Professor Jonathan Goodman was awarded the Outstanding Supervisor Award 2026. This nomination is especially important as it is led by the postgraduates and reflects the importance of outstanding supervision for postgraduates in their academic journey. 

The Goodman group use chemical informatics, computational chemistry, machine learning and AI to investigate molecules and to discover more about their structure, reactivity, analytical data and toxicology. The award includes £1000 for the Goodman group to use in support of their research community.

Upon receiving the award, Jonathan thanked his group who nominated him: 
“I am very grateful to the members of my research group, for their hard work, knowledge, ingenuity, support, imagination, and creative writing skills. Our next challenge is to work out how to make good use of the prize money. I have no doubt that we are more than equal to this. Remember the group motto: relentless optimism.”

Head of Department, James Keeler, presented the award and said: “This is such an special award because is student-led and because it recognises how important the relationship between student and supervisor is both for research and for career development. Thank you to everyone who voted, and many congratulations to Jonathan.”

Last year’s winner, Dr Jenny Zhang, and her group spent their award on an group trip to the Lake District. The award helped their trip go further with some activities such as kayaking. 

Nominations for the next Outstanding Postgraduate Supervision Award will open at the start of the next academic year. The postgraduate education team looks forward to continuing to host events that celebrate the vibrant research community within the department.

Students with feedback or suggestions for future events are encouraged to contact the team via email.

 Jonathan Goodman with his group. 

James Keeler presenting the Outstanding Supervisor Award.