See the shortlist for this year’s Sussex Awards, which celebrate the brilliant work of our staff, students and postgraduate researcher (PGR) community across our Faculties and Divisions.
Over 600 nominations were submitted for the awards, and each of these has been through a judging process to produce the shortlist below. Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit a nomination.
The winners will be announced at the Sussex Awards Ceremony on Monday 27 April at the Attenborough Centre. The winners of this year’s Adam Weiler Impact Awards will also be presented with their awards on the night.
Check out the full Sussex Awards shortlist and their achievements:
Education and student life
- Inclusive Education
- Education for Employability and World Readiness
- Education and Student Life: Civic and Global Engagement and Public Service
- Collaborative Learning and Innovation
- Scholarship
Research and innovation
- Research and Innovation Excellence
- Open Research
- Research and Innovation Culture
- Research and Innovation Impact
Education and research
Global and civic engagement
Sussex People and Culture
Transforming Sussex
- Dr Sabrina Gilani and Dr Ashleigh Keall (School of Law, Politics and Sociology) for the Aboriginal Law module, which exemplifies inclusive, transformative teaching by centring Indigenous knowledge systems, using innovative experiential learning, and fostering deep student engagement.
- Faye Brockwell (Student Experience) for tireless, collaborative, and principled leadership in transforming the accessibility of maths teaching, breaking down long-standing barriers, uniting multiple teams, and driving meaningful, lasting change for all students.
- Hengyi Wang (University of Sussex Business School) for remarkable, compassionate, and proactive support for international students, removing linguistic and cultural barriers through tailored academic guidance, frequent one-to-one meetings, and dedicated community-building.
- Tilly Ambrose and Tim Cane (School of Global Studies) for innovative, compassionate work making a demanding field trip fully accessible through bespoke 3D-printed tactile models, enabling a visually impaired student to participate equally.
- Dr Xiangming (Tommy) Tao (University of Sussex Business School) for notable commitment to inclusive education, fostering belonging and confidence through culturally rich teaching, equity-focused research, compassionate mentorship, and care for every individual's wellbeing.
Education for Employability and World Readiness
- Dr Jason Price, Hayley Bowerman and colleagues (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) for leadership of the Education Recovery Programme, which rapidly redesigned all undergraduate programmes to align with the Sussex Academic Framework, resulting in unprecedented, large-scale improvements.
- MA Early Years Education with Early Years Teacher Status team (School of Education and Social Work) - Dr Jaqueline Young, Fliss Bull, Deborah Brown, Graham Wright, and Kathy King - for inclusive, employment-focused teaching that blends real-world placements, personalised support, and skill-building.
- Prof Sarah Sawyer and Dr Robyn Waller (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) for transforming the first-year 'Reason and Argument' Philosophy module by integrating applied, employer-engaged experiential learning including a live brief from Microsoft.
- SEPnet/DISCnet Team (School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) - Prof Jacob Dunningham, Dr Kate Shaw, Susanne Bell, and Prof Kathy Romer - for delivering an inclusive, financially sustainable, and highly impactful industry placement programme with unprecedented career outcomes.
Education and Student Life: Civic and Global Engagement and Public Service
- Dexter Shepherd (School of Engineering and Informatics) for noteworthy long-term commitment to outreach, from leading Peer Assisted Learning and delivering AI and data science workshops across Africa, to founding the International Sussex AI Development programme.
- Ding Nai Zhang (Dean) (Communications, Engagement and Advancement) for transforming China recruitment by building data-led pipelines, strengthening partnerships, and delivering culturally informed, high-impact admissions and engagement initiatives.
- Dr Emma Newport (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) for leadership of Sussex Writes, creating a unique, long-running outreach programme that builds creative communities, expands partnerships, and empowers marginalised young people through innovative writing initiatives.
- Prof Zahid Pranjol (School of Life Sciences) for singular, long-standing commitment to educational equity, tirelessly expanding access to high-quality learning and transforming the student experience at Sussex and beyond.
