9th January 2023

Dr Dean Sheppard receives one of the MPLS Teaching Awards

A photograph of Dean Sheppard

Dr Dean Sheppard, Departmental Lecturer in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and tutor in Physical Chemistry at Lady Margaret Hall, has been awarded one of the 2022 MPLS Teaching Awards.

The MPLS Divisional Teaching Award Scheme celebrates success, and recognises and rewards excellence in innovative teaching. Awards are available to all those who teach, including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and learning support staff. The Teaching Award Scheme is administered by the MPLS Divisional Office and awards are made, on merit, across the departments by a cross-departmental panel chaired by the Associate Head of Division (Academic).

Dean has had a transformative impact on the delivery of Physical Chemistry teaching in the Department of Chemistry. One of the aims of his role was to improve equality of experience for all of our undergraduate students regardless of their college. To facilitate this Dean produced centralised tutorial sheets for each of the 18 core Physical Chemistry lecture courses taken by all of the students in the first three years of their degrees.

A measure of the esteem that Dean holds is evident in the student nominations, which describe Dean as the definition of the world class education promoted on the Oxford University website. His students note Dean’s innovative teaching methods, with the preparation of video solutions to the questions set for his tutorials.

Dr Sheppard also completed a PGCert in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, receiving a Distinction and gaining Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy last term.

Congratulations to Dr Dean Sheppard on these achievements!