Jay Gandolfi Receives Award from the Society of Toxicology

A. Jay Gandolfi, PhD, adjunct research professor emeritus at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, receives the Toxicologist Mentoring Award from the Society of Toxicology (SOT). 

Founded in 1961, the Society of Toxicology is a professional and scholarly organization of scientists from academic institutions, government, and industry representing the range of scientists who practice toxicology in the US and abroad. The Society’s mission is to create a safer and healthier world by advancing the science and increasing the impact of toxicology. The award for mentoring recognizes an SOT member who displays a commitment to mentoring and whose advice and counsel have substantially enhanced the career development of toxicologists.

“Teaching, research, advising, and professional activities are all about ‘mentoring’”, says Gandolfi. “This Award reflects my career-long effort to guide students and colleagues towards successful outcomes.”

Gandolfi, who joined the College of Pharmacy in 1978 in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, researched the disposition and toxicology of drugs and environmental chemicals and the development of in vivo and in vitro models for studying mechanisms of toxicity. It was through teaching drug disposition in both the PharmD and graduate programs that he broadened his mentoring.

“Jay has provided mentorship to every student and assistant professor that passed through the University of Arizona”, shares Nathan Cherrington, PhD, associate dean for research, and award nominator. “His positive influence has made a lasting impact on so many. He constantly worked to elevate others so that they could succeed. I consider myself fortunate to have received his mentoring, and there is a long list of successful students and faculty who have benefitted from his wisdom and hard work.”

Research from the National Institutes of Health shows that mentored scientists are more likely to earn major distinctions, publish more frequently, and persist through doctoral study. For undergraduates, mentorship is linked to higher retention and better academic performance. The strongest mentoring relationships don’t create replicas; they equip emerging scholars to pursue original research while offering clear career guidance and steady support along the way. At its core, effective science mentoring provides both career guidance—sharpening research questions, refining methods, and navigating academic systems—and the steady encouragement that turns potential into lasting achievement.

As reflected by his mentee, Don Kirkpatrick, a 2003 Pharmacology and Toxicology PhD graduate, “I took away so many lessons from my time in Dr. Gandolfi’s lab. He was not just a terrific scientist but a tremendous mentor who put his heart and soul into everyone he trained. What I learned most from him is that science was about doing important work for people...whether they be patients with disease or members of the larger community. He challenged each of us not just to do cutting-edge science, but to understand and articulate why we were doing the work... and who it would impact. He built a community of scientists at U of A and helped ensure that each of us was surrounded by people who challenged us and made us better...and in doing so, ensured that our work was aiming to make the world a better place.”

Kirkpatrick currently runs K48 Consulting, a scientific consulting company, as founder and president. In Gandolfi’s lab, he studied arsenic toxicity, specifically how arsenic affects the ubiquitin-proteasome system within cells. While in Jay's lab, they established novel technology for using mass spectrometry proteomics to study ubiquitin, a technology that became a centerpiece of Kirkpatrick’s career, continuing through his postdoc and into independent research at Genentech. The work completed while in Gandolfi's lab has been cited over 200 times and spawned dozens of subsequent publications.

Another mentee of Gandolfi’s, Shawn Wnek, a 2011 graduate in Pharmacology and Toxicology, is now the principal toxicologist and industrial hygiene director at Health Sciences at CTEH/Montrose. His graduate research focused on the mechanistic role of arsenic metabolites in the generation of bladder cancer. He shares, “One of the most valuable lessons Dr. Gandolfi taught me when I was his graduate student was how to approach long-term goals. At the time, that lesson centered on my PhD research, but I’ve since realized it applies to all facets of life. Whether goals are career-focused, personal, or family-oriented, the key is to pursue them on three levels: low-hanging fruit, middle-of-the-road goals, and “pie-in-the-sky” aspirations.”

Wnek continues, “I’ve applied this framework throughout my own life and have shared it with those I mentor, encouraging them to approach their goals with balance—understanding that while pie-in-the-sky goals are inspiring and worth pursuing, they are achieved less frequently than the steady progress made through attainable and mid-range goals, which ultimately serve as the foundation for reaching those long-term aspirations.”

Gandolfi will receive this award at the March 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology, along with Paloma Beamer, PhD, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center Community Engagement Core Co-Director, who will receive the Public Communications Award, and Max Maloney, a third-year student in the Bachelor of Sciences in Pharmacology and Toxicology program, who won an Undergraduate Research Award. 

“As my academic career wraps up, I continue to be available as a sounding board and an advisor, mentor, to past and future colleagues,” says Gandolfi.