We're incredibly proud to share these stories from colleagues who've been successful in their promotions applications, particularly using their Impact, Outreach and Engagement work to support their work.
Professor Jennifer Alexander
New Status: Professor, SCAPVC - History of Art
As one of the four categories that provide evidence of achievement, this was an essential part of my application for promotion. My Impact work formed part of the History of Art's REF submission as one of two case studies and these were awarded either 4* or 3*, gaining us a score of 100% for Impact. The project that was probably the most significant, from a portfolio submission of several case studies, was that based on my research at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which was disseminated through a subsidised book that reached a wide audience. A follow-up interview with a national newspaper led to its inclusion in the BBC TV programme 'Have I Got News for You', which reached a very large audience and evoked comments from the public that further demonstrated its impact.
Professor Zhiyan Guo
New Status: Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures
As subject leader of Chinese, I created all the Chinese modules from scratch, offering them to both optional and language degree students in Warwick, and proactively diversifying Chinese culture syllabus. I initiated collaborations with five universities in China and adapted them into international virtual exchange to enrich students’ language and cultural experience and improve their employability skills. I regularly present my pedagogical and empirical research findings at national and international conferences, having been selected to publish some of them in academic journals and books. The recent project I am proud of was the Event titled Chinese Culture in Words, Voices and Music at Resonate Festival, involving both students on campus and an internationally renowned musician.
Dr Robert O'Toole
New Status: Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts
My main focus has been the use of virtual reality. This has included working with Classics to create a set of VR headsets that are used with schools.I work closely with leading immersive experience consultancy Limina Immersive (led by a Warwick alumnus), providing academic and business development advice. I helped to develop their distinctive approach to engaging the general public with beautifully designed social VR events.I have collaborated with Monash University and WMG to investigate the potential of VR in research, teaching, and public engagement. I lead the Warwick VR Club, running open sessions for the University and the wider public. I maintain a large collection of VR equipment that is used across the University and for public engagement events.In 2020 I ran the Warwick VR Festival, bringing together academic and industry partners. We restarted on-campus activities in 2022 with a programme of VR activities as part of the opening of the new Faculty of Arts Building. Over 200 people experienced VR in a carefully managed environment, many of them using it for the first time. In July 2022 we hosted our first on-campus research event post-pandemic, to showcase and explore a collaboration between Warwickshire Police, Limina, and production company RiVR, screening an experience designed to teach young men about the impact of misogyny. This has led to new partnerships between the University, industry and community groups.
Dr Martine Barons
New status: Reader, Statistics
Engagement was woven throughout my application for promotion. My research in evidence-informed decision support involves both methodological and application aspects, so I regularly interact with business, government, and industry to translate cutting-edge research into bespoke solutions, making engagement part of my research and scholarship. As Director of the Applied Statistics & Risk Unit, my role is to bring the department’s theoretical, methodological and algorithmic developments into early application, so supporting colleagues in making, maintaining and managing external relationships; I am also departmental REF champion, centring engagement in my collegiality, leadership and management. I supervise many M-level projects with external partners and support colleagues to do so; this formed a key part of my successful SFHEA application, making engagement both directly and indirectly part of my teaching and learning. Through my professional body, my growing reputation for expertise in engagement is contributing to the development of The Academy of Mathematical Sciences and other national and international initiatives, providing evidence for impact, outreach and engagement.
Professor Jane Andrews
New status: Professor, WMG
As a full-time wheelchair user, I am privileged to be in a position to act as a role model to colleagues, students, and future students living with a disability. Having been at WMG, University of Warwick since February 2019, I have been given numerous opportunities to promote widening participation and engagement in a number of different ways; from providing training to charities and public sector organisations, to taking a lead on disability issues in the University itself.
I am also a RAF Veteran and, using my experiences in WMG in particular, and in Higher Education as a whole, find myself in a position whereby I am able to actively encourage other ex-service personnel to either consider working in Higher Education as a viable option upon discharge, or alternatively to pursue a degree as mature learners.
