The Education Community Council reports directly to the RSC Member Communities Board. The role of the community is to foster knowledge and understanding of, and engagement with, all aspects of the chemical sciences relating to learning, teaching, and communication through the guidance of its Council acting to:
- identify and address key issues in teaching and learning
- support those involved in education and in the development of good practice
- effect a synergy between education practice and research
- forge co-operation and exchange in teaching and educational research with groups worldwide
- represent a lobbying voice for the enhancement of the quality of learning and teaching in the chemical sciences
See the members of the Council who are responsible for ensuring that the Community fulfils its purpose.
Dr Niki Kaiser
President
Niki is a Chemistry teacher and Assistant Headteacher at Notre Dame High School in Norwich, and Director of the Norwich Research School. She was previously seconded to the Education Endowment Foundation as their Science Content Specialist.
Niki is particularly interested in finding ways of using educational research to inform teaching, and in 2019, she was awarded the RSC’s Schools education award for her ‘outstanding commitment to the incorporation and dissemination of research-informed teaching approaches’. She is a regular contributor to the RSC’s Education in Chemistry magazine and chaired their 11-19 curriculum and assessment, working group.
Niki studied for both her BSc and PhD (Chemistry) at the University of Leeds, before carrying out post-doctoral research in Marine Biogeochemistry at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, investigating ocean-atmospheric interactions, as part of the Atlantic Meridional Transect programme.
Jacquie Robson
Elected member
Jacquie is a Professor (Education) in Chemistry and Deputy Executive Dean (Academic Student Experience) in Science at Durham University. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA and a qualified secondary chemistry teacher and taught in schools for 9 years before becoming one of the RSC School Teacher Fellows in 2010-11.She was placed at Durham to complete projects relating to laboratory skills development, and she remains at Durham in an academic teaching and student-focused role.
Michael Hughes
Elected member
Mike is the Chemistry Teaching Technical Specialist at the University of Manchester (UoM). Alongside this, he is also the training manager and expert in chemical laboratory technology for WorldSkills UK.
Mike joined UoM as an apprentice in 2007 gaining his degree from the Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012, at the same time as finishing his apprenticeship and taking a role as a senior teaching technician.
Since finishing his apprenticeship Mike has been keen to support the next generation of technical specialists and is a key member of the team supporting technical apprentices at UoM.
In 2021, Mike returned to University to study for a masters in inclusive education, hoping to understand more about the barriers that exclude some young people from studying chemistry in both vocational and higher education.
Dr. Genevieve Adukpo
Elected member
Genevieve is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana. She holds a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Universät Bremen, Germany, an MPhil and BSc degree in Chemistry (Natural Product) and a Diploma in Science Education, all from the University of Cape Coast. Her areas of research include the isolation and characterization of bioactive natural products, chemical analysis of foods, and preparative organic synthesis.
Dr. Adukpo started her teaching career when she completed her first degree. She taught chemistry at the high school level and later at the university level. She coordinates and supervises chemistry courses at the Colleges of Education in Ghana. Dr. Adukpo was previously the acting Head of the Department of Chemistry and the Director of the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) at UCC. She has a keen interest in Gender-Science, Technology & ICT and has coordinated and facilitated gender-related STEM activities. She has also organized and promoted leadership and training workshops for women and girls in Sexual Harassment, Gender Awareness and Analysis, and Girls’ empowerment in Science Education.
Dr. Adukpo has been a Local Trainer in Ghana for PACN-Royal Society Chemistry – GC-MS Training since 2016. She is also the president of the Ghana Association of University Women (National Federation Association of Graduate Women International, GWI). She is the campus Coordinator for the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), UCC. She is a past President of the Ghana Science Association, Cape Coast Branch.
Dr. Adukpo belongs to the following professional bodies: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Pan African Chemistry Network (PACN), Graduate Women International (GWI), Western Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES), Organization for Women in Science for Developing Countries (OWSD), Ghana Chemical Society (GCS), Ghana Science Association (GSA), Ghana Association of University Women (GAUW) under Graduate Women International (GWI).
Dr Lindsey Munro
Elected member
Lindsey is Head of the Department of Natural Sciences in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Reader on the Education, Pedagogy and Citizenship pathway.
Lindsey has been involved in the design and delivery of BSc / MChem Chemistry and BSc / MChem Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, as well as MSc Advanced Materials. Through the Department’s Laboratory Scientist Degree Apprentice BSc Chemical Science and BSc Bioscience courses, she has gained insights into the knowledge, skills and behaviours industry needs and effective ways to embed these into the curriculum. She also has an international perspective on learning through Manchester Metropolitan University’s Joint Institute with Hubei University in China where students study BSc Chemistry and MSc Advanced Material courses.
