DrLaura Patel

I am a Principal Teaching Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, and have a particular interest in laboratory learning and inquiry experiments. I currently hold roles overseeing the department’s Practical Chemistry curriculum and in the Centre for Chemistry Education as Enhancing Laboratory Teaching theme co-lead.

As a teaching fellow, I work on innovating and enhancing learning and teaching activities and broader education provision. In 2018, I led the department’s undergraduate Curriculum Review, redefining degree learning objectives, consulting with staff, students, industry partners and other stakeholders, and then designing new modules to better reflect modern chemistry, incorporate more active learning and authentic assessment, and explicitly support the transition to university. I guided implementation of the new curriculum between 2019 and 2023, and subsequently established, and currently chair, a departmental Learning and Teaching Strategy Group as a forum for active discussions and continued development of the curriculum and learning and teaching activities.

As Practical Chemistry lead, I co-developed the ChemTrack project to improve laboratory learning, which was awarded a £100k Excellence Fund for Teaching and Learning Innovation grant in 2017. The grant funded summer student projects developing investigative lab experiments, and development of a digital Research Skills Passport system for reflecting on, recording and tracking lab learning. In 2016 I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in University Learning and Teaching: “Implications of Selected Educational Theories for Undergraduate Chemistry Teaching Laboratory Practice”.

I have served on departmental teaching peer review panels, and as Exams Officer (academic) 2012-2017 and Year Tutor (pastoral) 2019-2024. During the 2018 curriculum review, I sat on an cross-college review panel supporting other departments, and I am currently External Examiner for the University of Exeter’s BSc and MSci Natural Sciences programmes.

My education interests also include the role of reflection in learning, and sustainability (in) teaching. As a chemist, I maintain an interest in the synthesis, characterisation and chemistry of main group molecular systems. I completed my PhD in Inorganic Synthesis: “Synthesis and Structure of Trichalcogenophosphonates” in 2011, and undergraduate MSci Chemistry in 2006. I grew up in South-East London.