MPLS Teaching Award for Dean Sheppard

Congratulations to Lecturer in Chemistry Dr Dean Sheppard, who has been awarded one of the 2022 Teaching Awards from Oxford’s Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division (MPLS).

The MPLS Divisional Teaching Award Scheme celebrates success, and recognises and rewards excellence in innovative teaching. The awards are made, on merit, across the departments by a cross-departmental panel chaired by the Associate Head of Division (Academic). Dr Sheppard’s award citation noted his 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 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. His students note Dean’s innovative teaching methods, with the preparation of video solutions to the questions set for his tutorials.

Dr Sheppard has also recently completed a PGCert in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, receiving a Distinction and gaining Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. He says: ‘Receiving an MPLS Teaching Award was a lovely surprise, and I am really grateful for the nominations from my students and colleagues. I am very lucky to teach such bright and receptive Oxford chemistry students; they are an impressive bunch. Maintaining concentration and motivation to study remotely during the pandemic lockdown periods was incredibly challenging, and I am delighted that my students felt that my approach to teaching helped them to succeed.’