Wolfson Tutor wins Student-Led Teaching Award for Inclusive Practice

Wolfson Fellow and Tutor, Dr Mark Wills, has won the Inclusive Practice Award at the 2023 Cambridge SU Student-Led Teaching Awards.

Wolfson College Tutor, Dr Mark Wills

The Student-Led Teaching Awards (SLTAs) exist to reward outstanding teaching and student support across Cambridge. This year they received over 400 nominations, “a testament to all the amazing work done by our staff,” say the SLTA Team, “and the gratitude felt by students”. 

The shortlist and winners were decided by panels of students, who volunteered for the “heart-warming task” of reading through the many nominations and selecting the standout individuals.

Dr Mark Wills said: “It was a very nice surprise to be nominated, and a complete shock to win. The award ceremony was a fantastic event, so well done to the Cambridge Students Union for making such a brilliant celebration. And it was particularly rewarding to attend with students who had nominated me too!”    

The Inclusive Practice Award celebrates teaching or support that is particularly inclusive of all students, in terms of disability, race, gender, or class, for example. This refers especially to teaching practice which is created to be inclusive of all, rather than special efforts made with adjustments for individual students.

The SLTA Team said: “We were so pleased to see staff creating content which was universal by design, whether that was incorporating students’ lived experiences into discussions, resources, material or advocating their department for continued lecture recordings.

“The shortlisted nominees certainly went above and beyond to make their teaching environments inclusive and fun, and the panels thought it was great to see a focus on professional development and support coming through in the nominations.”

Winners and highly commended in each of the nine categories were announced at a ceremony held at St Barnabas Church, Cambridge. You can find a complete list of winners and nominees on the Cambridge Students Union website.

Dr Susan Larsen, Wolfson College Senior Tutor, said: “I'm delighted, but not surprised, to see Mark honoured for his inclusive work with postgrads. As a Wolfson College Tutor for the past four-plus years, Mark has been a consistent, compassionate source of support for our students. 

“He brings a wealth of teaching and research experience to the role, but also – most importantly – a sympathetic ear and a kind heart. On behalf of the entire tutorial team, I congratulate him on this richly deserved award.”

Research: from SARS to Long COVID

Mark is a Director of Research based at the Department of Medicine and Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID).

He has an active research group of PhD students and postdocs focused on understanding the immune response to persistent viruses. His group has also worked on T cells responses to SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination. Most recently, he has been working on immune dysregulation in Long COVID. 

Mark's laboratory has a long-standing interest in the generation and maintenance of Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) specific CD4/CD8 T-cell and natural killer cells, and the role these effector cells have in the control of HCMV during long-term latent viral carriage and reactivation. He is ultimately interested in approaches to eliminating latent HCMV carriage in important clinical settings.

His group is also interested in the ageing immune system and the consequences this might have on the control of persistent/latent virus infections.

Discover more

You can find out more about Mark on his Wolfson College profile page, as well as on the CITIID website and the Department of Medicine website.

Find out more about the Cambridge SU on their website here

News