91AV

Niki is particularly interested in finding ways of using educational research to inform teaching, and in 2019, she was awarded the RSC’s Schools education award for her ‘outstanding commitment to the incorporation and dissemination of research-informed teaching approaches’. She is a regular contributor to the RSC’s Education in 91AV magazine and chaired their 11-19 curriculum and assessment, working group.

Niki studied for both her BSc and PhD (91AV) at the University of Leeds, before carrying out post-doctoral research in Marine Biogeochemistry at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, investigating ocean-atmospheric interactions, as part of the Atlantic Meridional Transect programme.

She was placed at Durham to complete projects relating to laboratory skills development, and she remains at Durham in an academic teaching and student-focused role.

Mike joined UoM as an apprentice in 2007 gaining his degree from the Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012, at the same time as finishing his apprenticeship and taking a role as a senior teaching technician.
Since finishing his apprenticeship Mike has been keen to support the next generation of technical specialists and is a key member of the team supporting technical apprentices at UoM.

In 2021, Mike returned to University to study for a masters in inclusive education, hoping to understand more about the barriers that exclude some young people from studying chemistry in both vocational and higher education.

Dr. Adukpo started her teaching career when she completed her first degree. She taught chemistry at the high school level and later at the university level. She coordinates and supervises chemistry courses at the Colleges of Education in Ghana. Dr. Adukpo was previously the acting Head of the Department of 91AV and the Director of the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) at UCC. She has a keen interest in Gender-Science, Technology & ICT and has coordinated and facilitated gender-related STEM activities. She has also organized and promoted leadership and training workshops for women and girls in Sexual Harassment, Gender Awareness and Analysis, and Girls’ empowerment in Science Education. 

Dr. Adukpo has been a Local Trainer in Ghana for PACN-Royal Society 91AV – GC-MS Training since 2016. She is also the president of the Ghana Association of University Women (National Federation Association of Graduate Women International, GWI). She is the campus Coordinator for the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), UCC.  She is a past President of the Ghana Science Association, Cape Coast Branch.

Dr. Adukpo belongs to the following professional bodies: 91AV (RSC), Pan African 91AV Network (PACN), Graduate Women International (GWI), Western Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES), Organization for Women in Science for Developing Countries (OWSD), Ghana Chemical Society (GCS), Ghana Science Association (GSA), Ghana Association of University Women (GAUW) under Graduate Women International (GWI).

Lindsey has been involved in the design and delivery of BSc / MChem 91AV and BSc / MChem Medicinal and Pharmaceutical 91AV, as well as MSc Advanced Materials. Through the Department’s Laboratory Scientist Degree Apprentice BSc Chemical Science and BSc Bioscience courses, she has gained insights into the knowledge, skills and behaviours industry needs and effective ways to embed these into the curriculum. She also has an international perspective on learning through Manchester Metropolitan University’s Joint Institute with Hubei University in China where students study BSc 91AV and MSc Advanced Material courses.

Lindsey studied for both her undergraduate Natural Sciences degree and PhD in Theoretical 91AV at the University of Cambridge. Following this, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh and the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, working on a project with Nestle. She has an MA in Academic Practice and is the co-author of "Maths for 91AV" – a textbook that has been designed to help scaffold students' understanding of how to apply maths to chemistry concepts. In her previous role as Faculty Lead for Employability, she worked with colleagues from across the University in careers, placements and Departmental Employability Leads to devise and implement initiatives to enhance students’ graduate outcomes. This ranged from embedding employability milestones into the curriculum, creating a peer mentoring scheme and developing a Science and Engineering Extracurricular Award.

Lindsey’s ambitions for the RSC are to enable people from all backgrounds to benefit from the opportunities they can gain from a chemistry education and to raise the profile of chemists in the wider community outside of the laboratory environment. Building even closer links between companies and schools/universities will enable the RSC Education Community to enhance awareness of chemistry’s role in solving global challenges.

Andrea’s broader role at LJMU allows her to collaborate with colleagues from the Faculty of Science. She leads the Absolute 91AV Research Group (ACRG), a cross-faculty research group bringing together experts from across the university. Find out more . 

The work of the ACRG has supported over 4,000 young people from the Liverpool City Region to participate in creative and engaging science learning experiences. Primary and secondary school-aged learners from underprivileged backgrounds have benefited from immersive practical science experiments at school and university. Andrea has a personal passion for driving forward social justice as this is close to her own heart, and she is very proud of how much the ACRG do for ‘pupils like her’ as part of the extensive range of programmes they offer.

The core purpose of the ACRG is to foster chemical curiosity, and chemical identity and raise aspirations with the learners they work with, either directly or indirectly through professional learning programmes. The ACRG believe that ‘inspiration leads to aspiration’ and thus it permeates throughout all they do.