Collaborative Learning and Innovation
- Glimmer creative team (various teams). Music students (Shreya Maligeswaran, Jamie Cresswell, Shea Boyle, Aimee Beaumont, Sebastian Truscott-Cooper, Sasha Krieger-Rees, Grace Barber) and staff (Dr Jason Price, Helen McAleer, Hannah Wallace, Emily Huns, Lauren Church, Jane Harvell, Dr Danny Bright, Marc Beatty, Arron Polton-Gower, for designing a transformative, beautifully crafted campus event on 12 February 2026 showcasing outstanding collaboration, creativity, and community spirit.
- Hope McAdam (Communications, Engagement and Advancement) for tirelessly advancing opportunities for Care Experienced Young People by leading the Uni & You project, building vital partnerships, and delivering powerful, creative, and transformative events that foster belonging and real pathways into Higher Education.
- Intercultural Reflections Series team (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) - Chris Stocking, Jo Osborne, Victoria Rodriguez Denyer, and Precieux Rajaofera - for co-creating a student-led programme that empowered international students to share experiences, build intercultural capability, and generate insights now shaping wider University policy.
- Wills, Trusts and Estates Law Clinic (School of Law, Politics and Sociology). Students Amelia Gibbs, Heidi Griffith, Stella Hovsepyan, Ana Isip, Happiness Kaduma, Anthony Lawrence, Sophie Martin, Tanvi Nanda, Shifra Nesbitt, James Robinson, Holly Shepherd, Bron Taylor, Tea Von Teichman Logischen, and staff Melanie Hart-Murison and Fiona Clements, for bringing together Law students, academic staff, and volunteer solicitors to provide compassionate, socially impactful legal advice to community members who lack access to justice.
- Dr Adnan Fakir (University of Sussex Business School) for developing and rigorously evaluating a podcast-integrated, research-led pedagogical model that significantly improves postgraduate students' engagement, comprehension, and sense of belonging in econometrics.
- How to Embed Authenticity in Legal Assessments team (School of Law, Politics and Sociology) - Dr Jo Wilson, Dr Verona Ni Drisceoil, and Jeanette Ashton - for a recently published book advancing evidence-informed, sector-shaping scholarship on authenticity in legal assessment and responses to generative AI.
- Nicholas Heavey (Library, Culture and Heritage) for extraordinary scholarly contribution to learning and teaching, delivering enquiry-driven library teaching that elevates students from passive information users to confident scholarly researchers.
- Dr Shova Thapa-Karki (University of Sussex Business School) for compassionate and inclusive teaching, generous mentorship of early career colleagues, and innovative, evidence-informed curriculum development that significantly enhances student learning.
Research and Innovation Excellence
- The Bose–Einstein Condensate Microscopy experiment team (School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) – Dr Julia Fekete, Dr Fedja Orucevic, Dr Poppy Joshi, Kalkidan Nurelign, Dr Alice King, and Dr Lisa Woodbine - for groundbreaking quantum gas-based magnetic field imaging with transformative interdisciplinary applications spanning materials science to biological studies.
- Prof Chirantan Chatterjee (University of Sussex Business School) for pioneering research on global health, innovation, and pharmaceutical industries, combined with high-impact publications, policy-relevant insights, and leadership building ambitious, socially meaningful interdisciplinary research teams.
- ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (University of Sussex Business School) – Prof Jackie O'Reilly and Dr Megan McMichael - for remarkable research and leadership through high-impact scholarly outputs and interdisciplinary collaborations that shape understanding of how digitalisation and AI transform work.
- Dr Fiona Cresswell (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) for research delivering globally significant impact by generating clinical, policy, and implementation evidence to support safe, equitable scale-up of long-acting injectable HIV treatment across Africa, influencing WHO guidelines.
- Dr Jo Walton (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) for sustained leadership in open research, spanning openly licensed digital sustainability resources, influential open reports, widely adapted tools, and multiple open publishing initiatives that expand Sussex's role in open digital humanities.
- Dr Kate Shaw (School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) for transforming global particle physics education by founding and leading CERN's ATLAS Open Data project, making real Large Hadron Collider data openly accessible and empowering tens of thousands of learners worldwide.
