Founders' Awards 2023:
Highly Commended Nominees

Dr Bloom has been finding new ways to provide additional opportunities for learning and growth for students, including by bringing external speakers into the classroom and taking students out of it. She is also dedicated to providing pastoral support for her students.

Dr Walters Nsoh, Professor Robert Lee, Professor Aleksandra Cavoski, Dr Lovleen Bhullar, Dr Synda Obaji, Dr Sandra Ingelkofer, Dr Jyoti Ahuja, Simon Stuttaford, Begonia Filgueira, Arinze Okiche

The LLM in Energy and Environmental Law is an innovation distance learning programme aimed at professionals working in fields in which they may effect positive change. The programme addresses the law relating to renewable energy and climate change, nuclear energy, oil and gas law, and the financing of energy projects. It provides a unique opportunity for students worldwide to learn together from the leading experts in the team, through creative pedagogy taught by leading experts in the field. It is a unique programme, with students studying in over 30 countries at any given time.            

A successful education experience, as viewed through the eyes of a student requires a relevant curriculum delivered by expert educators.  Prof Quinn has led and shaped the Quality Assurance, and pedagogical training of EPS staff to enable the College to successfully diversity and grow its education portfolio. He has actively advised on programmes from Foundation Year to Postgraduate study and CPD (with a particularly focus of upskilling across a broad learner portfolio) in the UK, Dubai, China and online. His work has had impact on every student in the College, and more broadly via influence on Codes of Practice, the entire University and a number or regional, national and international agendas.

Professor Aneel Bhangu, Professor Dion Morton, Dr Audrey Nganwa and Professor Tom Pinkney.

The work of the NIHR Unit on Global Surgery has helped to improve access to safe and affordable surgery worldwide. Through innovative research, training and advocacy, the Unit has helped to reduce global health inequalities and improve surgical care in low- and middle-income countries.

Professor Sabine Lee was instrumental in the creation of the award-winning film "The Wound is Where the Light Enters", which tells the story of 15 children taking part in a docu-dance-theatre workshop in which they explore their experiences, the stigma they face in everyday life, and their routes towards empowerment and healing. The film premiered at an event held at the Barbican in October 2022, which also saw the launching of a new charity. GRACE (Global Reconciliation, Advocacy and Community-building Engagement in War-affected Regions) promotes the long-term social integration, wellbeing and empowerment of children, their families and communities affected by war around the world.

Professor Woodhams conducts ground-breaking research on stranger rape and online child sexual abuse. She is a world-leading expert on evidence-based approaches to prioritising suspects and in the behaviour patterns of serial offenders. Her work has led directly to numerous changes to policing practice and criminal justice reforms, with two significant developments in 2022.

Sarah is a world leader in studies of T cell metabolism. Her work has transformed our understanding of how metabolism affects acquired immunity, providing new insights into metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and opening the door to the discovery of new drugs to treat these diseases.

Richard’s work challenges existing convention, where historically biomaterials have been thought of as “inert” and/or irrelevant to biological processes. Indeed, the focus of his current research is to elucidate the physico-chemical/-mechanical contributions that hierarchical materials play within the regenerative environment, attempting to demonstrate that advanced therapies do not necessarily require a cellular component: the repercussions of which, could vastly reduce the complexity associated with such therapies.

 

Dr Shan has developed a significant international reputation for his groundbreaking work in environmental resources accounting and climate change mitigation in developing countries. The extent of his reputation and influence is all the more remarkable in view of the fact he finished his doctoral work only 5 years ago.

Professor Bortolotti has continued to do ground-breaking work in the philosophy of psychiatry. Her research in this area challenges assumptions about mental illness, rationality, and agency and promotes the self-advocacy in people with lived experience of mental health services. By partnering with mental health service user groups and charities her work also has significance beyond academia in that it helps young people who experience epistemic injustices in mental health care.

Professor Upthegrove was nominated for exceptional leadership in research and developing new interventions and infrastructure to improve the mental health of people in the Midlands and across the United Kingdom. Professor Upthegrove will lead a new Midlands Translational Research Centre for Excellence for Mental Health, underpinned by ~£10M of funding from the Department of Health and Social Care. The award is testament to Professor Upthegrove’s profile and reputation as an outstanding researcher and clinician.

These achievements place Birmingham, and Professor Upthegrove, at the forefront of research and industry collaborations that will make a tangible difference to the lives of people with mental health conditions, to those who are close to them, and to their communities.

Professor Alberto Vecchio is the founding Director of the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at UoB, and is recognised as a world leader in gravitational wave astronomy, using detections of the tiny ripples in spacetime predicted by Einstein to open a new window on the Universe.