Castillo-Chávez’s mentoring of students has not gone unnoticed. He was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mentor Award at the organization’s annual meeting earlier this year. Castillo-Chávez also runs the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute, a summer research program at ASU, to encourage underrepresented undergraduate students to study graduate-level mathematics or computational biology. So far, 140, including 113 underrepresented students from MTBI, have gone on to graduate programs.
Castillo-Chávez calls his mentoring work his proudest professional achievement.
“Science is very challenging, collective work. No matter how hard you work, the importance is to make collective advancements over time,” he says. “I love impacting young people, encouraging them to get their Ph.D.s while working on questions that matter to them and their communities. They are the engines of improvement in our society. There’s nothing like having the job that I have.
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