DoP honors, June 2025
Salute to nurses
Seven UT Physicians nurses were honored in the Houston Chronicle’s 2025 Salute to Nurses, including Jessica Melendez, MSN, RN, nurse manager at UT Physicians Pediatric Center — Bay Area. All featured nurses were also celebrated at a luncheon.
L-R: UT Physicians team celebrates their honorees at luncheon. Melendez points to her name on list of UT Physicians nurses.
Dean’s list of teaching excellence
Congratulations to the 29 faculty who earned Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards this year! 2025 marks the first year for a shifted focus toward junior faculty. Senior faculty who have been recognized five or more times have been designated as Esteemed Educators.
News from Wang Lab
Mingjie Zheng, PhD
After 5 years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Lab of Jun Wang, Mingjie Zheng, PhD, is now transitioning to a faculty role at Zhejiang University in China. Zheng’s time at UTHealth Houston was marked by numerous remarkable accomplishments, including his most recent Career Development Award from the American Heart Association (AHA). According to the AHA, the purpose of this award is to support highly promising early-years professionals to explore innovative questions or pilot studies to assure their future career success. Zheng’s project is “Investigating novel mechanisms underlying sinoatrial node homeostasis regulation,” and he was awarded $231,000.00 for the period of April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2028.
The Department of Pediatrics wishes Dr. Zheng the absolute best as he enters this next chapter.
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- Wang Lab team celebrated Zheng with a farewell party.
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- Jacqueline Hecht, PhD, gives Zheng his postdoctoral certificate.