- Dr Karen Patterson (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) for outstanding leadership in advancing open research at Sussex by founding and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the forthcoming Open Research Bulletin and championing open practices through teaching and advocacy.
- Dr Reny Baykova (School of Psychology) for leading one of the UK's first reproducibility certification schemes in Psychology, identifying and correcting unreproducible results, and advancing open-science practice through training, outreach, and sector-wide leadership.
Research and Innovation Culture
- Faculty of Social Sciences Professional Services Research Team (Faculty of Social Sciences) – Steve Colburn, Carol Anderson, Hazel Crawford, Helen Young and the wider team - for exceptional leadership, adaptability, and collaborative expertise in sustaining high-quality research support through major changes.
- Dr Louisa Rinaldi (School of Psychology) for making a unique contribution to research and innovation culture by building community across labs, championing inclusive and open research practices, and providing transformative mentorship.
- Dr Ruth Staras (School of Life Sciences) for being the driving force behind the thriving, collaborative Sussex Neuroscience community, building cross-School connections and fostering an inclusive environment especially for PhD students.
- Ryan Giddings (University of Sussex Business School) for making a transformative contribution to research culture in the Business School by fostering inclusive collaboration, strengthening research integrity, and leading with empathy, support, and vision.
- Women's Leadership Academy (various teams) – Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales, Prof Erika Mancini, Katy Stoddard, and Vicki Love - for creating a transformative, sustainable programme that empowers women Early Career Researchers to overcome systemic barriers, build confidence, and foster community.
Research and Innovation Impact
- Dr Jo Wilding (School of Law, Politics and Sociology) for research that has driven major national and devolved policy change by evidencing critical gaps in access to legal aid, compelling government funding reforms, and supporting partners to improve legal representation for vulnerable communities.
- Dr Katie East (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) for research making a substantial contribution to public health policy by providing rigorous evidence on tobacco control measures such as menthol bans, standardised packaging, and vape regulation, directly informing UK and international legislation.
- Prof Michael Gasiorek / UKTPO / CITP (University of Sussex Business School) for research that has directly shaped UK and international trade policy by informing carbon-related regulations, enabling government adoption of Sussex-developed analytical tools, and driving legislative changes.
- The Sussex Centre for Corruption Studies (School of Law, Politics and Sociology) – Dr Becky Dobson Phillips, Prof Liz David-Barrett, Prof Robert Barrington, Dr Dan Haberly, Dr Tom Shipley, Prof Dan Hough, and Georgia Garrod - for having major national impact in shaping the UK Government's 2025 Anti-Corruption Strategy, including its first official definition of corruption.
Postgraduate Researcher Support
- BSMS PGR Team (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Prof Natasha Sigala, Steph Clark, Prof Barbara Philips, and Dr Mei Trueba - for delivering transformative, sector-leading support for PGRs and supervisors by expanding doctoral training opportunities and embedding proactive, holistic practices.
- CHASE team (various teams) - Rachel Clement, Clare Hunt, Dr Nyasha Maposa, Dr Joe Upton, Rob Witts, and Leo Wood - for providing rare and compassionate support to doctoral researchers across the consortium and delivering creative, inclusive training amid major sector uncertainty.
- Systematic Literature Review course (University of Sussex Business School) - Prof Veronica Martinez Hernandez, Prof Natalia Slutskaya, and Prof Adrian Smith - for designing and piloting a transformative foundational component of the Business School's MRes-PhD pathway, equipping doctoral researchers with rigorous, bias-reducing methods.
- University of Sussex Business School PGR Support Team (University of Sussex Business School) - Ben Facer, Dr Gemma Farrell, and Tahir Deniz Beydola - for driving a transformational, evidence-led overhaul of doctoral support, implementing an ambitious Upgrade Plan that strengthens recruitment, training, community, wellbeing, and supervision.
- Clare Rizzo-Singh (School of Life Sciences) for being a phenomenally dedicated and proactive lab manager whose technical expertise, organisation, mentorship, and steadfast support are central to the safety, efficiency, and overall success of the Alonso Lab.
