Felix Feng, MD
University of California San Francisco
2024 Mentorship Award recipient Felix Feng, MD, is a Professor of Radiation Oncology, Urology and Medicine at University of California at San Francisco, Vice Chair for Translational Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Director of the Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research and the Associate Director of Clinical Translational Research at UCSF. He has been a physician for 14 years and has had success in many ways across multiple fields. However, Dr. Feng is most proud of the research and careers of his students and mentees.
“I think that the magnitude of what we've accomplished is not measured in just what we have done, but it's measured in terms of the kind of collective efforts of everyone that you've helped along the way,” said Dr. Feng. Dr. Feng has had many mentors over the course of his career, each guiding him through different paths in his career. These mentors taught him the value of taking the time to support and educate one another. He describes these mentorship experiences and the role of mentorship in his life as a core component of who he is.
The idea of developing supportive mentor mentee relationships is heavily reflected in Dr. Feng’s mentoring style and is passed down to his mentees. One of Dr. Feng’s mentees said, “In my own lab, I try to emulate Felix's commitment to a team culture of respectful and honest relationships. Felix leads by demonstrating that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that taking care of people is an essential part of leading a laboratory.”
Dr. Feng said that mentorship allows for you to continuously see people’s passion for their work. Seeing the passion of his mentees has taught him that there is not one recipe for success; the path for success looks different for each of us. Dr. Feng also attributes his motivation to his mentees. He said that drawing from the passion of his mentees helps reinvigorate him in his own work.
Dr. Feng makes it very clear that there are two things you need when working in medicine: a dream and a team that can bring that vision to life. He has brought much of his vision to life but not without the help of his mentors and that is exactly what he is doing and continues to do with his own mentees.
