Professor Andrew Parsons

Andrew Parsons is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York. Throughout his career, he has acted as an ambassador both for his subject and for excellence in chemical education at all levels. He is a regular contributor to textbooks and articles in the field, benefiting teaching colleagues and students alike. He has undertaken substantial outreach work, with striking results in terms of recruiting young people to pursue the subject of Chemistry at York. Andrew has also introduced 'chemical communication' projects into the BSc programme, whereby students can gain academic credit for working in local schools. The projects have proven to be an ideal stepping-stone for students considering a career in teaching Chemistry, as well as providing role models for the school pupils. Andrew's approach to teaching combines inspiration and innovation with solid and secure student learning. Andrew's use of the lecture format is particularly novel, for example deploying poetry, pop music, printed t-shirts and pre-lecture slideshows to help students remember fundamental principles. This has attracted students from other departments to attend his lectures! Impact of work Working with AstraZeneca, he has pioneered the introduction of pilot-scale experiments into the undergraduate programme. Students are introduced to the excitement and challenges of process development chemistry by working as a team to prepare a blockbuster medicine under different conditions. A keen advocate of technology enhanced learning; in January 2017 he delivered a first ever University of York MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), called Exploring Everyday Chemistry. Following a re-run in July 2017 the course attracted over 9000 learners from over 100 countries. It was deemed to be 'excellent' following Quality Assurance, and received outstanding learner feedback including: "What has made this MOOC especially enjoyable for me is Andy's passionate teaching style. Being taught by someone with such passion in what they do makes the learning process an awful lot easier! And fun!" Andrew's outstanding achievements as an inspirational and innovative teacher of Chemistry have been recognised by a Vice-Chancellors Teaching Award, a Royal Society of Chemistry Higher Education Teaching Award and he is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Plans for the future Andrew continues to innovate in his teaching of chemistry and, over the next few years, he is leading a team in an ambitious e-learning project aimed at fourth-year Masters students. He also continues to develop and deliver his MOOC, which has now attracted well over 10,000 learners.