Dr Jill Barber

National Teaching Fellow 2014 Dr Jill Barber attended a South London comprehensive school and then studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in Organic Chemistry. She completed her PhD at the same University, and then undertook post-doctoral research in Karlsruhe and Heidelberg where she learned a certain amount of Biochemistry and German, and sang a lot of early church music. She worked and sang in Oxford for just over two years, before securing a permanent position at the Manchester Pharmacy School. Jill's husband is a hospital pharmacist and her two daughters are both university students (in Chemistry and Biochemistry). All three have a considerable impact on her teaching practice. Jill teaches Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biochemistry to Pharmacy and Chemistry students in Manchester. She has also taught at the University of Ghana. She is especially interested in global health and teaches courses that integrate science, politics, philosophy and professional practice in approaches to the eradication of disease. Usually she manages to integrate some music as well. She has a strong interest in online learning and has introduced a number of innovative practices into the Pharmacy curriculum. She is especially interested in the delivery of personalised feedback to large classes, and, in collaboration with her colleague Steve Ellis, has developed Smallvoice, an app that can be used to deliver very detailed feedback on assessments, attendance and other factors to individual students. Jill spent much of 2012 and 2013 editing the first Pharmaceutical Chemistry textbook aimed specifically at Pharmacy students. The book, which has attracted excellent reviews, is part of the Integrated Foundations of Pharmacy series published by Oxford University Press. Jill enjoys teaching outside the University, and has given talks at Stockport University of the Third Age and Parrs Wood Sixth Form Centre. She is a Lady Grandmaster of the International Correspondence Chess Federation, and during 2000-2006, she coached Beaver Road Primary Schools chess club to success in the English Primary Schools Chess Championship. She still sings and plays the trombone with the Manchester Universities Choral and Orchestral Society.