The College of Science is pleased to celebrate Dr. Jannon Fuchs as the recipient of the 2024 Ulys and Vera Knight Faculty Mentor Award! This award recognizes a UNT faculty member who demonstrates sustained excellence in mentoring undergraduate students, graduate students, and/or other faculty.
"I am grateful and fortunate to receive this award, especially because UNT has hundreds of excellent and well-deserving teachers and mentors," said Dr. Fuchs. "My career in mentoring was formally launched in seventh grade when I was asked to give clarinet lessons to beginners. I had never actually taken a clarinet lesson, so my goal was to help them learn how to learn. Different approaches seemed to work best for different personalities, motivations, and talents. These aims carried through my more than forty-five years as a neuroscientist mentor. It is a privilege to help guide the next generations of scientists."
Dr. Fuchs' research interests include developmental neuroscience, and primary cilia in the birth and survival of cells in the nervous system. She teaches several neuroscience classes and is a PI of UNT's Fundamental Neuroscience Laboratory.
Dr. Fuchs is known to refer to mentorship as "her calling" in life. Last year, she received another prestigious mentorship award- the 2023 CUR Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Award. In her time as a faculty member, Fuchs has directly mentored around 200 students.
"My lab members are Ciliaffiliates," so-called because we study primary cilia, which are non-motile, solitary organelles," she explained. "In 1999, when we accidentally "rediscovered" them, primary cilia were thought to be vestigial - as if 400 million years of evolution were not enough to discard a useless organelle! On the contrary, we found evidence that without cilia, there is no nervous system. Our persistence led to uncovering roles for cilia in diseases such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. It takes a village to raise a scientist, and I am thankful for the villagers who have supported me along the way."
"Dr. Fuchs is a highly respected professor of Biological Sciences and has a long history of distinguished service to the department, the college, and the university," said College of Science Dean Quintanilla. "She is fully invested in the success of her students and most deserving of this award."
Dr. Fuchs will be honored at UNT's Salute to Faculty Excellence event taking place on April 26, 2024. This event is hosted each spring by Faculty Success and the UNT Foundation. For more information about the Faculty Excellence Awards and the 2024 winners, please visit https://vpaa.unt.edu/fs/recognition/SFE-winners-24