Celebrate Our Staff – May 2019
Here we celebrate our colleagues’ achievements across the University this past month.
The Plus Programme – our on course support programme aiming to support the brightest and best students regardless of background and help them to succeed at university – has received the NEON Widening Access Initiative (Retention and Progression) Award. The programme provided evidence of how the initiative has made a tangible impact on either the student experience of learners regarding learning and teaching, learner attainment, student retention and progression of learners to employment or postgraduate study.
Louise Banahene MBE, Head of Educational Engagement, said: “The Programme has changed the lives of thousands of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is unique in terms of scale and impact and I am delighted that this award recognises the team's work.”
The Programme team said: “We are truly honoured to win the award. The programme has grown significantly over the last five years, supporting over 3,000 students. It is great to be recognised for the work we have done, and continue to do, in improving the retention and progression of students from underrepresented groups at University.”
Dr Gail Nicholls, Associate
Professor in Primary Care, has also received an award at the NEON
Awards for her Contribution to Widening Access. She has spearheaded a widening
access agenda within medicine and primary care over recent years. She has not
only offered countless opportunities for widening participation to students to
gain access and exposed to targeted work experience interventions throughout
Yorkshire. Since 2016, she has led an expansion of her successful programme
across 20 medical schools across the UK. The programme has now had 1,000
participant, all of which have experienced high-quality work experience using
the model that Dr Nicholls created.
She said: “I am delighted to receive this award on behalf of our team in the School of Medicine and our local General Practitioner (GP) partners who inspire the next generation of GPs by providing participants with high quality work experience opportunities. I am grateful to the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Medical Schools Council and my colleagues across the country who are working year on year to expand this successful widening participation project.”
David Sebag-Montefiore,
Professor of Clinical Oncology at the School of Medicine, has been
presented The Royal
College of Radiologists’ (RCR) 2019 Gold Medal. This is the highest
honour that can be awarded to a Fellow of the RCR who has made an outstanding
national and international contribution to their field. It’s the seventh award
bestowed on a Clinical Oncologist in the last 30 years.
Professor Sebag-Montefiore said: “I am delighted and humbled to receive the Gold Medal that recognises my contribution to Clinical Oncology. I have had the privilege to work with outstanding colleagues in the University and NHS at regional, national and international levels."
The School of Psychology has received the Athena SWAN Silver award in
recognition of its commitment to ensuring that its policies and processes underpin a
supportive and inclusive environment for staff and students. This has been awarded by Advance Higher
Education, the national body that promotes equality in the higher
education sector. The award means that all four Schools in the Faculty
of Medicine and Health now hold a Silver Athena SWAN award.
Professor Anna Madill, Chair of the Athena SWAN committee and Deputy Head of the School of Psychology, said: “I'd like to say how delighted we are that, working together with students and staff, initiatives stemming from our collective commitment to equality and inclusion have flourished in the School of Psychology.”
Read more about the School’s award.
Emmanuel Ayodele,
Teaching Assistant at the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, has
won the 2019
Digital Innovation Challenge for designing a wearable textile with
the capability of using the Internet of Things (IoT) and motion capture to
assist rehabilitation. A future version of his device could assist GPs and
medical professionals who are working with patients to rehabilitate physical
movement, for patients such as stroke survivors.
Emmanuel said: “I am very honoured to be the winner of the Digital Innovation Challenge 2019. A big thank you to my supervisors Dr Syed Zaidi, Dr Jane Scott, Dr Zhiqiang Zhang and Dr Des McLernon for their meticulous guidance.”
Read more about Emmanuel’s award.
Dr Megan Wright, University
Academic Fellow at the School of Chemistry, has received an ACS
Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award, which recognises
outstanding young investigators in the field of infectious diseases. Winners
receive a plaque, $1,000 and up to $500 in travel reimbursement to attend the
Fall 2019 ACS National Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, where they
present at an ACS Division of Biological Chemistry symposium.
