I’ve been very lucky to get to teach quite a bit over the last fifteen years. I’m sure that, when you’ve been in a mentorship position, you’ve felt good after helping someone get through a particularly challenging problem. That got me thinking of a lot of the faculty who made a difference over my long—and somewhat bumpy—academic career. What we’ve got here is a faculty photo from 1896. It makes me wonder what the tenure process was like.

Who made a difference to you? Whose image would remind you of success (or even failure)?