Lindsey studied for both her undergraduate Natural Sciences degree and PhD in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Following this, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh and the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, working on a project with Nestle. She has an MA in Academic Practice and is the co-author of "Maths for Chemistry" – a textbook that has been designed to help scaffold students' understanding of how to apply maths to chemistry concepts. In her previous role as Faculty Lead for Employability, she worked with colleagues from across the University in careers, placements and Departmental Employability Leads to devise and implement initiatives to enhance students’ graduate outcomes. This ranged from embedding employability milestones into the curriculum, creating a peer mentoring scheme and developing a Science and Engineering Extracurricular Award.
Lindsey’s ambitions for the RSC are to enable people from all backgrounds to benefit from the opportunities they can gain from a chemistry education and to raise the profile of chemists in the wider community outside of the laboratory environment. Building even closer links between companies and schools/universities will enable the RSC Education Community to enhance awareness of chemistry’s role in solving global challenges.
Dr Joanna Haywood
Elected member
Jo is an Associate Teaching Professor at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge, and leads the Chemistry PGCE. She also supervises undergraduate Natural Science students at Homerton College and has 10 years of teaching experience in secondary school.
Dr Andrea Mallaburn
Elected member
Andrea is a Reader in Science Education at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Her role in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in the School of Education involves supporting teachers of the future by leading the primary and secondary undergraduate and postgraduate partnerships with schools for all LJMU student teachers. In addition, Andrea leads the secondary chemistry PGCE programme in the ITE team. Before joining LJMU, Andrea had dedicated 15 years to teaching chemistry in a range of secondary schools in London and Liverpool, including serving as the Head of the Department for Science in two schools and leading learning and teaching as part of her senior leadership role.
Andrea’s broader role at LJMU allows her to collaborate with colleagues from the Faculty of Science. She leads the Absolute Chemistry Research Group (ACRG), a cross-faculty research group bringing together experts from across the university. Find out more here.
The work of the ACRG has supported over 4,000 young people from the Liverpool City Region to participate in creative and engaging science learning experiences. Primary and secondary school-aged learners from underprivileged backgrounds have benefited from immersive practical science experiments at school and university. Andrea has a personal passion for driving forward social justice as this is close to her own heart, and she is very proud of how much the ACRG do for ‘pupils like her’ as part of the extensive range of programmes they offer.
The core purpose of the ACRG is to foster chemical curiosity, and chemical identity and raise aspirations with the learners they work with, either directly or indirectly through professional learning programmes. The ACRG believe that ‘inspiration leads to aspiration’ and thus it permeates throughout all they do.
Dr Alison Trew
Appointed Member
Alison works full-time for the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) as a Regional Mentor and impact and research Director (acting).
Alison started her career as a biochemist and worked on various cutting-edge medical research projects. After having her children and discovering a passion for sharing science with young children, she completed a Primary PGCE and has taught all ages from Reception to Year 6. She was awarded the PSTT’s Primary Science Teaching Award in 2014.
Alison has written several of PSTT’s online science resources for primary teachers (Floorbooks, Enquiry Skills, Enquiry Approaches, I Bet You Didn’t Know and Play Observe and Ask). She has written articles for teacher journals and is a co-author of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. She has provided workshops at the Association of Science Education (ASE), PSTT and STEM conferences, taught on Initial Teacher Education programmes, and worked with the Teaching Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) team at Bath Spa University. She is also an accredited trainer for Thinking Doing Talking Science and the Primary Science Capital Approach.
Emma Spacey
Appointed member
Emma Spacey was a Chemistry teacher and GCSE and A Level examiner in South Wales for ten years before joining Swansea University as Senior Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education (Chemistry).
Dr Katherine Haxton
Co-opted member
Katherine is a Senior Lecturer (Education and Scholarship) in Chemistry at Keele University and currently chair of the RSC Chemistry Education Research Group interest group.
As a member of the RSC since 1998, Katherine has previously served on the Education Division Council as an elected then appointed member (2013 – 2017), on the Editorial Board for Education in Chemistry (2016 – 2022), and as a member, secretary and then chair of the North Staffordshire local section for various periods since 2012. In 2016 Katherine won an RSC Inspirational Member award.
Katherine’s research interests are in chemistry education, particularly curriculum evolution to develop courses fit for the challenges of the 21st century. This includes embracing a systems thinking approach to embed Education for Sustainable Development, social justice and broader ‘think like a chemist’ skills. In 2020 Katherine was awarded the Staff Sustainability Champion Green Gown award for work on embedding sustainability into the curriculum and work within her school at Keele. Katherine is also a member of a group of academics nationally working to decolonize STEM.