In addition to this, part of my current research focuses on Engineering Outreach in local schools. This is an area where WMG excels and I am proud to be able to be part of a team that is collecting evidence to show how outreach can impact young people's futures.
Outreach and Engagement are an important part of what I do as a professional and, working in an environment where I am supported and encouraged to make a difference both inside and outside of the university setting, is key to this and was a crucial part of my promotion application.
Dr Mel Loveridge
New status: Reader, WMG
For Impact, Outreach & Engagement for my Promotion application, I began by highlighting examples of research that my group delivered that directly helped solve industry problems (as my role is research focused). Many examples were also captured in publications submitted to REF with scores of 3. I went on to outline high profile media engagement, including examples of: Radio 4 interviews (Today Programme and Costing The Earth), Channel 4 and BBC2 TV interviews and an article in the Telegraph. I regularly deliver invited talks in addition to conferences and cited some examples of these: A Royal Society meeting, a Warwick Christmas lecture and a talk at British Science Week. Engaging with public audiences is an important part of my role. Finally I took the opportunity to introduce policy influence related to my role, describing interviews with a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee and also the Shadow Cabinet.
Dr Antonia Betzou
New Status: Assistant Professor (Teaching focussed), WMG
My involvement in Outreach activities gave me a great opportunity to inspire young generations to fulfil their dreams, being the engineers of the future and make the world we live in a better place. I strongly believe that the impact of Outreach is huge and that is the main reason I thoroughly enjoy contributing to our Outreach team. Due to this impact on future generations, my active and constant involvement in Outreach was crucial for my promotion case. The STEM connection project is one of the projects I was involved by designing an interactive and portable demonstrator to present it in Coventry Transport Museum and several Schools in our local community. My demonstrator focuses on materials sustainability inspiring young generations for a better future. Part of STEM connections project was to take part in an interview video (below) sharing my career journey and inspiring young people. One more Outreach activity that I am proud of being involved was visiting Eden School in Coventry giving a talk along with other academics to inspire and encourage young girls to fulfil their dreams and follow a career in STEM.
Professor Kate Owen
New Status: Professor, Warwick Medical School
I set up an education focused patient participation group at WMS. We started with a small group of 6 and have expanded to over 50 participants, who have named the group "CommUnity". Having the group and listening to their ideas has enabled us to enhance lived experience throughout our medical degree curriculum- something which is critically important for future doctors. Students now work on "empathy maps" with patients in their first week with us, have science brought to life with "Patient of the week" in year 1 and 2 and are taught remote consulting skills by patients. This was a large part of my promotion application, though very much relating to the teaching pathway I was able to use this in the engagement section freeing up more space to discuss other areas of my teaching innovation and practice.
Dr Antonia Sagona
New Status: Reader, Life Sciences
Due to the nature of my research, which is on bacteriophages and phage therapy towards tackling antimicrobial resistance, I am involved in a variety of outreach and engagement activities, since the research of my lab has great impact. Some recent highlights of this and since my last promotion was that I was interviewed in the media multiple times (Daily Μail, Voice of America, Royal society of biology, Microbiology society, New Statesman). I was also interviewed for the BBSRC Impact Showcase, which introduces some of the people BBSRC are investing in and who in turn work with BBSRC to support world-class bioscience for everyone and by BBSRC senior managers on AMR - (watch below), and for a UKRI, Blog post, Informing BBSRC’s future AMR research strategy I was also invited to make a case on behalf of Microbiology Society UK, for government inquiry on the antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages.
Dr Farzana Meru
New status: Reader, Department of Physics
For my promotion case I discussed my science impact on the wider research community, my outreach work and my work in policy. I was involved in the science vision for a future international telescope (Planet Formation Imager), and the theory working group for the European Space Agency’s PLATO mission – both will impact the research fields for decades. I disseminate my research internationally on social media and had many mediainteractions: conducted interviews, commented on other research and had fourpress releases(three at Warwick) published on international websites. The Royal Society invited meto develop/chair their international “Frontiers of Science (astronomy)” meeting, contribute to their Mathematical Futures programme, and input into a new UK Young Academy. At Warwick Irecruited UK/international students, and was a PhD student’s reserve supervisor.
