University Teaching Prizes for Valérie Tweehuysen, László Munteán and Frank Léoné
László Munteán, lecturer of Literary and Cultural Studies and American Studies, will receive the 2018 University Teaching Prize for senior lecturers. The 2018 University Teaching Prize for junior lecturers will go to Frank Léoné, lecturer of Artificial Intelligence and Valérie Tweehuysen, lecturer of Civil Law. This prize is a reward for excellent performance as an educator and consists of a certificate and 3000 euros, two thirds of which is designated to be spent on education. The prizes will be presented on Monday 3 September, during the opening of the 2018-2019 academic year.
Ms Valérie Tweehuysen, lecturer of Civil Law – Faculty of Law, Radboud University
Valérie Tweehuysen is a passionate lecturer who encourages her students to think critically and ensures that they get the most out of themselves. She has made a significant contribution to educational reform at the faculty. She completely redesigned the courses Civil Law I and a master course in Property Law, and also made some drastic changes to the lectures for the first-year course in Private Law. This redesign ensured that the courses make full use of the available ICT in order to motivate students. The new design initially met some resistance, but Tweehuysen was open to feedback, transformed the feedback into improvements, and managed to convince critics that the changes were necessary. Valérie Tweehuysen has put educational reform on the map. It is no surprise that she was appointed as chair of the ICTIO committee (ICT in Education) and she is also a part of the core team that oversees the introduction of Brightspace at the Faculty of Law.
Dr László Munteán, Lecturer of Literary and Cultural Studies and American Studies – Faculty of Arts, Radboud University
László Munteán teaches courses on a variety of topics such as American Popular Culture, History of the Arts of Modern Times, Theories and Theoreticians in the Humanities, and Material Culture and the Politics of Identity. Thanks to his broad range of interests, knowledge, and enthusiasm, he is well equipped to provide inspiring teaching on all these different research topics and disciplines. László Munteán is a valued member of the programme committee and played a substantial role in coordinating the development of the English-taught track, Arts and Culture Studies. From his dual position in Literary and Cultural Studies as well as American Studies, he has shown that he can bridge any gap between colleagues, programmes, or departments. He is an outstanding researcher with an impressive list of publications and is well-respected internationally. He is a true all-rounder, who has demonstrated an ability to excel in multiple areas simultaneously.
Dr Frank Léoné, lecturer of Artificial Intelligence – Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University
Frank Léoné, lecturer of Artificial Intelligence, has dedicated himself to educational quality since his days as a student. He is an enthusiastic lecturer, who knows how to pique the interest of his students. In 2017, he became the coordinator of the first-year Bachelor’s programme in Artificial Intelligence and this has been quite a challenging task given the rapid increase in the student population combined with a consistent shortage of staff members. Léoné’s innovative capacity is highly valued. He conducts intensive research into “games for learning and teaching” that have been inspired by the brain. This culminated in the development of the new B1 course, Brain for AI, and the reorganisation of the B1 AI mentor system in the course, Academica and Professional Skills. The Donders Hackathon, AI education day, and the B1 coordinator position were either initiated or organised by him.
Opening of the 2018 – 2019 Academic Year, Monday 3 September at 2.00 pm, De Vereeniging, Nijmegen.
Radboud staff members have received an invitation to the opening of the academic year. You can register using the link in that e-mail. If you no longer have the e-mail, please contact pedel@co.ru.nl