Katy Alder
Co-opted member
Katy has been teaching chemistry in secondary schools for 21 years and is currently at James Gillespie’s High School in Edinburgh. Before moving into teaching via her PGCE at the University of Edinburgh (2001), she completed a PhD in polymer-supported catalytic chemistry at the University of Strathclyde and a postdoc position at the University of York.
She has been a member of the RSC since her PhD and has been passionate about its work ever since - the quality of the teaching resources and the CPD available is particularly high, as is the outreach that the RSC does. Katy teaches chemistry from ages 11-18, making full use of the RSC’s excellent resources, and pupils enjoy lots of practical chemistry alongside the theory. Katy has been on various exam marking teams for the SQA, has worked with Education Scotland on some online chemistry teaching resources, and is presently a study support teacher for Higher Chemistry at e-Sgoil, which is an online school offering study support to all pupils in Scotland as part of the National E-Learning Offer from Education Scotland. Katy is co-opted as a member of the RSC Scotland Education Community where she helps run their ‘Inspiring Young Chemists’ outreach fund for schools, which has produced some very successful projects.
Roy Lowry
Co-opted member
Roy is an Associate Professor (Teaching Fellow) in Physical Chemistry at the University of Plymouth. After completing a BSc (Chemistry) and a PhD in spectroelectrochemistry at Southampton, he joined British Gas as a Senior Research Scientist at the London Research Station. The work there involved studies on chemical processes used to purify gas streams, together with the development of analytical methods for quality assurance of the compounds used.
After three years, Roy moved to what is now the University of Plymouth. During the 100 terms he has been teaching there, he has been involved in numerous initiatives in teaching and been involved as an admissions tutor and programme lead for both the BSc Chemistry programme and the Science Foundation year, leading both of these during the pandemic. He teaches physical chemistry at all levels in the university from foundation to taught masters. A passionate communicator of the importance and fun of chemistry, he regularly gives a lecture demonstration on the chemistry of fireworks and combustion entitled “Pyromania!” and has performed at both the Royal Institution and the Science Museum. Roy believes in outreach in its widest sense and so regularly gives interviews to radio and TV and occasionally acts as a scientific consultant to media companies, the most recent being on the use of explosives for the series entitled “The Secret Life of Lighthouses” for C4. Roy is also a committee member of the RSC Higher Education Group.
Dr Keith Ryan
Co-opted member
Keith is a retired science teacher in Oxford but is still working two afternoons a week at a secondary school due to the current teacher shortage. He began teaching in 1995, and worked in two very different secondary schools in Oxford until 2022, teaching both chemistry and physics up to A-level. He also had a great involvement in the sixth form at both schools, with a particular focus on the transition to higher education.
Keith has had a long association with the RSC through the Secondary and Further Education committee and some of its predecessors. He was also involved for many years with the Department for Education in teacher recruitment, attending events both large and small across England.
Before teaching Keith worked at the University of Bristol, then at Shell Research Ltd, on topics in the broad field of colloids and polymers.
Dr Zoë Waller
Representative (non-voting)
Zoё is a Professor in Drug Discovery and Associate Director of Research at UCL School of Pharmacy. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the RSC, she is Chair of the Chemistry Accreditation and Validation Panel and Secretary of the RSC Nucleic Acids Group.
Zoё has an MChem in Chemistry with Pharmaceutical and Forensic Science from the University of Bradford, and a PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of Cambridge. Her early career focussed on teaching in secondary schools and working as a Senior Demonstrator in Medicinal Chemistry at UEA. Zoё held positions as Junior Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor at UEA School of Pharmacy between 2010 and 2020. Zoё currently teaches on both the MPharm and the MSc in Drug Discovery courses at UCL School of Pharmacy. Zoё has extensive experience teaching, both in schools and higher education, including foundation year and Master's level content. Zoё has previously taught across the Pharmacy curriculum from Medicinal Chemistry through to Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology and has experience of lectures, tutorials, workshops, PBL, TBL, flipped classes and integrated sessions.
Zoё has been involved in sharing best practice through a British Council-Funded UK-Vietnam Higher Education Partnership, providing active learning workshops on teaching methods. Since joining UCL Zoё worked as a part of a team that developed new first year MPharm laboratory classes that later won the 2022 UCL Education Award, the UCL Provost Education Award for Innovation and Transformation, with a focus on building learning communities and the Silver Pearson Education Team Award for Innovation in Education. As part of Zoё's roles within the community Zoё led a collaborative education project in the development of the “Essential Practical Skills List” for Chemistry graduates which has since been incorporated into the new RSC accreditation criteria. Zoё has also overseen curriculum reviews and acted as external examiner for a number of universities in the UK.
Emily Howe
Staff (secretary)
Senior Programme Manager, Education
Mark Jordan
Staff (non-voting)
Head of Education
-
Thursday 13 February 2025
-
Thursday 12 June 2025
-
Wednesday 5 November 2025