- Crispin Holloway (School of Life Sciences) for being a committed and resourceful technician whose initiative, problem-solving expertise, and unwavering support have transformed daily research workflows and rescued critical experiments.
- Life Sciences Teaching Technical Team (School of Life Sciences) - Kristy Flowers, William Horne, Chris Baker, Eva Wallis, En King, Sarah Roberts, Becki Cook, Anna Farlow, and Marcus Burnell-Spector - for exemplifying technical excellence, innovation, and inclusivity through creative accessibility solutions and transformative contributions to sustainability and the student experience.
- Michel Sacre (School of Engineering and Informatics) for being an uniquely skilled, creative, and dedicated technician whose enthusiasm, reliability, and unwavering support across research, teaching, and student projects make him an indispensable mentor, collaborator, and innovator.
- Kellie Powney and Prof Stephen Wilkins (School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) for extraordinary leadership and collaboration in establishing, sustaining, and delivering the highly successful and inclusive Lewes STEM Festival, a widely celebrated public science event with significant community impact.
- Prof Sarah L King (School of Psychology) for demonstrating remarkable civic and public engagement leadership by expanding Sussex Neuroscience outreach through school partnerships, community events, the Sussex Brain Bus initiative, and national engagement training.
- Soapbox Science team (various teams) - Dr Beth Nicholls, Dr Maria Clara Castellanos, Dr Darren Baskill, Kellie Powney, Dr Laura Blackburn, and Prof Gillian Forrester - for building and sustaining a flagship public engagement event that empowers women and non-binary scientists and delivers inclusive STEM outreach to thousands.
- University of Sanctuary team (various teams) - Prof Mike Collyer, Dr Tahir Zaman, Prof Anke Schwittay, Prof Linda Morrice, Prof Mario Novelli, Dr Judith Townend, Dr Moira Dustin, Prof Nuno Ferreira, Prof Zahid Pranjol, Dan Sumner, Naimatulla Zafary, Shona Luton, Dr Emilie de la Nougerede, Amy Andrews, Jo White, Paul Wiggins, Robert Yates, Rachel Dyson, Antony Groves, Andrew Jackson, and Md Zulkar Nayen - for wide-ranging, collaborative initiatives that support sanctuary-seeking students and refugees locally and beyond.
- Virginia Govoni (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) for providing exceptional civic leadership through the Sussex Health and Care Research Partnership, uniting regional health and care organisations and embedding meaningful public and community involvement in research.
- Centre for Equitable Global Health Research (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Prof Gail Davey and Dr Maya Semrau - for sustained, strategic leadership in strengthening equitable global partnerships across research, education, policy, and advocacy, including high-impact international events and institutional strategies.
- Dr Jenny Terry (School of Psychology ) for building a genuinely global, inclusive, and collaborative statistics education community by leading the Researchers of Statistics Education Network and expanding its international membership and partnerships.
- Dr Jo Walton (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) for building globally inclusive, creative, and future-focused networks by developing UK–East Africa partnerships, co-creating accessible climate and AI futures tools with artists and youth in Uganda and Kenya.
- Dr Kate Shaw (School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) for noteworthy, long-term global leadership by founding and continuously driving the Physics Without Frontiers programme, expanding scientific capacity in under-resourced regions through tailored, research-led training partnerships.
- Bella Cornford (Student Experience) for making a singular contribution to inclusion at Sussex by empowering diverse student voices, particularly minoritised and neurodiverse students, through leadership of the Curriculum Change Connector project.
- Dr Cecile Chevalier (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) and Darren Payne (School of Psychology) for strong, sustained leadership in transforming the Neurodiversity Staff Network into an inclusive, empowering community that models neurodiversity-friendly practice, influences University policy, and builds external partnerships.
- Lauren Church (Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities) for transforming the Festival of Ideas into an inclusive, collaborative platform that amplifies diverse student voices -particularly disabled, neurodiverse, and queer students - while embedding accessible practices.
- Mitakshara Medhi (School of Psychology) for significant and sustained contribution to advancing EDI at Sussex by leading University-wide initiatives addressing microinvalidation among PGRs, advocating for PGR wellbeing and anti-racism, and contributing to the School of Psychology's Gold Athena Swan Award.
