Five Trinity staff members have been announced as winners in the annual Provost’s Teaching Awards.
The awards were presented last night by Provost Patrick Prendergast to five members of staff in recognition their “outstanding contribution” to teaching at Trinity.
Professor Brendan Ciarán Browne from the School of Religion and Engineering Professor Conor McGinn received Early Career Awards. This award seeks to celebrate the achievements of those with no more than five years full-time third-level teaching experience.
Professor McGinn is part of the Robotics and Innovation Lab whose current projects include the design of an embodied social robot. Professor Browne’s research interests are situated around political conflict and is heavily focused on Northern Ireland and Palestine.
Dr Browne is currently in Palestine working on the development of an internship programme and will be formally presented with his prize at the next ceremony.
Meanwhile, the Lifetime Achievement Award which recognises “sustained commitment to teaching excellence” was awarded to Professor Celia Holland from the School of Natural Sciences whose research focuses on parasitology.
Professor Tara Mitchell from the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy and Professor Helen Sheridan from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences completed the list of winners. Dr Mitchell recently completed a publication regarding climate change whilst Dr Sheridan’s work focuses on finding new therapeutic treatments for unmet clinical needs.
The Provost Teaching Award Scheme was founded in 2001 and covers all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment, seeking to both reward staff and encourage critical reflection of teaching practices. Now in their 19th year, the awards are College’s principal means of celebrating academic staff who have made an outstanding contribution in the pursuit of teaching excellence.
Provost Prendergast explained that the awards “reaffirm our mission in education and research – that they are equal and indivisible”.
Trinity’s academic staff are eligible for nomination provided that they are on permanent contracts or contracts of at least a one-year duration. Nominees undergo a rigorous process involving the submission an application form and two peer review reports before shortlisted candidates must submit a short teaching video. This year’s review panel was chaired by the Dean of Graduate Studies.
Awards are valued at €1,500 each and will be paid to the winner’s departmental account. Winners are also invited to contribute to seminars and programmes in academic practice run within the university in 2019/2020.
