Faculty Research Staff Awards

Faculty staff have been rewarded for their outstanding contributions to the culture and success of their Departments.

Three members of staff from the Faculty of Natural Sciences have been rewarded for their outstanding contributions to the culture and success of their Departments.

Nick Brooks (Chemistry), Daniel Mortlock (Physics) and Laurence Bugeon (Life Sciences) were given awards in recognition of their leadership and commitment towards enhancing the experience of research staff across the Faculty.

The Faculty Research Staff Awards is a new scheme that recognises the highly valued contributions made by postdocs and fellows over and above their research and teaching activities. The winners were presented with their awards by Professor Donal Bradley, Deputy Faculty Principal, over lunch at 170 Queens Gate.

Dr Nick Brooks

Dr Nick Brooks (Chemistry)

Dr Nick Brooks established and leads the extremely successful Chemistry Post-doctoral Development Team (CPDT), which was recently nominated for the 2011 Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers. The group provides and enhances early career researcher development opportunities within the Department of Chemistry and has empowered Post-Doctoral Research Assistants to take charge of their personal and professional progression from the very start of their career. The CPDT was the first of its kind within the College and its initiatives are now widely disseminated as an archetype; furthermore, they have become recognised as best-practice for all other departments within Imperial, and some external organisations. Nick has been involved in, amongst other activities, chemistry’s Postdoc symposium, Early career researcher award, new Postdoc induction and Chemistry Postdoc training. He has also contributed to the Department of Chemistry's successful Athena Swan Silver award a takes an active interest in science communication activities.

Dr Laurence Bugeon

Dr Laurence Bugeon (Life Sciences)

From the end of 2007 until spring 2011, Dr Laurence Bugeon was Chair of Imperial's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) staff advisory group Imperial 600. During that time, due in large part to the work of the group, Stonewall recognised the College as one of the UK’s top employers for LGBT people, a "real milestone for us" according to the Rector, Sir Keith O’Nions. Amongst other achievements, she motivated the Imperial 600 committee and community with accessible professional networking and social events, and organised the first official meeting of the London University Higher Education Network (HEN), bringing together LGBT groups from London's universities including UCL, LSE and Kings College London. That she could do this in addition to carrying out her work as a Research Fellow in the Department of Life Sciences is testament to her commitment to the lives of LGBT staff at Imperial and to Imperial itself, not to mention the considerable time management and organisational skills required.

Dr Daniel Mortlock

Dr Daniel Mortlock (Physics)

Dr Daniel Mortlock has already made a very considerable contribution to the Physics department, especially in improving the lot of the department’s research staff. He was the first chair of the Department of Physics' Research Associate (RA) committee, a role that has allowed him to much improve relations between the RA community and the department itself. He is always positive and forward looking, bringing  his distinctive Australian point of view and a useful outsider knowledge to question the cosy assumptions sometimes made by those who have spent their whole careers at Imperial. Daniel has also been a member of the Juno committee, which considers gender issues in the department.  In this role he has brought this same helpful attitude. He has recently been awarded a lectureship in Astrostatistics, jointly with the Department of Mathematics, where we expect he will continue to be a gifted teacher, with substantial involvement in outreach and science

For more information about the Faculty Research Staff Awards, contact Sally Power.