- Claire Tymoshyshyn (University of Sussex Business School) for her outstanding, wide-ranging contribution to the Sussex community by leading remarkable student-centred initiatives from Welcome Week to wellbeing activities, consistently supporting colleagues and fostering belonging.
- Clare Hardman (Student Experience) for making a long-lasting contribution by single-handedly leading academic skills provision with unwavering dedication, delivering empowering support to students and colleagues, and sustaining a core service that enhances academic confidence and wellbeing.
- Glimmer delivery team (various teams) - Marc Beatty, Arron Polton-Gower, Molly Crossthwaite, Danny Bright, Kira Knight, Andrea Wall, Marc Spink, Dr James Croft, Hannah Wallace, Liz De Cort, Emily Huns, Dr Jason Price, and Harvey Atkinson - for collaborating across teams to deliver the uplifting, community-building Glimmer event in February.
- Inter-Library Loan team (Library, Culture and Heritage) - Lucy Oakley, Julia Green, and Abbie Hodges for delivering an exceptional, often unseen service that underpins learning and research across Sussex, consistently going above and beyond to source hard-to-find materials.
- Katie Oram (Human Resources) for organising a crochet session at the staff wellbeing event, creating supportive crafting communities, and offering patient ongoing guidance that has fostered connection, creativity, and positive impact on colleagues' mental health.
- IT Service Desk Team (ITS and Sussex Projects) - Liz Davis, Tasha Rodrigues, Kris Pattenden, and Robyn Taylor-Sharp - for keeping the IT Service Desk running seamlessly through a challenging year, handling tens of thousands of requests with patience, clarity, and kindness.
- Space with US Conference and Catering team (Estates, Facilities and Commercial Services) - Wayne Spicer, Ryan Tobin, Tina Lewery, Cecilia Virlombier, Sue Keating, Mark Lawrence, and James Robinson - for delivering extraordinary support for the largest-ever International Virginia Woolf Conference.
- Dr Katerina Psarikidou (University of Sussex Business School) for making a sustained and transformative contribution to environmental sustainability at Sussex by advancing socially just food system research, leading major UKRI projects, and fostering an inclusive global learning community.
- LEAF team (School of Life Sciences) - William Horne, Chris Baker, En King, Anna Farlow, Becki Cook, Sarah Roberts, and Eva Wallis - for leading the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework programme, achieving Silver awards through systematic improvements in lab efficiency, waste reduction, and resource sharing.
- Prof Mahmood Bhutta (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) for outstanding international leadership in exposing labour and environmental harms in global medical supply chains, driving major policy and industry change, and pioneering sustainable surgical practice.
- Sebastian Harrington (ITS and Sussex Projects) for delivering a major step forward in Sussex's digital sustainability by leading the Cloud Transformation Project, halving the University's physical infrastructure, decommissioning 129 servers, and creating a more efficient, lower-energy platform.
Institutional Improvement and Transformation
- Housing Systems Team (Estates, Facilities and Commercial Services) - Sally Darby, Kasia Barnert, and Eloise Taberman-Pichler for transforming the student accommodation experience by creating a streamlined, user-friendly application process that has increased returning-student uptake and improved efficiency.
- Dr Lyndsay Mclean (School of Global Studies) for innovative, collaborative leadership in reshaping Global Studies' Masters provision, strengthening interdisciplinary coherence, and enhancing the postgraduate student experience through new skills support and community-building initiatives.
- Oracle upgrade team (ITS and Sussex Projects) - Chris Mitchell, Michael Smith, Santhanagopalan Soundararajan, Ying Chiu, Alexander Havell, and Mark Bradshaw - for delivering one of Sussex's most significant digital transformations by seamlessly migrating 300 virtual machines to a modern, high-performance platform with virtually no downtime.
- Student Discipline Team (Student Experience) - Katharine Travis, Natalie Garrod, Jack Ambridge, Aine Caunter, and Naomi Hepton - for transforming the University's approach to complex misconduct cases by embedding trauma-informed practice and fundamentally improving communication, safeguarding, and investigative processes.