Mentorship Series: Jonathon Thomalla and Mariana Wolfner

April 7, 2025

As a graduate student, having a positive relationship with your mentor is the linchpin of your success, but how do you build these crucial ties and get the mentoring you need?

This academic year, we’re interviewing faculty-graduate student pairs about what makes their mentoring relationships work. From practical tips to broader perspectives, these Q&As will equip you with ideas and tactics for improving your own mentoring relationships.

This week, we’re speaking with Jonathon Thomalla, a Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, and Mariana Wolfner, distinguished professor of molecular biology and genetics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in Molecular Biology and Genetics.

At-a-Glance

For Mentees:

• Pay attention to what does and does not work for you in a mentoring relationship and use that information to identify mentors who are a good fit with your needs.
• Establish a line of communication with your mentor and be open about your goals, learning preferences, and needs.
• Give your mentor the benefit of the doubt, believing they are acting in good faith like you are, and give yourselves both permission to be wrong and learn from each other.

For Mentors:

• Consistently and constantly evaluate what is and is not working well in addition to having a formal conversation each year.
• Meet each student where they are in the process, as students early in their degrees will have different needs than students further along in their degrees.
• Prioritize mutual respect, shared goals, and good communication, and see each mentee for the individuals they are.

Jonathon Thomalla, Ph.D. Candidate in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology

How did you identify your mentoring needs and how has that self-understanding helped shape your approach to find, foster, and engage in mentoring relationships?

Early in my scientific training I knew I had ‘stage fright’ when it came to lab work – I was really shy, and I didn’t have prior research experience before joining my first lab. I was scared I would do something wrong or fail to understand something, and the pressure of someone watching me made that worse. I was fortunate that my first mentor gave me the space to get comfortable working in a lab, in part by being extremely patient with me when I messed up an experiment or didn’t understand a concept. I was able to make mistakes and learn from them with this relatively hands-off mentoring approach. I learned I work best without close supervision, as being watched too closely can feel stifling and adds unnecessary pressure. When I started grad school, I looked for mentors who wouldn’t micromanage me and would allow me to have some independence. Both of my mentors (Drs. Wolfner and Schimenti) are intellectually engaged with my research, but give me plenty of space to explore questions I find interesting.

What is your best advice for students looking to create and maintain a positive relationship with a mentor?

Be up front with your mentor (or potential mentor) about your goals as a student, the way you learn best, and what you need from them as your mentor. Act in good faith, and remember that your mentor is likely acting in good faith, even if you aren’t seeing eye to eye. Keeping an open and honest line of communication between yourself and your mentor can help prevent friction and ensure that you stay on the same page. It also helps to not take yourself too seriously – a little bit of sarcasm or joking around can be much needed comic relief to lighten the chronic stress/pressure of deadlines/academia.

What does it mean to you personally to be a good mentee and partner in a mentor-mentee relationship?

I think being a good mentee means going above and beyond even when I don’t have to. This can mean doing rigorous science from a technical perspective as well as making careful observations and considering results or hypotheses that are unlikely. It means taking as much ownership for my research as my mentors and being trustworthy enough to be let “off leash” while trusting that I have someone to make sure I don’t run totally wild.

 What do you believe is the key to success in a productive mentor-mentee relationship?

I don’t think there is just one thing, but an important thing is to stay humble and be okay with being wrong sometimes (for both mentor and mentee!). There is often more than one correct way to do something and more than one plausible way to interpret results. Being open about your ideas can push both sides of the relationship to be better and reinforce that you are working on the same side of a team. It’s also important to be open to change. Don’t get too set on a single idea – data and circumstances can change even the most carefully made plans. If someone is too fixated on results they want, or pigeonholing the project to fit a hypothesis, it can restrict the potential for learning the truth, and cause tension along the way. It is okay to be wrong and go back to the drawing board.

Mariana Wolfner, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics

What positive or negative experiences inform your approach to mentorship or help shape your philosophy?

I was fortunate to have had some outstanding mentors, who now serve as my models, and also to see some situations that taught me what definitely not to do. I remember what worked for me, or my colleagues, when we were mentored, and I use those to shape my own mentoring style. My students also give me feedback on what is or is not working. Workshops and readings also helped a bit, but experiences of my own, or watching others’, was the most helpful.

What makes mentoring important to you? 

I believe deeply that as a scientist I have two equally important roles. One is the obvious one of doing science, with all that that entails – research/discovery of course and mainly, but also writing/reviewing and support of the scientific enterprise. The other, equally important, role is to foster the scientific development of my mentees, and other scientists. These people will go on to further contribute to science and society, far beyond what I could do. Also, it is fun to mentor. I love seeing my mentees develop. And I learn so much from them – seeing their creative ways of thinking or learning how to do things from watching them, working together to come up with ideas that neither person could’ve alone, sharing their excitement, etc.

What is your process to review and refine your mentoring agreement to ensure it is timely and contextually relevant based upon the mentee’s academic and professional standing and progress? For example, needs for a pre A-exam student will be different from those of a doctoral candidate on the job market. 

I meet with each of my mentees individually once a week, in addition to informal interactions in the lab. So we are constantly able to judge the “landscape” of what is needed and what is working well (or not). Thus, it is not a formal process of sitting down and refining a mentoring agreement (though we do that too, once a year, when students submit their SPR), but rather an ongoing evolution. The needs of a pre-A-exam student do indeed differ from those of a more senior student, in terms of academic and scientific support as well as often in personal/emotional support; thus our conversations evolve consistently. With a newer mentee, I will often be more directive in terms of their science and academics, but with time I will step back and the mentee will take the lead; when this transition happens is specific to each mentee. And as new areas of training/mentorship are needed (like, how to find a postdoc or a job) we introduce those together in our conversation and I pass along advice/strategies that I know of and talk with the mentee to figure out how best to help them achieve their goals.

What do you believe is the key to success in a productive mentor-mentee relationship?

Mutual respect, shared goals (including shared excitement about our science and the shared goal of helping the mentee achieve their own professional and personal goals), and good communication, including a willingness to speak up if something needs attention and to work together to address it. Seeing each mentee as an individual, with strengths to be fostered (and areas that I can help develop) and as a person whom I care about and wish to help in every way.

Jonathon Thomalla and Mariana Wolfner

How do you collaboratively identify and establish mutual expectations around communication, conflict resolution, and other key areas to best work and grow together?

We generally take things as they come/play things by ear – different projects have different needs and certain times of year are busier than others. During busier times, we tend to communicate informally beyond our weekly meetings, by email or quick check-ins, especially if there are delays in results, drafts, etc. This has helped us to avoid conflicts since we maintain communication as needed, and our expectations for each other are realistic, but flexible. This approach allows us to adapt to the needs of projects in real time and keeps our expectations from being too rigid.