In the third and final part of our聽series, we focus on Professor Jelena Grbic, School of Mathematics, Mathematical Sciences, who has been shortlisted for Outstanding Research Supervisor.
Professor聽Grbic has developed an unrivalled reputation for excellence for her research supervision in the area of pure mathematics at Southampton.
Jelena was nominated by her students who cited her聽pioneering approach to supervision; her聽ability to challenge them intellectually, helping聽them make substantial contributions in their academic field;聽and聽her demonstrable enthusiasm聽and how she goes the聽extra mile to support them.
Over her 10-year career, Jelena has had聽six PhD students from聽the UK, Netherlands and China.聽Of the four who have graduated, one is now聽a researcher, bridging the gap between mathematics and biology; one is聽a software developer for National Rail and two have聽just聽graduated聽and are seeking postdoctoral employment.
With such a diverse group, Jelena聽has approached聽supervision聽with a focus on聽individuality.聽聽As one of her students said:
鈥�She is acutely aware of how people think in different ways, have different strengths and different approaches, and she pays attention to this and makes an effort to support each one of us in our individual ways.鈥�
Professor Grbic聽places great emphasis on developing聽training programmes which maximise opportunities for the students to interact with other researchers and other postgraduate students,聽to present their work and to enhance their career prospects.
Amongst the聽many recent activities Jelena has聽organised, to give greater scope to her students’ research, was a聽prestigious one-month which included a summer school for postgraduate students;聽 in Moscow; and she’s聽currently providing guidance to聽her postgraduate students who are part of a team organising next year’s聽 conference.
She’s also given聽a lecture series聽in Beijing;聽co-organised a summer school for postgraduate students attending a major international conference in Dalian;聽led a team of four female researchers, two of whom were postgraduate students from the USA and Denmark, in producing a research paper as part of the network; and acted as聽a mentor at the .
Jelena explains her approach to聽supervising students:
“Providing an intellectual challenge for my students is a great priority. We work together to find research problems which are suitably stretching for the individual student. Two of my recent students, who are especially talented, have been strongly encouraged and supported in an effort to produce additional research papers, beyond the expected standard, in order to better position them for future academic careers.”
鈥淚 have聽great fun working with my postgraduate students and gain great satisfaction as they grow from novice to independent mathematicians. Their energy and enthusiasm inspires my own research.鈥�
This year鈥檚 Times Higher Education Awards will be announced on Thursday 30聽November at a gala dinner in London.
You can read the first two posts in this series below:
