He has contributed to instruction of medical students as both a CBL small group facilitator and a lecturer on the pharmacology of drugs affecting endocrine systems, a critical component of our course for medical students.  He consistently receives outstanding evaluations from medical students for his lectures.  As one student expressed this past year, “Dr. Ascoli’s lectures were beautifully organized and informative.”   In addition to medical students, Mario also contributes to our teaching of pharmacy and graduate students.  For several years, he directed our pharmacology course for pharmacy students and still presents numerous lectures in that course.  Similarly, he has directed and taught one of our core graduate curriculum courses on intracellular signaling mechanisms.  He also brought national recognition to the U of I for many years by directing a summer course on reproductive endocrinology offered to faculty, fellows and students throughout the country at the Marine Biological Labs in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, an activity that continues to this day.  Throughout this period, Mario maintained an active laboratory and provided mentorship and individual instruction to 35 post-doctoral fellows, 8 graduate students and 4 undergraduates who have worked in his laboratory.  He is the Research Director of the Women’s Reproductive Health Research training grant for fellows and junior faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.