Awards and Prizes

Pilkington Prizes

Six academics singled out for their outstanding teaching have been honoured with this year's Pilkington Teaching Prizes. Initiated by the late Sir Alistair Pilkington, the prizes are awarded annually in recognition of excellence in teaching at the University. Each academic school nominates a member of academic or academic-related staff who has distinguished him or herself in teaching. This year the Vice-Chancellor presented the Pilkington Prizes at a ceremony on 9 July to:

Dr Michael Carpenter (Magdalene), Reader in Mineralogy and Mineral Physics, Department of Earth Sciences. In addition to his involvement in all parts of undergraduate teaching, he participated in the recent re-organisation of the new four-year Tripos, as well as teaching in close collaboration with the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. Dr Carpenter comments: "What I find most satisfying is the combination of teaching and getting to know the students that the Cambridge supervision system allows."

Dr Mark Carrington (St John's), Department of Biochemistry. On top of delivering two lecture courses in molecular biology, and designing several weeks of practicals, he has taken the lead in redesigning the Department's new course, that includes a fourth year for those students who intend to go on to research careers whether industrial or academic. Dr Carrington explained: "My primary concern is to challenge the students to take an experimental approach to their studies. I'd rather they learn to explore the conceptual realm of the problem at hand, than be swamped with endless lists of facts."

Dr Andrew Gee (Queens'), Department of Engineering. He is credited with turning some of the Department's least successful courses into their most popular. His personal rating with the students was confirmed when he shared the inaugural student-run "Best Lecturer Award" for 1997. Dr Gee has paid particular attention to developing teaching aids, using video and interactive computer animations, in an effort to instill the fundamentals of the courses. He explains: "While my research interests lie in cutting-edge technology like computer vision and medical imaging, I'm acutely aware of the principles on which this technology is built. I'm constantly aiming to ensure that no-one leaves the lecture theatre without understanding everything discussed."

Dr James Keeler (Selwyn), Department of Chemistry. He has been responsible for introducing the new four-year course in Chemistry, developed from scratch. A new laboratory practical course, linked closely with the lectures, has also been put in place. The extra space available in the third year has made it possible to introduce new options, such as study of a foreign language and a seminar in scientific writing, led by a previous Pilkington Prize winner, Dr Stuart Warren. Dr Keeler comments: "I've always enjoyed teaching, particularly first year students - helping them make the transition from school or college to thinking like university scientists is both challenging and very rewarding."

Dr Andy Orchard (Emmanuel), Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. Covering three languages of Old English, Old Norse and Insular Latin, Dr Orchard is an indispensable member of one of the University's smallest Departments. Instituting teaching activities ranging from basic grammar seminars to a tour of Icelandic saga sites, Dr Orchard is enthusiastically committed to enhancing his students' performance. He is as popular with his students as they are with him: "I love the camaraderie that teaching offers, and in such a small department you get to know everyone. When I was on sabbatical I missed the students!"

Dr Liba Taub (Newnham), Curator of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Department of the History and Philosophy of Science. Not only is she valued for her expert teaching of the history of astronomy, she has been responsible for placing the museum at the very centre of the Department's teaching. Dr Taub has created a Teaching Gallery where students can closely examine the instruments discussed in their lectures. She also encourages them to explore a different approach to their subject through their own case study exhibitions in the gallery. Dr Taub comments: "I want to challenge the students' approach to the meaning of a museum collection in the same way that I want to challenge their approach to individual objects."

Pilkington Prize Winners: (from left to right) Dr Andrew Gee; Dr Mark Carrington; Dr Liba Taub; Dr Andy Orchard; the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Alec Broers, who presented the awards; Tony Wilson, who hosted the event; and Dr James Keeler. Photo: Tony Jedrej

Queen's Birthday Honours

Three members of the University were amongst those honoured in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours. Nicholas Shackleton, director, Goodwin Institute for Quaternary Research, received a Knight Bachelor for services to earth sciences; Gillian Beer, King Edward VII Professor of English Literature and President of Clare Hall, was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire; and Archie Howie, Professor of Physics, was honoured with a CBE for services to electron microscopy.

Elections to the British Academy

At the British Academy Annual General Meeting on 2 July the following scholars of the University of Cambridge were elected Fellows of the British Academy: Professor Willem Buiter (Economics), Professor Pat Easterling (Classics), Professor Caroline Humphrey (Social Anthropology), Dr Geoffrey Khan (Semitic Languages), Professor Hashem Pesaran (Economics), and Professor George Steiner (Literature).

Honours at Home and Abroad

Professor Geoffrey Whittington, Price Waterhouse Professor of Financial Accounting at the Faculty of Economics and Politics and Professorial Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, has been awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in Social Science by the University of Edinburgh.

The Master of Peterhouse, Sir John Meurig Thomas, has been elected a Foreign Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He also received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Aberdeen in July.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific awarded its prestigious Catherine Wolf Bruce Medal for 1998 to Donald Lynden-Bell, Professor of Astrophysics at Cambridge.

The International Gas Turbine Insitute of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers have awarded Professor John Denton of the Engineering Department, the 1998 Aircraft Technology Award.

A new British-Kuwait Friendship Society Award, which is to be awarded annually for "the best book in Middle East studies", has gone to Dr James Montgomery, Fellow of Trinity Hall and Lecturer in Islamic Studies, for The Vagaries of the Zasidah. The Tradition and Practice of Early Arabic Poetry.

Professor Patrick Boyde, Serena Professor of Italian, has been awarded a Gold Medal for services to Italian Culture by the President of the Republic.

Two of this year's honorands emerging from the Senate-House: Dame Anne McLaren and Rita Levi-Montalcini. Photo: Angela Edwards

Student Awards

Claire Watson from St Catharine's College was awarded this year's Varsity Trust Scholarship, and Stephen Foley of Queens' College received a Varsity Trust bursary. The Varsity Trust awards aim to assist professional journalistic training for students and graduates of Cambridge and Anglia Polytechnic Universities.

Three students from Cambridge's Department of Pharmacology, Marijn Ford, Ji Luo and Rachel Wheeler, made up the short-list for Best Pharmacology Student in the 1998 Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year Awards. The final winner was Ji Luo, for a project on the optimum orientation of hydroxl groups and water molecules.