Professor Simon Belt

National Teaching Fellow 2010 Simon Belt is widely acknowledged as one of the leading lights in HE chemistry education in the UK and serves on several national committees responsible for overseeing chemistry teaching in UK HEIs. Simon has spent most of his academic career at the University of Plymouth, inspiring chemistry graduates of the future and mentoring colleagues in chemistry and other disciplines, through his highly interactive and carefully designed approaches to teaching. A graduate of the University of York, Simon is an enthusiastic practitioner of so-called Context/Problem-Based Learning (C/PBL) and has been awarded close to £500,000 to develop, publish and evaluate C/PBL resources. The impact of his teaching initiatives on students learning has been recognised through the Royal Society of Chemistry Higher Education Award and Irelands Chemical Synthesis Award for teaching. Simon's approaches have greatly influenced how chemistry is taught across many chemistry departments within and beyond the UK. Simon has also created novel approaches to teaching laboratory work that encourage students to develop a research ethos in their learning. Indeed, he believes much of his teaching philosophy stems from his parallel career as a research scientist. He has always been highly supportive to colleagues in their teaching and is in high demand to give invited talks and workshops to chemists and academics from other disciplines. Whenever Simon's name appears on the program, you know that you are going to learn something new. I have always been impressed by the number and range of questions from the audience. This is a sure sign of an innovative and thought- provoking speaker and workshop leader. Through his pioneering scientific research into climate change, Simon is particularly aware of the importance of communicating science effectively to the public. Sponsored by the British Science Association, he has worked with the BBC Horizon team, an experience that inspired him to create new teaching material to improve students' scientific communication skills.