Excellent teaching and learning in Chemistry demonstrated in sixth Higher Education Academy Senior Fellowship

High quality Chemistry teaching at the University of Southampton has been recognised in a sixth Senior Fellowship from the Higher Education Authority.

Associate Professor Dr Ramon Rios, a member of the Synthesis, Catalysis and Flow research group, has become the latest member of the School of Chemistry to be certified by the national standard.

The Senior Fellowships, which are administered by Advance HE, demonstrate a commitment to teaching, learning and student experience, through engagement in a practical process that encourages research, reflection and development.

“I am extremely pleased to achieve the Senior Fellowship and would like to thank my many colleagues whose passion and support have developed my capabilities over the past seven years,” Ramon says. “The high number of Senior Fellows in Chemistry shows a clear commitment to deliver the best teaching possible to our students.”

The University of Southampton contains around 60 Senior Fellows across its full range of subjects, including Professor David Read, Professor Simon Coles, Dr Paul Duckmanton, Dr Thomas Logothetis and Dr Sam Thompson from the School of Chemistry.

Chemistry’s Senior Fellowships have all been awarded in the past four years, with staff members benefiting from a new mentoring programme which is helping share best practice.

Professor David Read, Head of Education for Chemistry, says: “We encourage our staff to critically reflect on their teaching practice and a large number of colleagues are now at different stages of this fellowship process. By doing this, they are naturally identifying aspects of their teaching that can be improved in future and refining their work on an ongoing basis. Ramon’s fellowship is the latest confirmation of excellent teaching and learning in the School of Chemistry and I look forward to celebrating many more successes in the near future.”

Ramon Rios joined the University of Southampton as a Reader in 2012. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. He has published two books on the Pauson-Khand reaction and Organocatalysis, authored more than 125 papers, written 15 chapters in chemical books, filed one patent and had more than 6,000 citations in his career to date.