Sarit Smolikove, Associate Professor of Biology, was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Honors Mentoring Award from the University of Iowa Honors Program. This award acknowledges the critical and central role that mentors perform in guiding Honors Program students. Whether the mentoring is through an honors thesis or other project, in coursework, or in career and professional development, our students benefit from mentors’ time and commitment. Because of that commitment, the Honors Program bestows special recognition each year on an individual mentor. The award nominations come from honors students who have worked with these outstanding mentors.
Raised in Israel, Dr. Smolikove earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the Tel-Aviv University followed by post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Smolikove teaches at the field of Genetics. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of repair of DNA damage in the germline which ensure that chromosomes are transmitted to the embryo without any mutations and structural defects. For her studies she is using the model system Caenorhabditis elegans.