In May we opened nominations for the Technical Excellence awards and were very pleased to announce the top 5, with the comments from our independent judging panel (Manchester Metropolitan University’s technical staff):

5th Place: William Pritchard

“William’s application showed a real can do and team player attitude. Contributing to his team’s success with taking on challenges and creating a real togetherness within his team.

‘William delivers exceptional efficiency when carrying out his duties and performs all his work at an excellent standard.’ His work has directly contributed to several leading journals and he is seen as very valuable member of the team.

‘William is both an excellent technician and great team player, whose presence on the project is essential.’ This stood out to the panel – I enjoy reading about colleagues stepping up to help, without a second-thought. From this nomination, it seems William is an asset to his team and University.”

4th Place: Mark Sellers and Dominic McCullagh

“Mark and Dominic really show drive and motivation and the application reflected a feeling of working above and beyond which was inspiring. It is encouraging to hear how both colleagues saw an issue and used initiative to solve the problem between the two of them.

Mark and Dominic have provided “expert round-the clock maintenance” throughout the year of lockdown. They also proposed and implemented a very successful project that saved the university as significant amount of money.”

3rd Place: Chloe Loveless

“It was clear to see how Chloe has stepped up and continues to give 100% in her job despite the uncertainty of a new role. The panel were impressed by ‘Chloe proactively developing new Standard Operating Procedures for the safe use of kit, developing reopening documentation, and writing new risk assessments’ – in the middle of a pandemic, new role and return to work.

Chloe’s application shares initiative and a passion to ensure students and staff receive outstanding delivery in all areas.

‘Chloe has been an exceptional contributor to not one but two technical communities throughout the year’. Her work supporting the Department of Materials and Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub clearly highlights her commitment in pursuit of an excellence and ability to foster collaboration and partnership both internally and externally.”

2nd Place (love2shop voucher): Mike Hughes

“Michael demonstrates a true passion about his work, as well as promoting technicians, being involved with many steering groups and committees, producing and promoting technicians worldwide through publications and the use of videos on YouTube.

Michael plays a proactive role in running the teaching lab. ‘He continually looks to develop his team and provides exercises for them to develop their analytical skills and provide suggestions and inputs into improvements for the teaching’.

His experience and commitment to the student experience is impressive. The panel particularly liked the references to Michael’s commitment to equality and diversity and participation in conferences and events with other Universities and organisations. The panel were mindful that networking and sharing best-practice is vital in the technical sector, and it’s encouraging to hear how Michael goes above and beyond in his role.”

1st Place (trophy and love2shop voucher): Andrew Gilchrist

“The panel were impressed by the nomination for Andrew and equally as impressed by the real sense of value he brings to not only his team, but to the University and to external companies. From the nomination, it is clear that he is a valued colleague and brings a host of expertise and good-character to his role.

Andrew stood out as an overall great achiever in all aspects of the application, his contribution to his work has been inspiring, going the extra mile and to quote ‘lifetime achievement award’.

Andrew consistently demonstrates excellence across many areas and is clearly a very valuable member of staff at the university. ‘He always delivers above and beyond performance and even in these uncertain hybrid times.’

The panel decided to make Andrew first place due to his impact on the University strategic ambitions with the REDCap survey tool rolled out university wide.”

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Congratulations to all our top 5, and everyone else who was nominated – we will be writing to you to let you know. If you can, please come to our Annual Event on Wednesday, July 7th – details here.

There have been many changes in the way technical staff have had to work and adapt to the fluctuating conditions under Covid. 2020 was quite a year! Watch the Geography laboratories review.

The Technical Stills competition is back, but with a slight difference.
This year we are looking for photographs to represent your work over the past year, whether you have been working from home, back on campus, or something in-between.

You need not be a member of TEaM to enter the competition – although we do encourage all technical staff to join our network so as not to miss out on events and initiatives arranged by technical staff for technical staff.
Please limit your entry to three photos per entrant. If your photograph contains any people, you will need to fill in the University’s image release form and return it with your photos to the TEaM inbox (we will pass it to the University) – found here.

Please send all entries to the TEaM inbox: technical.excellence@manchester.ac.uk to be in with a chance of winning a £50 voucher prize!

The Technical Excellence at Manchester (TEaM) staff network group invite nominations for the Technical Excellence Awards 2021. The awards are aimed at recognising the contribution of technical staff to the working life of the University.

All staff members (including technical/non-technical PS staff and academic staff) are encouraged to nominate any technical member of staff that they believe deserves recognition for their work.

This year’s TEaM Award winners will meet one or more of the following criteria. The number of criteria is not itself a factor in the judging so it’s better to submit one or two well-evidenced criteria than several less well-evidenced:

The award will be judged by a panel of technical staff external to the University and the contribution to be recognised should have been made between March 2020 and March 2021. Nominations should be submitted via our online form by Friday 18th June. The awards will be announced at the next TEaM Annual Event, which will be held on Wednesday, 7th July. Please save the date in your diaries, further information about the event will be circulated in coming weeks.

