PhD Supervisor of the Year Award for Chemistry academic

YUSU Excellence Awards are given on the basis of student nominations across ten categories, with up to four finalists in each category. This year was a bumper year for nominations, with 572 received in total – a 70% increase on the usual amount of nominations received. In Chemistry, Nick Heywood and Aidan Carr were nominated for GTA of the Year, Dr Seishi Shimizu was nominated as Most Inspiring and Dr Julia Sarju Mandle and Dr Jason Lynam were both nominated as Supervisor of the Year.

However, it was Dr Avestro’s nominations which stood out to the student judging panel. The nominations described her ‘forward-thinking guidance’, her help to ‘build self-confidence and professional networks’ and spoke of being given ‘the opportunity to develop beyond the work of my PhD’. One nominating student wrote, ‘As an international student, finding funding to offset the costs of pursuing a PhD in the UK is tough – Alyssa made it easier by supporting scholarship applications as well as giving me feedback to help strengthen my personal statements. She went beyond … As a first-generation PhD student, the advice has helped me to familiarise myself with academia and how to navigate through it to have a successful career. Her determination to not allow barriers such as country of origin affect my ability to do research has been inspiring and I’m excited to do similar things when I can mentor students.’

Dr Alyssa-Jennifer Avestro joined the Department of Chemistry in January 2019 as a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow, leading research in molecular materials for energy and is a key member of the Molecular Materials Research Group. She leads a team of 8 York-based researchers (3 PhD students, 2 postdoctoral research fellows, 3 undergraduates) as well as 2 final-year PhD students at Durham University, whose activities range between organic & supramolecular chemistries, advanced spectroscopies, electrochemistry and energy device fabrication to develop a holistic interdisciplinary approach towards the rational design of ‘multidimensionally conjugated’ electroactive materials.

Thanking Dr Avestro for the work she has done for students this year, Laura Kennedy of YUSU Student Voice said, ‘It has been a challenging year unlike no other, but the 70% increase in Excellence Award nominations is a credit to the effort and dedication you and your colleagues have put in for the students of York.’

Dr Avestro said: "Thank you to everyone who nominated me, I am delighted. I view the award as being about the whole team, since they are certainly the ones who enable me to do my best!"