Expectations for Faculty Mentors

The program encourages applicants to select a tenured faculty member as their mentor.

Yes, faculty may serve as a mentor for more than one applicant for the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

The program encourages applicants to select an active faculty member as their mentor. However, in some cases emeritus faculty who are still fully involved in their department and their research program are excellent prospective mentors.

Yes. The University of Maryland President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program office, in concert with the proposed faculty mentor, will request a letter of support from the department chair. This separate letter from the department chair should describe the department's level of interest in hiring the applicant into a tenure-track position and/or identify a potential fit with another University of Maryland department, if that is appropriate.

The program encourages applicants to look for a mentor outside their current department and their home campus unless they can articulate a strong reason for remaining in the same academic location in their research proposal and/or education background statement. For the University of Maryland program, this FAQ only applies to current University of Maryland Ph.D. students, postdocs, etc. who are interested in applying to the University of Maryland postdoc program; applicants from other institutions (i.e., not the University of Maryland) should identify a mentor in the most appropriate UMD academic department.

President's Postdoctoral Fellowship mentors are usually tenured faculty who are expected to (1) take an active role in helping the fellow to plan and achieve his or her research goals, (2) assist the fellow in establishing a visible presence in department, (3) facilitate opportunities for the fellow to participate in national and international research meetings, (4) encourage the fellow to focus full-time on research and avoid other commitments such as teaching or outside employment, (5) assist the fellow in seeking opportunities to present papers or to interview for faculty positions at the other campuses, and (6) attend the program professional development activities such as the annual gathering.

The program encourages mentors to meet with their fellow at the beginning of the fellowship to discuss their working arrangements and consider appropriate long and short term goals for the term of the fellowship. The mentor should not expect to meet all of the fellow's career development needs personally, but should provide an overall framework to ensure that the fellow has access to a broad academic network to support his or her work.

Mentors may also play an important role in advising fellows about the academic job market and making connections to related departments at other campuses that may be interested in the fellow for a faculty appointment. At the University of Maryland, departments that are interested in considering applicants for faculty appointments should contact the fellowship program office (umd-postdocs@umd.edu).

The e-mail sent by the application system to faculty mentors will ask them to address the following in a letter of support:

• applicant's planned research;
• expected coursework, if any;
• extent to which the applicant will participate in departmental and campus academic activity (e.g., seminar programs);
• extent of applicant's anticipated participation at national/international research meetings;
• facilities and resources available to the fellow; and
• mentor's involvement in mentoring for other programs designed to increase access and opportunity in higher education.