School community comes together to celebrate a year of achievement at the BMEc Awards 2015
BMEc Awards 2015 winners
Anticipation builds at the BMEc Awards 2015
The 2015 BMEc Awards - held for the first time off-campus at the Amex on Thursday 16 April - was our biggest and best yet, attracting nearly 300 staff and students for a fantastic evening celebrating another year of amazing achievement across the School.
Now in its third year, the annual event invites students at all levels - as well as academics and Professional Services staff - to recognise and celebrate a year of hard work through the presentation of awards in categories from 'Outstanding Contribution to Research Environment' to 'Student of the Year'.
Hosted once more by the ever-glamorous Mark Fisher (BMEc Director of Student Experience) and Julie Litchfield (BMEc Director of Teaching and Learning) - this year making a glitzy entrance posing as their celebrity alter-egos David and Victoria Beckham - the evening drew a huge crowd from across the School's diverse international community.
Our deserving winners - a full list of whom follows below - collected their awards to huge cheers and rapturous applause. The audience were also treated to a stunning musical interlude from BSc Finance and Business student Zoey Zeng, singing breathtaking renditions of '别找我麻烦 (Don’t Come and Bother Me) ' by Tanya Chua and Sara Bareilles' 'Gravity' in Mandarin and English, respectively.
Head of School Prof Steve McGuire, who introduced the awards ceremony and presented the award for 'Hall of Fame', said:
"I wanted to offer congratulations to all winners and nominees at last night's BMEc Awards. It was a terrific evening. May I also offer a big thank you to the staff members who worked so hard to make the evening run smoothly."
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Clare Mackie, attending the awards for the first time this year on invitation from the School, was "delighted to have the opportunity to attend the third annual BMEc Awards":
"The event really reflected the strong community spirit that has developed amongst the School's students and staff since its inception, and it was fantastic to see such a wide range of achievements celebrated by so many.
"As the University's Pro-Vice- Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, the quality of our students' experience is of the highest priority, and the excellent level of positive student engagement at the BMEc Awards was a great illustration of this."
- View the full list of this year's award winners, with comments from those who nominated them
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Outstanding Contribution to Student Experience (staff)
Presented by René Moolenaar
Winner: Norifumi Kawai
Comment: "Norifumi is friendly and supportive. His office is always open and he is able to offer guidance to students both on their studies and in preparing for a career. He has complete enthusiasm and passion for student’s success and is a great lecturer and tutor."
Outstanding Contribution to Student Experience (student)
Presented by Dimitra Petropoulou
Winner: Moe Houmoud
Comment: "Mohamed’s role as both an attentive Student Representative and active President of the Economics Society whilst studying for his final year at Sussex demonstrates just some of the ways in which he is always striving to make a positive impact."
Student of the Year (UG 1st yr)
Presented by Malcolm Stewart
Winner: Beatriz Souza Fontes
Comment: "You wouldn’t have ever guessed that Beatriz is a first year student. She has put so much effort and hard work into ENACTUS this year and has truly made a difference."
Outstanding Professional Services Support
Presented by Frank Brouwer
Winner: Gemma Asbury (award collected by Shinong Li)
Comment: "Gemma makes the office a better place to work and is a superb team leader. No matter how busy she is, she always makes time to help others and goes the extra mile to make sure that both staff and students get what they need."
Student of the Year (UG 2nd yr)
Presented by Matthew Walsh
Winner: Lok Lam Ho (award collected by Shinong Li)
Comment: "Lok has received outstanding results across her degree for this year. She has a passion for studying and is always hard-working."
Outstanding Contribution to Research Environment
Presented by ZhenKun Wang
Winner: Josh Siepel
Comment: "Joshua is great at engaging students with their research and an extremely supportive supervisor."
Student of the Year (UG Finalist)
Presented by Dimitra Petropoulou
Winner: Hadelyn du Chastel de la Howarderie
Comment: "Hadelyn is a brilliant student who has had an outstanding academic record for this year. He has also been an influential figure within his current cohort as well as in both the Economics Society and Sussex Investment Society."
Outstanding Teaching Contribution
Presented by Sue Newell
Winner: Lisa Blatch
Comment: "Lisa’s teaching style has always been engaging. She is so enthusiastic and a great project supervisor. However, it is the extra effort which she has gone to help others outside of the class which really counts."
Student of the Year (PGT)
Presented by Rick Mukhopadhyay
Winner: Le Chen
Comment: "As a Student Representative for BMEc, Le has contributed so much to enhance our experience throughout the academic year. He is studious and constantly works hard to achieve good grades."
Student of the Year (PGR)
Josh Siepel
Winner: Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos
Comment: "Hector is the most patient, diligent and supportive research student, teacher and mentor. He is very involved with the PhD community and we have all benefited greatly from him."
Hall of Fame
Presented by Steven McGuire
Winner: Dawn Howard
"Dawn consistently goes above and beyond in her role as a Teaching Fellow. She’s helped out with several different presentations and events and has also volunteered to present sessions on sharing best practice for teaching."
Good Egg (student)
Presented by Lisa Blatch
Winner: Mel Evans
Comment: "Over this year, Melissa has helped to form the BMEc Placement Society and has arranged all of the final year placement talks for 2nd year students. She constantly makes a habit of bringing students together and has successfully helped to form a stronger BMEc community."
Good Egg (staff)
Presented by Sarah Hardman
Winner: Hans Van Der Heijden
Comment: "Hans has contributed a huge amount of time in covering the recent Head of School vacancy. He provided stability, but did not limit the opportunity for development during this period. Hans is also a relative newcomer to the University, which is further testament to his excellent skills in relationship building and his true commitment to making a positive difference for the School."