Winner: 2020 Higher Education Teaching Award
Dr Glenn Hurst
University of York
For impactful work in green chemistry teaching resulting in national and international renown, and particularly for innovative use of social media in higher education.
Dr Hurst has a real love of teaching, with his work centred around using innovative approaches to help students engage with – and contextualise – chemistry, with a particular emphasis on green and sustainable chemistry. To achieve this, he uses holistic systems-thinking approaches to equip the scientists, engineers and policymakers of tomorrow with the knowledge and skills to address complex, interdisciplinary and real-world problems, as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Biography
Glenn Hurst completed a MChem from Durham University and PhD from Newcastle University. He was appointed Associate Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of York in 2014 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2017. At York he is chair of the Natural Sciences Teaching Committee and chair of the institutional Learning and Teaching Forum, which nurtures and shares creativity and good practice in learning and teaching across the institution.
His research interests lie within chemistry education, specialising in adopting systems-thinking approaches within all levels of green and sustainable chemistry education. This forms part of his work in the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence. Hurst is also focused on utilising social media for technology-enhanced learning and developing new mobile applications for game-based learning. He regularly presents his work internationally and publishes in chemistry education literature together with serving on the editorial board of multiple journals.
He was recognised by Jisc as one of the top ten social media superstars in higher education in 2017, was a finalist in the Times Higher Education ‘Most Innovative Teacher of the Year’ category in 2018, highly commended for ‘Teaching Excellence’ in the Educate North Awards 2019 and won the American Chemical Society Committee on Environmental Improvement Award for Incorporation of Sustainability into Chemistry Education in 2019.
He is a Senior Fellow of the HEA, a Chartered Chemist and is currently chair of the RSC Higher Education Group where he chaired the associated national conference, ViCEPhEC, in York in 2017.
A particular highlight for me is the momentum gathered to incorporate green and sustainable chemistry into the curriculum at multiple levels across the world.
Dr Glenn Hurst
Q&A
Who or what has inspired you?
Many people have inspired me over the years. I remember being awed as a postgraduate student when Alan Mortiboys delivered training sessions on how to teach with emotional intelligence. This certainly informs my current practice. Ahead of coming to York Chemistry, I was acutely aware of the brilliant teachers in the department and I am delighted to be able join them as recipients of this award, forming our quartet.
What motivates you?
I am motivated by seeing students improve and learn. It’s brilliant to be able to work with talented students to enhance the curriculum and conduct pedagogic research though I think I get the most satisfaction from working with students who aren’t necessarily the most talented but want to do all they can to be the best they can be.
What is your favourite element?
Carbon. Given I teach a significant amount of organic chemistry, which is the chemistry of carbon, I am determined to make this challenging subject accessible to students, allowing them to interpret, predict and explain reactivity in new contexts.
Why do you think teamwork is important in science?
As a member of the first chemistry department to attain a gold Athena Swan award, working as part of diverse and inclusive teams to reach a common goal is a vital component to success. I particularly enjoy collaborative teaching with one of my fondest memories being co-delivering our Graduate Teaching Assistant training programme in chemistry.
What is something you are looking forward to?
Two major areas I am excited to see develop in the future are interdisciplinary teaching strategies focused around global challenges and the potential use of virtual reality as a tool to support practical teaching and visualisation.