Professor Jeremy Levesley

National Teaching Fellow 2014 Professor Jeremy Levesley has been a member of the Mathematics Department at the University of Leicester for over 20 years, and was the head of department from 2003-13. He is active nationally through the Committee of the Heads of Departments of Mathematical Sciences (HoDoMS), where he was chair from 2009-11. In these positions he has championed the central role of learning and teaching in the higher education (HE) sector. Jeremy is a currently one of Leicesters leaders in the development of e-learning technology, and the materials his team has developed are in use in a number of different departments. He led a national HESTEM project to bring together colleagues in the HE mathematics community to co-ordinate the development and dissemination of e-assessment technologies. This has resulted in the formation of a national e-assessment group under the leadership of Bill Foster from Newcastle University. He has developed an embedded programme of employability skills development for undergraduate mathematics students, and leads career development in the College of Science and Engineering. Before gaining his PhD, Jeremy received a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in Mathematics and Physical Education from Manchester Polytechnic. His teaching style stems from a desire for students to construct meaning for themselves through play with ideas, in an environment of mutual respect and feedback. He believes that it is through trying to verbalise our ideas that we let the light shine on them, and we see them more clearly. The stereotypical mathematician is solitary and silent, and he sees it as his mission to bring society and sound to this misconception. His work on employability skills development has been focused around team working, the solution of real world problems, and the communication of those solutions to the originator of the problem. Jeremy is recognised nationally as a leader in HE learning and teaching. He has been the external assessor of a number of degrees, and was a member of the London Mathematical Society Education Committee.