Posted 12:02 p.m. Thursday, July 17, 2025
Dan Bretl receives inaugural Eagle Research & Creativity Mentoring Excellence Award
New in 2025, the Eagle Research & Creativity Mentoring Excellence Award recognizes UWL instructors who go above and beyond in their support of students pursuing research and creative projects.
Undergraduate and graduate students nominate faculty/IAS research mentors with whom they have had a particularly positive experience associated with:
- Providing significant support to student learning inside or outside the classroom
- Expanding student understanding of scholarly/creative ideas
- Helping students accomplish research/creative goals
- Providing learning opportunities students would not otherwise be able to access
- Helping students understand new ways of approaching scholarly/creative questions
- Providing students with leadership opportunities
- Helping students build confidence in their scholarly/creative area
- Opening new opportunities for students academically/professionally.
Students receive a form to nominate faculty instructors in the spring. The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Committee makes recommendations to the Provost’s Office, which reviews the nominations and selects the winner.
This year’s recipient is Dan Bretl, assistant professor of microbiology.
Dan Bretl, Microbiology
Started at UWL: 2019
Courses: My primary courses are Fundamentals of Microbiology (MIC230), Prokaryotic Molecular Genetics (MIC416/516), Research Deconstruction (MIC458/558) and Advanced Genetics (MIC714).
Background: Before coming to UWL, I was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Iowa and the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Research mentorship responsibilities: Every semester, I work with undergraduate and graduate students (M.S.) in my research lab. I try to mentor every aspect of their experience — from understanding and performing experiments, to applying for grants and fellowships, to presenting their research as posters, talks, or published papers. Since starting at UWL I have mentored a total of 25 undergraduate and five graduate students. I also serve on numerous thesis committees for other graduate students in our department.
Favorite part of mentoring students in research: My favorite part of mentoring students is to provide them an opportunity to apply their knowledge from the classroom and perform actual “real-world” experiments. It is very rewarding to have students become confident, independent researchers and use their research and lab skills toward gaining great job opportunities or graduate/professional school opportunities.
