Plymouth lecturer awarded National Teaching Fellowship

Karen Gresty, Senior Lecturer in Biological Aspects of Health, is one of only 50 award winners across the UK in the scheme which aims to raise the status of learning and teaching in Higher Education. Karen has received the honour in recognition of her exceptional ability to communicate biology to non-biologists. She is an enthusiastic advocate of public engagement with science and has made teaching biology to a non-specialist audience her area of expertise. Her dedication to this area over the past 15 years is acknowledged by one senior colleague's comments; "Karen is an enthusiastic, industrious and inspiring teacher with a genuine and deep commitment to student learning and her subject area." Karen began her academic career as a marine biologist at the Natural History Museum in London, before her ambition to share her passion for science with the wider student and public community led her to the University of Plymouth. Karen has won numerous awards for her teaching and science communication activities, allowing her to develop motivational biology resources to support her students' learning, as well as developing e-journals to publish undergraduate research. She has also created more unusual and theatrical projects including a puppet show for school pupils and the general public entitled 'Real Bugs' which premiered at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth and has since toured nationally. Speaking about her National Teaching Fellowship success, Karen said; "This is the ultimate peer-accolade for an academic in Higher Education and is highly competitive, so this award really is special to me.