Dr Wright said: “I am really honoured to be one of the recipients of this award. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is the opportunity to present our research at the ACS 2019 Fall meeting in San Diego this summer! I would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of many colleagues and my research group, and to thank the mentors who have supported me.”
Read more about Dr Wright’s award.
Dr Jane Youell,
Senior Research Fellow in Applied Healthcare in the School of Healthcare, has
been awarded the Churchill Fellowship for her work to better understand how
aged care services could include and respond to the needs of the LGBTIQ+
community. She has visited Australia and the USA to work with organisations
delivering and promoting inclusive aged care. Three broad themes
emerged from her findings, that of national drive, organisational desire and
community benefits and good practice. Dr Youell’s report regarding her work
considers next steps and recommendations and has been published
online.
She said: “I was absolutely delighted to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship. The experience of travelling and working with practitioners and researchers from Australia and the USA enhanced my understanding of how other countries promoted inclusive aged care. I learned so much from all those I met. I would strongly encourage anyone to apply for a Churchill Award, and thank you to the Celebrate Our Staff series for sharing my work.”
Our
Library has achieved the Investors in
People (IiP) silver accreditation following a recent assessment. IiP
represent the international standard for people management—ensuring
organisations lead, support and manage their staff well for sustainable
results. They aim to set standards to drive better leadership, and ultimately
better workplaces.
Stella Butler, University Librarian, said: "We are enormously proud to achieve the silver accreditation. It's a credit to the hard work of all our staff for their efforts to create and sustain a healthy, respectful and collaborative workplace.
The award recognises the Library's strengths in the areas of structuring work effectively, managing performance and delivering continuous improvement. IiP is also a valuable tool to see where we can improve, and we'll be working on these areas to make the Library an even more effective organisation."
Read more about the Library’s achievement.
Professor Mark Birkin,
Professor of Spatial Analysis and Policy in the School of Geography, has been
awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Murchison Award for his pioneering
work on the development and application of urban analytics. Professor Birkin’s
major research interests are in simulating social and demographic change within
cities and regions, and to understand the impact these changes make on services
like housing, roads and hospitals, using techniques of microsimulation,
agent-based modelling and GIS.
Professor Birkin said: “It is a privilege to receive this award as one of a growing community of innovators in the field of urban analytics. Whilst methods from AI and big data may be new, urban analytics is clearly inspired by the long and rich tradition of research – in the Royal Geographical Society and elsewhere - which deepens our understanding of the world, with a view to making it a better place.”
Read more about Professor Birkin’s award.
Dr Melanie Bell, Associate Professor in Film
and Media from the School of Media and Communications, has won the British
Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) award
for best journal article. Dr Bell's article, Learning to
listen: histories of women’s soundwork in the British film industry,
reflects on Mortimer’s contribution to the sound of British cinema, and the
methodological challenges of recovering historical creative labour.
The BAFTSS judges commented that: "This is an outstanding piece of historiographical filmic research. It is based on a great deal of very detailed and painstaking research. It is also very timely in its feminist reworking of herstory to illuminate a very little known, but vital part of film-making, where women’s role has been overlooked, but is now being restored."
Dr Bell said: “‘I was very touched to receive the award and delighted that it helps draw attention to women’s work in media production.”
Read more about Dr Bell’s award.
Professor Anna Lawson, Professor of Law at the School
of Law, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of
Louvain-la-Neuve for her work in Disability Law. She is currently working on a project
on inclusive public space – examining the lived experiences of disabled people
across the globe when accessing public spaces. She also directs a project
on disability
in East Asia amongst other work.
Professor Lawson said: “This honorary doctorate is a huge honour, which took me totally by surprise. I have been blown away by the warmth of my welcome into the community of Louvain-La-Neuve and look forward to deepening connections with colleagues there in the years to come."
Read more about Professor Lawson’s award.
Please contact Internal Communications if you or one of your colleagues would like to appear in this monthly feature. This is open to all staff – professional and academic.