Tranel receives 2024 Distinguished Mentor Award
By Adrian Schley
Raised on a ranch in northern Wyoming as the eldest of 10 children, Daniel Tranel’s role as a mentor began early in life. He taught his younger brothers and sisters how to ride horses and build fences, which in turn taught him the value of grit, tenacity, and how to hustle; attributes he’s carried forward into his career.
Tranel, PhD, joined the Department of Neurology in 1986 and has since made a lasting mark as a professor and a mentor. As the leader of the Benton Neuropsychology Clinic and director of the Neuroscience PhD Program, Tranel has been instrumental in shaping the careers of many students and postdoctoral fellows.
Nurturing hidden talent in neuroscience
His dedication to finding and nurturing hidden talent and potential is particularly noteworthy. He has actively recruited students from a wide variety of backgrounds, often taking a chance on those who, like him, show grit, tenacity, and hustle. Tranel has participated for decades in Iowa’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), designed to provide underrepresented undergraduate students with in-depth research experience, and has twice won the SROP Mentor of the Year Award.
Many letters of support for his Distinguished Mentor Award nomination mention that Tranel “took a chance on me when no one else would.” Tranel’s ability to identify and nurture “diamonds in the rough” as he notes, has led to the success of numerous students who have gone on to lead their own neuroscience and neuropsychology laboratories and programs across the country.
Former mentees also emphasized Tranel’s open availability and described his office as one with an “open door and welcoming couch where students could count on immediate counsel for all manner of crises, whether they are academic, scientific, or life in general.” Every letter mentions his semiweekly “Morning Meetings,” a cherished ritual in the Tranel Lab where mentees present their work and receive constructive feedback.
“You will find Dan at the head of the table opposite the presenting mentee,” wrote nominator Aaron Boes, MD, PhD. “His attention to detail is unwavering. Egos are checked at the door, and the focus is on constructive feedback that educates and inspires.”
Tranel’s single most notable quality, though, is his enthusiasm. “Mentoring is the best part of my job, something I treasure and look forward to every day.”
He credits many of the attributes that have made him an influential mentor to his own role models. This includes his father Ned Tranel, PhD, a clinical psychologist and rancher; Arthur Benton, PhD, who helped pioneer the field of neuropsychology at UI Health Care; and Antonio Damasio, MD, PhD, who happens to be the 2024 Distinguished Mentor’s Lecturer.
As Tranel puts it: “They had that in common, too—an endless supply of enthusiasm.”