MACON – Peter Huwe, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry in Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM), was recently selected as a 2021 Governor’s Teaching Fellow.
Dr. Huwe will represent Mercer among a select group of faculty from institutions of higher education across the state during the fellows program’s academic-year symposia.
“We are honored by Dr. Huwe’s selection to this important, prestigious program. He is an outstanding teacher and scientist. Mercer University School of Medicine is delighted he is a member of the foundational basic science faculty for the Columbus campus,” said Jean Sumner, M.D., FACP, dean of the School of Medicine.
As a medical educator track faculty member at MUSM, Dr. Huwe primarily focuses on teaching preclinical sciences to first- and second-year medical students. He currently teaches on the Macon campus; however, he will be transitioning to the medical school’s new four-year campus in Columbus this summer.
“I am excited that the Governor’s Teaching Fellowship will not only aid me in my own teaching activities, but also give me the tools to train MUSM students to be effective future patient educators,” said Dr. Huwe.
Dr. Huwe’s research focuses on using computational modeling and simulations to elucidate the functional effects of novel mutations in proteins.
He earned his B.S. in biology and chemistry from Mississippi College and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed postdoctoral study in structural bioinformatics at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He is a member of the International Association of Medical Science Educators and the Association of Biochemistry Educators.
The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program was established by the late Zell Miller, governor of Georgia from 1991-1999, to provide Georgia’s higher education faculty with expanded opportunities for developing important teaching skills. The program is offered through the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia.
About Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)
Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened a full four-year campus in Savannah in 2008 at Memorial University Medical Center. In 2012, the School began offering clinical education for third- and fourth-year medical students in Columbus. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School’s primary teaching hospitals: Medical Center, Atrium Health Navicent and Coliseum Medical Centers in Macon; Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah; and Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The School also offers master’s degrees in family therapy, preclinical sciences and biomedical sciences and a Ph.D. in rural health sciences.
