Science communication   

Bio:Log - website for biology outreach and information for schools.

As Schools Liaison Officer for the School of Biology I co-ordinate the provision of:

• Seaside Science
• St Andrews' Sutton Trust Summer School Biology Programme§
• Space School Biology Programme§
• Teacher Together Biology Programme§
• National Science and Engineering Week
• Support for Fife Science Festival 2009
• School visits

§ Please consult Admissions for more information on these initiatives.

Drs Bruce Sinclair and Iain Matthews co-ordinate RSE Masterclasses for S1 & S2 pupils.

Teaching and advising

• Sub-honours Adviser of Studies
• Lecturer on: Cell Biology and Genetics BL1001; Cell Structure and Function BL2101; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology BL2104; Comparative Physiology BL2106; Communication and Teaching in Science ID4001; Skills for Biologists; and Postgraduate Training Programme.

Administrative roles related to teaching

• Module organiser of:  Cell Biology and Genetics BL1001; Skills for Biologists BL2200. Biology Representative for Communication and Teaching in Science ID4001
• Departmental timetabler
• Careers Link between the School of Biology and the Careers Centre

Member of University committees and working parties : Widening Participation Working Party; and Careers and Employability Sub-Committee. Member of the core development team for the St Andrews Centre for Higher Education Research (CHER).

External committees and networks: Gengage Education Sub Committee ; PDP UK Network; Escalate - HEA Education Subject Centre; Imaginative Curriculum Network; and British Science Association (Secretary of the St Andrews Branch)

Active research interests

In terms of educational research, I am interested in life transition phases and their relationship to learning; understanding and supporting learning as a lifelong adventure. I work on primary-to-secondary school transition; secondary-to-higher education; integration of higher education with development of transferable skills/employability; the role of the affective dimension in learning; and widening access to higher education. In a broader social science sphere, I have interests in public health and in the changing mechanisms of scientists’ communication with/in society and one another.

Awards and grants

Recipient of a Royal Society of Edinburgh Inspiration Award for work with young people.

• "Science: News and Views" £31,685 from AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust, Science Transition Innovative Category. 
• "Seaside Science" £1,653 Scottish Government Science Engagement Grant
• "Birth of a Naturalist? Biochemistry and the linen tradition for primary schools" £420 from the Biochemistry Society. 
• "Folk Fae Fife" £22,129 Fife Council Flagship Funding. Paul Gardner (School of Psychology) with partners in the University, Dundee Science Centre and Adam Smith College.
• Various small awards from the British Science Association

Conference presentations and publications 

"A curriculum mediated approach for development of skills, which are truly transferable" SRHE Newer Researchers Conference December 2008

"What do students in higher education do and what do they value?" SRHE Conference December 2008. 

"Student indignation: an emotional trigger for optimal learning" Scottish HE Biology Teachers' Meeting, Glasgow, August 2007.

Lost in transition - the Island of Susak (1951 - 2001). Coll. Anthropol. 2004 Jun; 28(1): 403-21. Rudan et al.

"3000 years of solitude: historic determinants of genetic structure of human isolate populations" Genetics of Complex Diseases and Isolated Populations Conference, Sardinia, May 2003. 

Inbreeding and learning disability in Croatian island isolates. Coll. Anthropol. 2002 Dec; 26(2): 421-8. Rudan et al.

Footnote. I am a biochemist, who became a genetic epidemiologist and public health researcher. I have always been a teacher, as my siblings will attest.