Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Total years of experience :30 years, 8 Months
At present, I work at Tianjin University within the Health Science Platform. My duties as a Senior Lecturer include online course launch, writing new curricula, improving the communication skills of our students via pharmacy-based courses in English in addition to delivering lectures in General Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis. I have presented a lecture to the general public in the area of online teaching and launched the first MOOC in our faculty, which consists of eight hundred minutes of videos and interactive materials. This course is to be trialled this semester and then distributed throughout China. Due to the expansion of the department, I am at present involved on our curriculum committee, where we plan the integration of new courses into our ambitious majors, which are all taught in English by our talented faculty.
I worked at Wellington College International Tianjin (WCIT) where my students were on course to take Cambridge University International Examinations in Chemistry at Advanced Level and IGCSE (Chemistry, Combined Science). I also taught Key Stage 3 Science to our younger students, employing many customised teaching materials. I implemented new practical-based courses for our less advanced students, who found such courses extremely rewarding. I also delivered the International Baccalaureate and participated in their numerous events. Throughout, I maintained several contacts within the Royal Society of Chemistry and Beijing University of Chemical Technology, where I had taken students on regular visits over the years and attended lectures and participated in their competitions etc. With a view to maintaining my professional development, I attended training courses in the IB, A Level and IGCSE Chemistry whilst at WCIT as well as the Government of South Australia’s TESMC and still look forward to the next opportunity to do so.
My role primarily was to teach chemistry to A-Level (CIE and Edexcel) and IGCSE. I also taught Year 9 science for two years. In addition, I organized several whole school events in the years I was at Rego including our latest Expo Chem, a minerals competition, and the yearly science competition, which has entries from all levels of the school. Secondary students have been regularly taken to public lectures and visited industry on several occasions. Primary school children often came to the laboratory for fun experiments too. In 2014 over 150 single experiments were performed in chemistry, which must be a record at our school. Lots of new experiments and an increased budget assisted in this happening. I also assisted in after-school activities within the school. I could still play football, tennis, table tennis, chess et cetera at age 57. I also ran the science and chess clubs as well as examination revision sessions. Further details of my recent teaching activities can be found on my websites: https://regoscience.webnode.page and https://regochem.webnode.page. The first site is dedicated to Years 9 -11 and the second one is an exclusively A-Level site. I participated in all departmental and school meetings, our Christmas, and other weekend events. In addition, I presented assemblies and Insets and wrote frequently in the school's newsletter. Please refer to my school magazine contributions at: https://regoscience.webnode.com/rego-times-articles- where many articles can be downloaded. Due to our students being Korean, I travelled to South Korea twice to understand their cultural backgrounds. This was important in creating a better, friendlier, learning environment.
I taught the University of Cambridge International Examinations A-Level in Chemistry exclusively in northern Beijing. Most students would go on to universities in either the USA or the UK to continue their studies. Classes might include up to fifty students and thus thorough preparation of all didactic materials was essential.
Laboratory sessions had to be very strictly organized to attain superior results.
In my first post in Beijing, I was involved in the teaching of the University of Cambridge International Examinations A-Level in Chemistry exclusively (A2, AS, and Pre-A-Level). Many students at this high school were the cream of Chinese society and performed extremely well in university entrance exams. After completing secondary school education, students would then go on to study at the UK's best universities. I also took part in the delivery of intensive courses in A-Level Chemistry of one-month duration (eight hours daily).
Whilst between contracts abroad, I was given a taste of what teaching science in UK secondary schools was like. I substituted local teachers in all classes across the curriculum, with a particular emphasis in the subjects I was trained to teach.
I left the Kingdom in 2004 after working for six years as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the Royal Commission for Jubail. My tasks included teaching Saudi students, who received their internationally recognized diplomas in Instrumental Laboratory Technology. I wrote, administered, and examined our students on completely new materials for our in-house courses in the following areas: Basic Chemistry, Electrochemistry, General Chemistry, Instrumental Analysis (I & II), Organic Chemistry (I & II), Laboratory Techniques, and Physical Chemistry. In addition, I prepared and participated in the delivery of numerous customized courses to local petroleum companies in Catalysis, Electrochemistry, Periodicity, and Thermodynamics. I was also nominated as a student advisor, and I coordinated the department’s safety committee for several years. Curriculum development was continuous, and I took an active role in liaising with industry, in our committee meetings, and via visits, with a view to updating our courses to reflect current trends in the local industry.
I stayed for almost four years at this tropical Brazilian university, engaged in a research project concerning new gold complexes with chemotherapeutic potential. The project formed part of an exchange program via the Federal University of Paraíba, the British Council and the University of Strathclyde. Links with the chemistry department at the University of Manchester and Johnson-Matthey plc were maintained and several publications evolved from the work. During my time at the university, I administered seminars in inorganic chemistry within the UFPb and other institutions, attended symposiums and conferences as well as supervised students in their research work at the post-graduate (M.Sc.) and undergraduate levels. I was also involved in the structuring of the incipient doctoral program in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. New projects relating to gold and platinum chemistries were submitted to the Brazilian National Research Agency (CNPq) for approval.
My first contract in the Kingdom was at the King Fahd Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, where I taught local Saudi students studying for the Diploma in Allied Health Sciences. Many of our graduates would then become hospital employees. I was mainly involved in the delivery of elective Chemistry and Biochemistry courses and took on the role of head of a department.
My duties included the separation of different polypeptides using high-performance liquid chromatography and attending laboratory sessions for undergraduates. I was also invited to be a member of the department's Ph.D. viva committee.
In this exciting post, I was asked to deliver a report on the department's procedures with a view to upgrading their analytical methods. The Environmental Protection Agency in the USA provided support. I also performed routine analyses of mercury levels in the city's wastewater samples.
My thesis concerned the synthesis and characterization of gold(III) chelates as anti-tumour agents. Several publications arose from this research and promising drug candidates were forwarded for clinical trials.
This advanced course focussed on many analytical techniques and their associated instrumentation. My dissertation project described the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) quantification of tobacco smoke products.
The Postgraduate Certificate in Education allows the holder to teach within U.K. schools and colleges. I am licensed to teach Chemistry (Maths and Physics subsidiaries).
This honours degree in Pure Chemistry was examined in the three branches of chemistry. My final year practical project title described the synthesis and X-ray analysis of potassium amide.