Academy Prize for Engineering Lecturer

Dr Malcolm Joyce

A Lancaster University lecturer was among the first six engineering lecturers to be awarded prizes for excellence in teaching by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Dr Malcolm Joyce, 37, of the Department of Engineering, Lancaster University, is to be awarded a prize of £10,000.

Head of the Department of Engineering, Professor Roger Kemp, described Dr Joyce as ‘highly successful in enthusing students, sometimes by unconventional teaching techniques’.

On one occasion, when needing to explain a particular aspect of electromagnetic induction, Dr Joyce took his Fender guitar in to a lecture to demonstrate the interaction between the varying inductance of the pick-up and the electrical signal.

Lancaster University’s Department of Engineering has 20 full time teaching staff which means lecturers need to be flexible and committed.

Dr Joyce’s strategic, logical and imaginative approach to teaching has enabled the University to present a much more targeted set of courses to its students and been instrumental in positioning Lancaster University in its unique position within UK engineering academia.

The teaching prizes were inaugurated by the Academy to acknowledge and reward lecturers who have chosen to remain in the higher education sector during the early years of their career.

Prizes are awarded on a competitive basis to lecturers in electronics or electrical engineering at higher education institutions in the UK and ideal candidates must have distinguished themselves from their peer group by showing a strong and continuing commitment to teaching, professional activities, promoting engineering as a rewarding and creative career, establishing industrial-academic links and other activities which ultimately ensure the output of top quality graduate engineers.