Prior to her role at the University of Hull Katharine was a Teaching Associate and Teaching By-Fellow at the University of Cambridge. In 2016 she was awarded the Royal Society of Biology HE Bioscience Teacher of the Year award, and in 2017 received the Society of Experimental Biology President’s Medal for her work on raising the profile of academic education-focused careers.
Katharine’s passion for developing an education-focused career started during her PhD in plant biology, and she only became more determined to do so having been advised, “there’s no such thing as a teaching career in higher education”.
Katharine is a strong advocate for academics wanting to develop their teaching, and has provided support, mentorship and guidance for early-career academics wanting to follow an educational pathway. She has also produced teaching resources that have international reach through the American Society for Plant Biology and her own teaching YouTube channel. She has adopted a strong pedagogical research profile, published several educational manuscripts, given invited seminars across the country and invited talks at national and international conferences on her approaches to teaching.
Katharine adopts a student-centred approach to education, and has developed educational projects in partnership with students. She is particularly interested in supporting students to develop their practical laboratory skills, using both online and lab-based strategies to increase student confidence in the lab and to adopt an inquiry-driven approach to experimental science. In recognition of this student-centred approach, Katharine has received student-led teaching awards by the Student Unions of both Hull and Cambridge universities.