New Status: Associate Professor, Warwick Medical School
I described several IOE activities as part of my promotion case. There are two that I'm particularly pleased with. The first was "An Evening with Peter Singer" in 2019, which was a joint event with the Philosophy Society at the University of Birmingham - so it involved staff-student collaboration across two institutions. Peter Singer is one of the most influential living philosophers, so it was amazing to have a live audience with him over Zoom, discussing his work with the Effective Altruism movement and in the field of animal ethics. It was also a really great development opportunity for the students too, who got involved by helping to organise and publicise the event. Some of them also gave talks alongside Prof Singer and the other academics, which must have been scary, but they all did great!
Next, I did some teaching on the Widening Participation summer school, co-hosted by the University of Warwick and Queen Mary University of London. This is an opportunity for school pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in Coventry and London to learn about what it might be like to study medicine. My job, alongside one of my colleagues, was to introduce students to medical ethics, which we did using a series of games, discussions, and me drawing stick people on the white board. I went to London to help judge the students' final presentations, and it was brilliant to see how much they threw themselves into it.
Dr Sarah-Jane Richards
New Status: Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
Impact work was a significant part of my case for promotion. Of particular note, was our discovery that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein could bind sialic acids (glycans found on cell surfaces and in the respiratory tract). With our collaborators at Iceni Glycoscience and University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire we integrated this into a rapid diagnostic, similar to a lateral flow device. This was the first demonstration of how these sugars can be used in place of antibodies in rapid diagnostics. The publication of this work in ACS Central Science published in 2020 has already garnered over 150 citations and been viewed >14,000 times. This work was patented (filed in UK and US), and the patent was licensed. This research features in a university video on impactful researchLink opens in a new window and was covered by BBC News and featured as a lead story on Midlands Today.
Dr Farah Villa Lopez
New Status: Assistant Professor (Teaching focused), WMG
I thoroughly enjoy taking part in outreach activities, inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. From designing and running fun and engaging interactive activities for school children to supporting undergraduate student recruitment, I cherish the opportunities to share my experience and knowledge within our community.
During my time at Warwick I have participated in several public engagement activities, whether short-term and recurrent such as promoting the university education provision at Career's fairs and open days or running CPD training sessions for school teachers to other longer-term outreach projects such the WMGs' STEM connections project, developing a demonstrator used as part of a series of schools presentations/roadshow. As part of this project, I also participated in an interview video promoting STEM subjects and sharing my experience and career journey to inspire young children.
Dr John Gough
New Status: Associate Professor, Centre for Lifelong Learning
I highlighted really key and relevant aspects of my work with the promotions’ criteria in mind. Often our work involves ‘we’; and it’s important to write as ‘I’. In relation to teaching and learning, I emphasised my pivotal role in enhancing the international student learning experience. Interest in one of our MAs from international students has increased exponentially, to the point where Chinese students are the predominant group. In response, I was instrumental in developing the teaching offer based on a deeper understanding of where ‘the learners are at’ in order to meet their needs. This included a considerable reengineering of the student experience offer, including leading the development of pre-arrival materials to help prepare students for PG study in the UK; a tailored induction programme to increase students’ academic (and personal) confidence); and comprehensive teaching provision that reflects their learning needs.
In terms of impact, outreach and engagement, my role as an APP EXP assessor and mentor contributes to the university’s development of academic colleagues’ teaching and learning expertise. My approach also embodies the ethics and values inherent in the university’s development of staff: inclusive; values-driven; and with a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. In addition, the APP EXP scheme is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with often senior colleagues from other academic areas, and to share my expertise and experience as part of the assessment process. Beyond the university, I am a member of a national research group concerned with career and organisational development; and I contribute to a national training programme for practitioners seeking to conduct research into their practice. Whilst I have a teaching- focussed role, my research adds to the knowledge and evidence base for the career development sector.