Please feel free to share this with your colleagues to help us recognise and promote the vital contribution made by technical staff.

John Piprani is the Archaeology Technician within Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology. A large part of his role involves the organising of equipment, transport and students for the summer fieldwork projects. However, having oversight of two large labs means he also has the space to share his own enthusiasm with interested archaeology undergraduates, by teaching them how to make prehistoric stone tools. After you’ve watched the video (part 1 of 2), head over to his blog for more information. Thanks to Mike Hughes for producing this and previous TechTalk videos.

Here is our second TEaM TechTalk video, hosted by Mike Hughes, Chemistry Teaching Labs Manager. In this episode he interviews Gwen Riley Jones, who manages Special Collections Imaging at John Rylands Library. Together with James Duff, she hosted one of our Workplace Tours last year which was really enjoyed by staff who attended. The Peterloo Massacre exhibition which was running at that time in John Rylands Library was also excellent. Mike caught up with Gwen to see how things have been going during the pandemic. There’s also a very special extra guest to start the video, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, with a message for the technical community. We hope you enjoy this episode, and more are to follow!

UoM technicians discuss their different experiences during the campus shutdown. Featuring:

• Scott Miller – B15 Model making workshop, School of Environment, Education and Development (Humanities)
• Emma Enston – Dept of Chemistry (School of Natural Sciences, FSE)
• Tom Bishop – Geography Dept, School of Environment, Education and Development (Humanities)
• Toria Stafford – Deputy Health and Safety Advisor for Dept Chemistry, FSE

Hosted by Mike Hughes – Teaching Labs Manager at Dept of Chemistry (School of Natural Sciences, FSE).  Mike brings together staff who volunteered to talk about their very different experiences of the Campus shutdown due to Covid-19, and then the start of the phased reopening. It highlights the many and varied ways in which technical staff support the teaching, research and safe operation of activities at the university.   We hope you find it useful and if you are interested in getting invovled in future events, please do get in touch: email technical.excellence@manchester.ac.uk

The TEaM summer trip took place on June 18th, and we had a great turnout of more than 40 technical staff. Meeting on campus, we piled onto the coach and made our way to leafy Cheshire, and the UNESCO world heritage site that is Jodrell Bank.

The first part of the tour was a walk round the site led by Mike Anderson, the Site Manager and Safety Advisor, who filled us in on the history of the University’s presence at Jodrell Bank (it started as a biological research station), and Sir Bernard Lovell’s reasons for moving his radio astronomy research there (Manchester’s tram system caused too many radio interference spikes as the current-collecting trolley poles made and lost contact with the overhead wires). This need to protect the site from radio interference means that the Observatory still has a great deal of control over planning applications in the local area.

The story continued with the massively overspent construction of what would become known as the Lovell space telescope, using recycled gun turrets from a battleship as motors to turn the dish, and that telescope’s role in the space race of the 1960s, tracking Soviet launches and relaying Apollo mission communications signals.

Mike finished by describing the complications of managing the many telescopes on site today, including the difficulties of repairing panelling on a heritage-protected telescope 50 metres off the ground.

After a break to explore the grounds and visitor centre, we were treated to a lecture on the work and discoveries that the Observatory has contributed to over the last 50 years, including pulsars, the expansion of the universe, and the latest images of the Sagittarius A black hole at the centre of the galaxy.

Then it was back onto the bus for the trip back to campus, after a fascinating day out. Where to next year? Suggestions to technical.excellence@manchester.ac.uk please!

For both the individual and team awards the judges were looking for outstanding performance and, more specifically, evidence of how the individuals or teams have significantly and tangibly contributed to maintaining a positive, open and respectful working environment where people work cooperatively together, have excelled at breaking down boundaries and communicating fully to achieve outstanding organisational benefits. Teams also had to demonstrate that they have a shared ethos which has led to either a significant one-off achievement or to sustained high performance

Small Team: Geography Laboratory Team, School of Environment, Education and Development, FHUMS Team members: John Moore, Jonathan Yarwood, Thomas Bishop, Martin Kay The Geography Laboratory Team is based in the School of Environment, Education and Development.

This team of four is described as being extremely enthusiastic and experienced. The aim of the team is always to give the best support possible to students, academics and researchers wishing to use the laboratories.

Members always strive to go the ‘extra mile’ in all aspects of their work. Their commitment and dedication has ensured that the laboratories have thrived in recent years and represent a worldclass facility. They have worked together to deliver the highest standards in both teaching and research and this has been recognised in outstanding student feedback and also has contributed to the production of world-leading research outputs.

In addition to this success, the team has also been very active in wider University initiatives, especially in sustainability and outreach activities to local schools.

Stephen Lindsay-Smith, a mortuary Technical Manager in FBMH, was profiled in the Daily Mail careers section last week. You can read the original article here. Stephen had previously featured in the Technicians Make It Happen campaign, with a longer interview, here.