Jean-Philippe Gibert, Ph.D.
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring
Joanne W. Markman and A. Morris Williams, Jr. Associate Professor of Biology
Bio
Jean-Philippe Gibert, Ph.D., is the Joanne W. Markman and A. Morris Williams, Jr. Associate Professor of Biology. He received his B.Sc. in Biology from la Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay in 2009 and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2016.
Before joining Duke, Gibert began as the James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow in Complex Systems through the McDonnell Foundation at the University of California, Merced. Gibert joined Duke as an associate professor in 2018 and was honored with his named professorship in July 2025.
Gibert’s research lab conducts study on how phenotypic change—plastic or evolutionary—influences predator-prey interactions, and, through those, the structure and dynamics of food webs in a changing world, with frequent focus on microbial food webs, and protist-protist or protist-bacteria interactions.
On Mentoring
What do you think are the most important qualities of a good mentor for graduate students?
The best mentors are those that understand that one size does not fit all. As a mentor, my most important job is to figure out who this person I have in front of me is, their strengths and weaknesses, their wants and needs, and use that information to build the landscape and parameters that will define and guide our mentor-mentee interactions. I also encourage my students to mentor up. This is central, because as mentees grow in their practice, craft, or training, that landscape needs to change and adapt to new and different circumstances. But to be mentored up, mentors need to remain humble and accept that we can, should, and will, be proven wrong by our mentees. And that is a good thing. A sign or growth and of an ever evolving—and strengthening—interaction.
Who are some good mentors you have had, and are there mentoring practices or traits from them that you have tried to incorporate into your own approach to mentoring?
I had multiple incredible mentors over the years. Professionally, I am indebted to my M.Sc. and Ph.D. advisors (Paulo Guimarães Jr. and John DeLong, respectively), who played crucial roles in my training, and gave me positive role models to emulate. I learned many effective mentoring tools from them, and each taught me different ways to be an effective mentor—i.e., good at helping students reaching their (and our) goals—while remaining approachable, understanding, and unconditionally supportive. If I am ever 10% as good as they were at that, I'll consider myself accomplished.
The benefits of a mentoring relationship for the mentee are obvious, but what do you, as the mentor, gain from it?
So much! Mentoring is co-learning. Learning with, about, and from the mentee. When I mentor, I learn. Because this mindset is part of my daily practice, I am fortunate to learn on a daily basis. What better gift is there than that? Consequently, I gain—daily—as much from my mentees, as I hope they do from me. A mentor-mentee interaction, at the end of the day, is a form of energy exchange. Most of that energy, in my case, is transferred in the form of information: about the mentee, a circumstance, a dataset, a scientific question, a system, a model, an approach, or whatever it is we’re working on. And I love every second of it. What a gift it is to do this for a living!
In Their Words
Excerpts from Gibert’s nomination
“Coming from a cultural background where strict criticism was the norm, I entered graduate school facing significant imposter syndrome. I once asked Jean if he was 'sugarcoating' his feedback because he was always encouraging and never criticized me in the way I expected. He responded: ‘Harsh criticism is neither constructive nor encouraging. My feedback is designed to increase your confidence, not the other way around.’ That was the first time, but not the last, I realized that Jean has been intentionally building my confidence.”
“Dr. Gibert leads with empathy and inclusivity. Our lab is a place where all voices are valued and mutual respect is the norm. He has mentored students from a variety of backgrounds—international students, first-generation scholars, and parents balancing family responsibilities—and treats each individual’s journey with the same level of seriousness and care. He actively works to create a culture where diversity is seen not just as something to be supported, but as something to be celebrated.”
“Jean-Philippe and I have regular meetings and checkups where we discuss not only science, but also career paths. He adjusts his approaches depending on the circumstances where I’m at that point. He is encouraging, uplifting and generally energetic in a contagious way. Which is ever necessary as a post-doc. I also observe how he creates a safe space for students to fail—a very important part of the academic process. He encourages careful explanation, even if it takes time, and vocalizes that this is the moment and space to do, fail, and learn, which works great not only for students, but also for post-docs.”