Alexander J. Rothman

Mentoring matters a lot to Alexander Rothman—so much that he met regularly with students even through five years as a CLA associate dean.

His devotion pays off. Rothman has watched his graduate students reap numerous honors, including two NSF graduate fellowships and a Fulbright scholarship. He has placed them all squarely on the road to successful careers in academia, government, think tanks, consulting firms, and other areas.

"Alex's enthusiasm for science is contagious and single-handedly determined my choice of graduate school," says a former advisee. "He focused on the excitement of creating knowledge and answering big questions, rather than funding and publication counts."

"While mentoring graduate students, I strive to develop a suite of skills that will enrich the quality of their work, regardless of the topic they are pursuing."

Rothman has taught a wide range of courses for graduate students in social psychology and developed the program's core seminar on research methodology. He brought about changes that led to better stipend packages and a broader choice of degree programs for CLA graduate students. He also helped revise the core curriculum and written preliminary exam in social psychology and led an expansion of CLA's support for graduate students from underrepresented groups. And for graduate students nationally, he co-developed and led the National Cancer Institute's Advanced Training Program on Health Behavior Theory for early-career investigators.

Says one recent graduate, "It is abundantly clear that Alex wants his students to succeed, and he does everything he can to help them do so."