Lead on the Higher Education cohort study, which aims to understand the experience of undergraduate mathematics students in England. We want to investigate the factors which influence students’ enjoyment of mathematical study and whether they choose to pursue further study and/or a career in mathematics-related work.

I convene a module in which Mathematics students are placed in local schools, allowing them to develop teaching and employability skills, whilst allowing the School to maintain strong links with the local community. As Mathematics Curriculum Lead, I have recently conducted a major redesign of all undergraduate mathematics courses. I employed an innovative, programme-level, design approach to reduce over-assessment of students and embed development and assessment of professional competencies with traditional teaching of mathematical content.I am regularly involved in outreach activities, both locally and nationally, hosting school visits to the university and travelling out to schools around the country to promote studying mathematics at university. I have a keen interest in communicating high-level mathematics to young audiences and encouraging young people to pursue a career in STEM.Following my extensive involvement in outreach throughout my career, I am dedicated to improving access to and participation in Higher Education, particularly Mathematics. I am co-supervising a PhD project to investigate the pipeline from primary school to Higher Education in the UK by analysing large data sets of pupil attainment and participation. I hope that his project will inform the direction of government funding for interventions or initiative to increase the access and participation of underrepresented groups in Higher Education Mathematics courses in the UK.

Part-time secondment, where I was a tutor to all staff in the Faculty of Science who are enrolled on the PGCHE (Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education) programme. I mentored several colleagues, particularly in support of their preparation and completion of assignments for module assessment. I conducted teaching observations for staff across all faculties in the institution, following up with an oral and written report that formed part of their teaching development portfolio. I delivered a workshop as part of the “Curriculum Design” module which focussed on programme-level design.

Alongside teaching responsibilities, I was involved in several initiatives to disseminate good teaching practice in the School and across the University, including membership of the Faculty of Science Teaching and Learning Seminars organising committee and the Educational Inquiry Network. I provided support to first-year honours mathematics students in their Core Curriculum. I additionally taught Programming for Mathematics (MATLAB/Python) to first-year students, including a complete redesign of the teaching materials.I trained and mentored a group of 70 Postgraduate Student Teachers and was responsible for inducting and mentoring new lecturing staff in the School. As the Student Experience Officer, I oversaw undergraduate student representation within the School. I worked proactively with course reps and the wider student body to identify and tackle key issues for students throughout the academic year, whilst organising and hosting community-building events throughout the year.

I coordinated support activities for all students on Mathematics and Natural Sciences programmes. I also taught and managed large mathematics modules (typical cohort size of 500+) for students in the Faculty of Engineering.

Thesis Title: Molecular Simulation of Nucleation in PolymersMy research interests lie in Applied Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics. In our project, we take a Chemistry problem, that of a non-equilibrium phase change of a polymer melt, and develop a generalised method which does not take much Chemistry into account! We approach the problem using a Metropolis Monte Carlo method, sampling over the available thermodynamic states of the system to estimate the free energy curve associated with the local change of phase (nucleation) of the substance. We are interested in computing the free energy barrier, since the nucleation rate of a polymer is exponentially dependent on the height of the nucleation barrier.The main work that I have undertaken in my PhD is to develop an algorithm, programmed in C, from the ground up in order to simulate the nucleation process in the most efficient way possible, using a Monte Carlo method and sampling from a biased distribution. We have also made good use of the High Performance Computing facilities available at the University of Nottingham, which allows us to run several tasks in parallel, reducing the overall computation time by days. This has allowed me to develop my programming and analytical skills to a very advanced level.

Duties include managing teams of student ambassadors at a variety of university events, including open days and school visits. I also represent the university at several external events, including national UCAS fairs and school Higher Education Fairs all over the UK.

I assist in the teaching of several undergraduate modules in Mathematics, Engineering and Chemistry. This involves attending classes, helping students with set problems in their modules and also marking coursework and invidulating mid-term exams. I also lead small-group tutorials in mathematics and engineering.I work closely with the Further Mathematics Teaching Officer, delivering GCSE and A Level revision classes both within the University and out in Schools.

I taught two applied statistics courses in the Graduate School, aimed at postgraduate students, mainly from the Faculty of Engineering, but there is also interest from many other areas, such as Pharmacy, Medicine, Health Sciences and Geography. Namely, these course are:Introduction to Quantitative ResearchQuantitative Methods for EngineersIn addition to the teaching, this role also involves maintaining the course website, notes and supplementary material, ensuring it is free of typos and the worked examples are up-to-date and relevant, given the feedback from the students after each instance of the course.

I provided revision and enrichment sessions for GCSE and A Level students, helping to promote study of A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics and ultimately University Level courses in Mathematics or other STEM subjects. I also acted as an advisor to teachers regarding the expectation of mathematics undergraduates when they start their course and how they can be given the correct guidance and preparation at A Level.