Radboud University
Bart Mennink and Jelle Hilbers are this year's recipients of the Education Awards from the Faculty of Science. With these awards, the Faculty Board aims to reward and encourage excellent educational achievements. The nominees were selected by colleagues and students from more than 250 lecturers eligible for the education award. The awards were presented during the faculty's New Year's breakfast by Laura van Niftrik, Vice Dean of Education.
For the Education Award Junior Lecturer, three lecturers were nominated this year: Jelle Hilbers (biology), Katie Mulrey (astrophysics), and Riccardo Cristoferi (mathematics). This nomination indicates that the lecturers make a special contribution to education and are highly regarded by both students and colleagues.
The jury chose Jelle Hilbers as the winner of the Education Award Junior Lecturer. Jelle Hilbers started teaching at this faculty in 2019. He took over the coordination of the bachelor's course 'Introduction to R programming in Biology' and restructured and renewed it. Since then, the student evaluation for the course has increased from 5.9 to 8.6. Jelle received a Comenius grant in 2023. Additionally, Jelle is a member of the programme committee and actively works on developing other innovative teaching methods in the biosciences programmes. Students describe Jelle as a passionate, helpful, involved, and highly motivated lecturer.
For the Education Award Senior Lecturer, Ineke van der Zee (Medical Biology), Bart Mennink (Computing Science), and Paul Kouwer (Molecular Science) were nominated this year. This nomination indicates that the lecturers make a special contribution to education and are highly regarded by both students and colleagues.
From these three esteemed lecturers, the jury chose Bart Mennink as this year's winner of the Education Award Senior Lecturer. Bart Mennink is involved in multiple courses in both the bachelor's and master's programmes of Computing Science. Students describe him as an energetic, involved, open, and well-organized lecturer. He invests a lot of energy in organising and improving education, including as an active member of the programme committee.