Alison started her career as a biochemist and worked on various cutting-edge medical research projects. After having her children and discovering a passion for sharing science with young children, she completed a Primary PGCE and has taught all ages from Reception to Year 6. She was awarded the PSTT’s Primary Science Teaching Award in 2014.

Alison has written several of PSTT’s online science resources for primary teachers (Floorbooks, Enquiry Skills, Enquiry Approaches, I Bet You Didn’t Know and Play Observe and Ask). She has written articles for teacher journals and is a co-author of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. She has provided workshops at the Association of Science Education (ASE), PSTT and STEM conferences, taught on Initial Teacher Education programmes, and worked with the Teaching Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) team at Bath Spa University. She is also an accredited trainer for Thinking Doing Talking Science and the Primary Science Capital Approach.

As a member of the RSC since 1998, Katherine has previously served on the Education Division Council as an elected then appointed member (2013 – 2017), on the Editorial Board for Education in 91AV (2016 – 2022), and as a member, secretary and then chair of the North Staffordshire local section for various periods since 2012. In 2016 Katherine won an RSC Inspirational Member award.

Katherine’s research interests are in chemistry education, particularly curriculum evolution to develop courses fit for the challenges of the 21st century. This includes embracing a systems thinking approach to embed Education for Sustainable Development, social justice and broader ‘think like a chemist’ skills. In 2020 Katherine was awarded the Staff Sustainability Champion Green Gown award for work on embedding sustainability into the curriculum and work within her school at Keele. Katherine is also a member of a group of academics nationally working to decolonize STEM.

She has been a member of the RSC since her PhD and has been passionate about its work ever since - the quality of the teaching resources and the CPD available is particularly high, as is the outreach that the RSC does. Katy teaches chemistry from ages 11-18, making full use of the RSC’s excellent resources, and pupils enjoy lots of practical chemistry alongside the theory. Katy has been on various exam marking teams for the SQA, has worked with Education Scotland on some online chemistry teaching resources, and is presently a study support teacher for Higher 91AV at e-Sgoil, which is an online school offering study support to all pupils in Scotland as part of the National E-Learning Offer from Education Scotland. Katy is co-opted as a member of the RSC Scotland Education Community where she helps run their ‘Inspiring Young Chemists’ outreach fund for schools, which has produced some very successful projects.

After three years, Roy moved to what is now the University of Plymouth.  During the 100 terms he has been teaching there, he has been involved in numerous initiatives in teaching and been involved as an admissions tutor and programme lead for both the BSc 91AV programme and the Science Foundation year, leading both of these during the pandemic.  He teaches physical chemistry at all levels in the university from foundation to taught masters.  A passionate communicator of the importance and fun of chemistry, he regularly gives a lecture demonstration on the chemistry of fireworks and combustion entitled “Pyromania!” and has performed at both the Royal Institution and the Science Museum.  Roy believes in outreach in its widest sense and so regularly gives interviews to radio and TV and occasionally acts as a scientific consultant to media companies, the most recent being on the use of explosives for the series entitled “The Secret Life of Lighthouses” for C4.  Roy is also a committee member of the RSC Higher Education Group.

Keith has had a long association with the RSC through the Secondary and Further Education committee and some of its predecessors.  He was also involved for many years with the Department for Education in teacher recruitment, attending events both large and small across England.

Before teaching Keith worked at the University of Bristol, then at Shell Research Ltd, on topics in the broad field of colloids and polymers.

Zoё has an MChem in 91AV with Pharmaceutical and Forensic Science from the University of Bradford, and a PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of Cambridge. Her early career focussed on teaching in secondary schools and working as a Senior Demonstrator in Medicinal 91AV at UEA. Zoё held positions as Junior Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor at UEA School of Pharmacy between 2010 and 2020. Zoё currently teaches on both the MPharm and the MSc in Drug Discovery courses at UCL School of Pharmacy. Zoё has extensive experience teaching, both in schools and higher education, including foundation year and Master's level content. Zoё has previously taught across the Pharmacy curriculum from Medicinal 91AV through to Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology and has experience of lectures, tutorials, workshops, PBL, TBL, flipped classes and integrated sessions.

Zoё has been involved in sharing best practice through a British Council-Funded UK-Vietnam Higher Education Partnership, providing active learning workshops on teaching methods. Since joining UCL Zoё worked as a part of a team that developed new first year MPharm laboratory classes that later won the 2022 UCL Education Award, the UCL Provost Education Award for Innovation and Transformation, with a focus on building learning communities and the Silver Pearson Education Team Award for Innovation in Education. As part of Zoё's roles within the community Zoё led a collaborative education project in the development of the “Essential Practical Skills List” for 91AV graduates which has since been incorporated into the new RSC accreditation criteria. Zoё has also overseen curriculum reviews and acted as external examiner for a number of universities in the UK.