When Prof. Yann Joly talks about the late Prof. Robert Sladek, he does not start with genomics, research achievements or scientific breakthroughs. Instead, he talks about conversations. About humour. About someone who always had time for others.
Long before becoming a mentor, Prof. Joly found in Prof. Sladek a role model whose approach to mentorship left a lasting impression. Today, Prof. Joly serves as Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University, where mentorship has become a defining part of his own academic career.
"Rob was a friend and a guiding figure to me for many years," says Prof. Joly. "He was the kind of person that everybody knew. He was a go-to person."
Photo: Participants at the 2002 meeting of the Genetic Discrimination Observatory. Yann Joly is pictured fourth from left in the front row, and Robert Sladek third from left in the back row.
Prof. Sladek (pictured on the left) was known as a pioneering genomics researcher, founding member of the McGill Genome Centre, and valued member of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine. But for colleagues like Prof. Joly, he was also a trusted mentor.
Although Prof. Sladek was not the mentor initially assigned to him, Prof. Joly was drawn to him as he seemed uniquely invested in the people around him.
"Rob was proactive in his mentorship," he recalls. "He would pass by my office at least every two days."
What made those interactions memorable was not simply the advice Prof. Sladek offered, but the atmosphere he created. Conversations often began casually before turning to professional challenges and career decisions.
"He had this way of always approaching you with jokes or little things that would make the conversation flow more easily to the professional stuff."
For Prof. Joly, those exchanges helped build something essential to any successful mentorship relationship: trust.
"That trust is developed by a person really making themselves available, making it clear that they are enjoying the discussion with you and that you're always welcome to come in and present your questions, problem, challenges."
Years later, those lessons continue to influence how Prof. Joly mentors his own students and trainees.
"A mentorship-mentee relationship is exactly that. It's a relationship," he says. "It's not something that can be forced. It's something that you need to take the time to cultivate."
Today, Prof. Joly applies a similar philosophy to his work at the Centre of Genomics and Policy, where he has provided guidance and formative influence to many students, interns, postdoctoral fellows and early-career professionals. His approach encourages his mentees to develop confidence and independence while ensuring they know support is available when they need it.
That commitment to mentorship was recently recognized when Prof. Joly received D2R's Robert Sladek Prize for Mentorship in Genomic Medicine (pictured to the left). For him, the honour is particularly meaningful because it celebrates the very qualities he admired in Prof. Sladek and has sought to carry forward throughout his own career.
The award will support a new international mentorship initiative that builds on Prof. Joly’s collaborations across Asia. The initiative is an online mentorship platform that will create opportunities for students to present their work, receive feedback from international experts and connect with peers and faculty from around the world.
At its core, the initiative reflects the same spirit of openness, generosity and relationship-building that Prof. Joly experienced with Prof. Sladek.
"What I'm hoping is to grow this network of people that I've mentored," he says. "Just like I'm transferring from Robert, a lot of things that I've learned from him to my way of mentoring, I'm hoping to spread the good way of doing these highly formative academic activities and the values behind them."
For Prof. Joly, that may be the most enduring measure of a mentor's impact. The influence of a great mentor does not end with a single student or colleague. It continues through the people they inspire, the relationships they build and the opportunities they create for others.
