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Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

 
A woman stands in front of lecture theatre seating

Dr Stephanie Smith, taken by Nathan Pitt ©University of Cambridge

Congratulations to Dr Stephanie Smith who received the Pilkington Prize in recognition of her excellence in teaching.

The Pilkington Prizes are awarded to academic staff to recognise their contributions to teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, and Stephanie has been recognised in 2023 as an outstanding educator. Prior to this prize, Stephanie was the recipient of two student-led awards that recognised her teaching.

Stephanie is a teaching officer at Pembroke College where she is the Director of Studies in Chemistry and in the chemistry department. Whilst her background is in organic chemistry and molecular modelling, she teaches a range of subject areas at the department.

Stephanie comments that: “I’m very grateful to Dr James Keeler, Dr Bill Nolan, and others in the department and in my colleges for giving me such amazing teaching opportunities, and to all my wonderful students for making teaching at Cambridge so enjoyable.”

“As an undergraduate supervisor Stephanie is exceptional in both the excellence of her teaching and also of her range. She is the only person in the Department who steps from synthetic organic chemistry in one supervision, to high-resolution spectroscopy in the next, and to theoretical techniques in the next,” comments Dr James Keeler, the Head of Department. “To say that her students adore her is not an over-statement.”

The Pilkington prizes were initiated by Sir Alastair Pilkington, who believed that the quality of teaching was crucial to the University's success.