Doctoral Student Wins Award for Outstanding Mentorship

Doctoral student Mishka Malinowski (Ecology) is the winner of the 2025 Bass Connections Award for Outstanding Mentorship. This annual award recognizes the crucial leadership and mentorship roles that graduate/professional students and postdocs play on Bass Connections teams. 

Malinowski will receive a monetary prize.

In addition to Malinowski, the finalists for this year’s award included:

• Nicole Arrato (Postdoctoral Associate in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences): Promoting Wellness Across the Lifespan for Cancer Survivors
• Joseph Diehl (Ph.D. student in Psychology and Neuroscience): Creating a Contemplative Community
• Brian Lerner (Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Pranav Manjunath (Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering): Discovering AI Applications for Traumatic Brain Injury Care
• Samuel Tolbert (Joint Master of Environmental Management-Master of Business Administration student): Humanitarian Impacts of the War in Gaza: Shelter, Water and Sanitary Solutions

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Mishka Malinowski

Malinowski is a Ph.D. student focusing on wildlife conservation and applied ecology.  Malinowski’s work bridges the gap between conservation technology and fieldwork, contributing valuable insights to wildlife management practices​.

In her role as a team leader of the Using Drones to Monitor the Health of Endangered Elephants team, Malinowski has helped students understand the technical aspects of drone-based wildlife monitoring as well as the ecological, ethical and policy dimensions of conservation research. She is dedicated to students’ long-term success, fostering a collaborative environment while ensuring that each team member feels valued as a contributor. In particular, Malinowski implemented a structured accountability system to ensure all team members were engaged in decision-making, technical development and research outputs.

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Praise for Malinowski

“[Mishka’s] mentorship has been transformative for many students, who frequently highlight her dedication, encouragement and ability to make them feel valued as contributors to the team. Her leadership has helped shape a generation of thoughtful, capable and engaged conservation researchers.” –Nicolette Cagle, Co-Team Leader

“[Mishka] creates a supportive and collaborative research environment where I feel encouraged to ask questions and share ideas. This has greatly enhanced my learning experience and inspired me to become a responsible ecologist just like her. In addition, Mishka actively bridges diverse disciplines and perspectives within our Bass Connections team, strengthening our group’s dynamic and allowing us to work collectively towards shared goals.” –Yuchen Chen, Undergraduate Team Member

“Mishka fosters not only a positive learning environment, but also friendships between team members that extend beyond the classroom. Outside of weekly meetings and subteam meetings, the class has bonded through team-building activities, elephant-themed movie nights and a constant positive energy attributable to Mishka. I cannot imagine someone who better represents the kindness, patience and generosity of an outstanding mentor.” –Emily Siegel, Graduate Team Member

“[Mishka] has always been kind, supportive, enthusiastic and hardworking. She created an inclusive learning environment from the very beginning, and I felt welcomed and included in the team as an international student and a person of color. If not for Halina’s guidance, I would not have been able to improve my animal identification skills, understand the importance of decolonized research or recognize the importance of a diverse and equitable learning environment.” –Aditya Baliga, Undergraduate Team Member

Learn More

• Check out last year's winners of this award.
• Check out the winners of this year’s Bass Connections Leadership Award.
• Sign up for our newsletter to get updates on summer recruitment for 2025-2026 Bass Connections teams.