What is mentor?
There is no specific, rigid definition of a mentor. In general, whenever an experienced researcher (mentor) enters a professional relationship to help and assist a less experienced investigator there is a mentor/trainee relationship. A researcher who has graduate students, postdocs, and or lab technicians reporting to her/him is a mentor to those individuals. In other cases a more senior investigator (generally experience and age) may inter into a more formalized mentoring relationship with a less experienced (usually younger) researcher. Implicit in all of these situations is the assumption that the mentor will impart knowledge, experience, advice, and training to help foster and encourage the careers and research of the trainee.
