Photo: Bryan Goodchild
A UMass Chan Medical School educator received special recognition for her innovative contributions toward improving the postdoctoral experience.
Cynthia N. Fuhrmann, PhD, associate professor of RNA therapeutics and biochemistry & molecular biotechnology and co-lead of iCAP (investigator career advancement program) in the Office of Health Equity, is the recipient of the 2026 Distinguished Service Award from the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA), recognizing an individual who has made sustained efforts or leadership contributions to positively impact the career development of postdoctoral scholars.
“The PhD professional development field has exploded in the last 15 years. The need to strengthen PhD workforce development has led to innovation, investment and evolution of the field. It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by my peers as someone who’s made an impact during this exciting time. It is a reminder that the small actions that we take across our career can add up to something greater and have a significant impact,” Dr. Fuhrmann said.
The award honors efforts such as advancing policies and programs, advocating for postdoctoral scholars, supporting career development, promoting diversity and inclusion, and creating opportunities that improve postdocs’ professional and personal outcomes.
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by my peers as someone who’s made an impact during this exciting time. It is a reminder that the small actions that we take across our career can add up to something greater and have a significant impact.”
“The NPA is the leading organization that brings postdocs, administrators and advocates together to effect change,” Fuhrmann said. “To be recognized by the NPA for service to the discipline is especially meaningful, because service resonates deeply with me in the work I do—in service to graduate students and postdocs who need support, and to my colleagues and peers as we’ve been navigating our growing field.”
Fuhrmann is the principal investigator of the Professional Development Hub, a national initiative developing resources to advance evidence-based practices for STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) professional development. Around 100 faculty members, academic staff and administrators have participated in the training to adopt new teaching models at their institutions. The project has studied learning outcomes for students and postdocs at more than 30 institutions to better understand effectiveness of the models in various contexts.
Her 2011 study of student and postdoctoral career interests contributed to shifting national dialog about the need for more structured career planning in graduate and postdoctoral education. She is also a co-founding author of myIDP, an interactive individual development plan career-planning tool for PhD students and postdocs in the sciences hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The online tool launched in 2012 and today serves as a cornerstone of many training programs’ career development efforts, with more than 400,000 users worldwide.
Fuhrmann currently serves on the American Council of Learned Societies Doctoral Futures advisory board and the advisory committee for the Council of Graduate Schools’ National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education Hub. She is a Distinguished Educator in UMass Chan’s Health Education Academy for Leadership and Learning.
The NPA honored Fuhrmann on March 13 at its annual conference in San Francisco.
