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Textiles technical team receiving award

8 Jun 2017

Technicians recognised with Papin Prizes

Callum Crane receiving award

Loughborough University has been awarded two Papin Prizes, which recognise the skills, talent and experience of technicians in higher education, across the UK and Ireland.

The prizes were awarded at the national Higher Education Technicians Summit (HETS 2017) last week at the University of Warwick.

Nominees were selected from a broad range of universities, with awards issued in a number of categories including outreach, research, infrastructure and teaching.

Callum Crane, Technician in the Department of Chemistry won the Outreach category for his work in organising Loughborough’s ‘3M – Science Detectives’ event, which saw over 100 children participating in CSI-style activities using scientific knowledge and skills to solve a mock crime.

He commented: “I am honoured to have won the prize but couldn’t have done it without the support of the technical team in the School of Science.

“It is fantastic to see the profile of Loughborough technicians, and the important contributions they make, becoming more visible.”

The University’s Textiles Technical Team (Zara Shepherd, Bee King, Anne Acosta, Sally Yates, Ria Mathieson and Matthew Broughton) won the Technical Team category.

Rachael Jermyn, Senior Technical Officer at the School of Arts, English and Drama said: “Technicians play a vital role across the School, providing the technical expertise essential to the activities of teaching, research and enterprise.

“The textiles technical team work across the four specialist areas of weave, traditional printing and dyeing, stitch and constructed textiles, and digital textile technologies.

“The quality of the team’s work is recognised as outstanding by the students and their contribution has also received positive feedback from industry leaders.”

HETS 2017 was hosted by the Midlands Innovation Universities (Aston, Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick) in partnership with the Science Council and is dedicated to promoting a professional identity for technical staff in UK and Ireland higher education.

The event also saw the launch of the Loughborough-backed Technician Commitment, a new sector-wide initiative supporting research technicians.