University of Nottingham Malaysia recently announced winners of The Vice-Chancellor’s Medal 2020 Awards Ceremony. The winners are four University of Nottingham staff, including one team, and 19 students received the award.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Medal 2020 is awarded to students and staff for their excellent achievement. Any student or staff across the three campuses in the UK, China or Malaysia can be nominated as long as they meet the required criteria.
The winners should have achieved exceptional achievement in any arena; contributed to the advancing of equality, diversity and inclusion in University life; have carried out notable endeavours that have made a difference to the University; have made a substantive contribution that has enhanced the reputation of the University of Nottingham; were involved in an activity that positively impacted the students, staff or local community; or an individual achievement or sustained achievement over a period of time.
The university encourages, recognises and values the exceptional achievement, hard work, commitment and achievements of all staff and students. One of the recipients is Amir Najib Rozlan, who initiated the UNM futsal development programme that led to UNM winning the Institut Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) Futsal Premier League.
The four staff who won the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal 2020 are Dr Benjamin Barton, Dr Aini Hamid, Amir Najib Rozlan and Dr Ir Teo Fang Yenn. This year, the staff from the School of Pharmacy under the team name Microscope Outreach, were also winners of the medal.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shearer West congratulated each of this year’s winners:
“Across a particularly challenging year, it is extremely heartening to see so many colleagues’ and students’ exceptional contributions to our own community and those around us.
“This year’s winners represent every aspect of the quality, talent and commitment to be found at Nottingham – from research breakthroughs, to support for our students, to our response to the impact of the coronavirus.
“I am very proud of the achievements of all of our winners, who have now joined a prestigious cohort of students and staff whose achievements and service have been outstanding.”
The full list of recipients is as below:
Dr Benjamin Barton
Dr Barton taught seven different modules, one of which is the popular Year 3 course on Chinese foreign policy that he developed. He was awarded a 'Certificate for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award' for his teaching performance for the academic year 2018-2019.
Two of his supervisees - a Year 3 UG student and a PGT student, won the Tomlinson Prize for 'Best Dissertation in Asia' from UoN's Asia Research Institute (UoNARI). Subsequently, the PGT student nominated Dr. Barton for the Lord Dearing award.
During the 2019 Spring Semester, Dr Barton wrote a policy brief on the UK's Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) strategy after Brexit, which was published by UoNARI & the University's Institute for Policy and Public Engagement that led a high profile public event centered on the policy brief, by the Asia House London.
The event's keynote address was given by Sir Douglas Flint, UK's Envoy to the BRI and attended by Minister Ma Hui from the Chinese Embassy and 250 reps from industry, government, diplomatic community and more than 40 embassies in London.
The BRI won him an award of £300 in research funding, which he used to present his research on the BRI to a regional conference held in Singapore by the International Studies Association.
Recently was named co-winner of the UNM's Research Impact Competition. This has earned him another RM500 for research.
Dr Aini Hamid
Dr Aini organised many activities dedicated to increasing community awareness on cancer and fostering patient medical and social support at UNM on a national level. She launched UNM's Cancer-Checkmate Campaign to raise awareness and provide free medical check-ups for the low-income communities around Semenyih.
She was also the committee member of 'War on Cancer Malaysia' that was launched by the Deputy Prime Minister in 2019. She has been a guest speaker and forum panellist for many national events. On World Cancer Day on 15 March 2020, she was a guest speaker and member of roundtable discussion with leading policy agencies (Galen Center and Third World Network) and policy makers surrounding medical financial toxicity.
Amir Najib Rozlan
Amir initiated the UNM futsal development programme that resulted in UNM winning the Institut Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) Futsal Premier League in 2019. In 2020, the UNM team was successfully promoted to the IPTA Futsal Super League.
Dr Ir Teo Fang Yenn
Dr Ir Teo is a qualified Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate (PEPC) that is registered with the Board of Engineers, Malaysia, an International Professional Engineer Register (Int.PE), an ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer (ACPE), a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (FIEM), a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET, UK), and an Associate Fellow of Higher Education Academy (AFHEA, UK).
He is an active Fellow of Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and a committee member for the Environmental Engineering Technical Division and Sub-Committee of Membership Drive and Promotions.
He was selected by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) as a Finalist of the Academic and Industry Achievement Award in 2018 and 2019. He has continued to contribute as Panel of Evaluators for the Engineering Accreditation Council of Malaysia (EAC) and Engineering Technology Accreditation Council of Malaysia (ETAC). He was invited to be a keynote speaker for various national and international conferences. With his active involvement as Fellow in IEM, he was appointed as the Organising Committee Member for the IEM Green Symposium. He was also appointed as the Organising Chair for the IEM Talks and Professional Interviewer Panel.
Dr Ir Teo was invited as an industry speaker by several universities. He also initiated the first social responsibility programme for the Institution of Civil Engineering Student Chapter (ICESC), UNM to organise the Water Project 1.0 - Love our Forest and River Programme. He is actively engaged with NGOs such as the Global Environment Centre (GEC) in cleaning up and loving our rivers campaign. He was the trainer for the Young Water Education and Awareness Programme for the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP) Malaysia.
Team award
The Microscope Outreach Team received the Cascade Award in May 2017 for three years to run a project entitled ‘Promoting science using microscopes’ in collaboration with the Royal Microscopical Society (UK). It was awarded to Siti Nor Asma Binti Musa, Chong Zhi Xiong and Vanitha Singaram
The aim is to promote interest in science in primary school children in Malaysia. The project has benefitted more than 30 schools, 4000 students and 100 teachers. The project involved 70 UNM undergraduate and postgraduate students in activities ranging from conducting workshops for school students to running roadshows at a national science exhibition.
The student bodies include BioMed Society, Rotaract Club and Engineers without borders UNM. Academic staff from all three faculties have participated in the project to date.They are from the School of Education, Department of Chemical Engineering, NUBS and Department of Biomedical Sciences. Vanitha helped with the administrative and liaising with the schools, transportation and catering for the visiting school children; Siti Asma supported the technical preparation of the samples, arrangement of the set ups and helping to run these experiments while Zhi Xiang wrote and improved the materials that are used in these activities and he leads and recruits student volunteers.
Full list of recipients in the University of Nottingham Tri Campus announcement.
(Article and thumbnail caption: University of Nottingham Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shearer West)
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For media enquiries please contact: Josephine Dionisappu, PR and Communications Manager University of Nottingham Malaysia at josephine.dionisappu@nottingham.edu.my
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world's top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students - Nottingham was named both Sports and International University of the Year in the 2019 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally.
Posted on 30th September 2020