’s 2013 Doctoral Dissertation/Mentoring Award. He was also named the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ Doctoral Mentor of the Year.

Marsiske directs a pre-doctoral training program, funded by the National Institute on Aging, which trains Ph.D. student researchers in the behavioral theories, methodologies and analyses needed to address questions of health, independence and functioning in older adults.

Anna Yam, one of three students who nominated Marsiske, said she could “imagine how he might blush over all this praise.” Kelsey Thomas noted that when Marsiske taught her introductory statistics class, he remembered the names of all 40 students by the second class meeting, and remembered them through subsequent courses. Shannon Sisco, now a practicing clinical psychologist, said her most challenging questions often came from Marsiske because “he believed I could think bigger.”

For his part, Marsiske calls working with doctoral students the “fuel in my furnace.”

“Work with doctoral students keeps one’s research current, future-focused, generative, and collegial. There is something exciting about building a team to advance science and scholarship,” said Marsiske, who has served on more than 55 doctoral committees and 27 master’s committees.

Reprinted from UF Explore research magazine.