IUBMB/PSBMB 2019 Conference/Plenary: Mentoring in biochemical education and research: Traditional, structured, and institutional.

Mentoring to many is the informal highly unstructured teaching, advising, and nurturing which we receive from various individuals during our school years and professional lives and then give back to our students and more junior colleagues. However, with the advances in science and technology, the increasing competitiveness in the workplace, fast pace of life, and globalization, the importance of proper mentoring in the training of science professionals has gained the attention of and has been discussed and studied by higher institutions of learning and national academies of science. During the past two decades, efforts toward making mentoring more structured by national academies of sciences and academic and professional institutions have produced guidelines, mentoring programs for mentors and mentees, faculty, students, scholarly research publications on mentoring, and related aspects. This article attempts to discuss the various aspects and concerns of traditional, structured, and institutional mentoring.