The outstanding supervisor award, established in 2020, honours excellence in research student supervision and celebrates the essential role of supervisors. The 2023 Outstanding Supervisor award has been awarded to Professor David Spring who is a Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology and an EPSRC Established Career Research Fellow.

David says: “Thank you very much for the nominations, for me it is an honour to work with such amazing students. We have a lot of fun and they do incredible work.”

He receives £1000 to spend on his group. The Spring group researches the organic synthesis of small molecules for medical purposes.

Outstanding supervisor

“This award not only recognises and encourages supervisors for the hard work they do, but it also helps us to gain insight into students’ needs and the qualities they value most,” comments Head of Department Professor James Keeler, who presented the award.

The outstanding supervisor is selected via anonymous nominations from postgraduate students. They judge a range of criteria such as support for personal development, project supervision, and career planning.

Students noted that David has a “huge positive impact on me, without him I would have given up,” that he is an “incredibly supportive supervisor who always has times for questions discussions, and worries,” and that “Dave has created a working environment that is friendly, supportive, and makes his group a wonderful place to work.”

Previous winners

Previous winners of the award include Professor Ian Paterson in 2020, Professor Dominic Wright in 2021, and Professor Angelos Michaelides in 2022.

Last year, the winning supervisor, Angelos, put his group’s celebration to a vote and the group chose to see the musical ‘Wicked’.

Student nominations for the upcoming 2024 Outstanding Postgraduate Supervision Award will open in August.

Postgraduate events

The postgraduate education team are looking forward to putting on more of these social events going forward – so if you have any feedback on the event please do get in touch either via email or using our new anonymous suggestion box.