The award committee is delighted to announce that the inaugural Silvia Breu Prize, recognising exceptional teaching in Computer Science at Queens', has been awarded to Michael Dodson. The Prize is awarded in memory of the late Dr Silvia Breu (1976-2018), pictured right, who was a Queens' Teaching Associate. Silvia was a popular and highly effective supervisor who received significant praise from the students she taught. In addition to teaching excellence, Silvia was also a supportive and caring supervisor who made a significant, positive impact on the lives of the students she taught.
This year's award committee comprised Professor Alastair Beresford, Dr Andrew Rice, Professor Neil Lawrence and Dr Andrew Marsham. The award committee provided this testimonial for Michael's teaching:
Michael has made a significant contribution to teaching at Queens' this year, providing small-group teaching in Computer Design, Computer Networking and Complexity Theory to our second year students. Student feedback highlights the quality of his written feedback which helps students to understand how to improve. Students also appreciated receiving their marked work back before the supervision which allowed them to prepare more carefully for each session. In order to ensure he was well prepared, Michael attended the lectures for courses that he had not supervised before, and students comment on the significant amount of planning and structure which go into his supervisions in order to tailor them to the needs of a particular group. One student writes: "I really can't say enough good things about Michael."
We are delighted to award the 2020 Silvia Breu Prize to Michael and also convey our thanks on behalf of the College for his contribution to student learning at Queens’ this year.