Timon Idema, programme director of the Nanobiology MSc programme, holding the SURF Education Award.
Last week, Timon Idema was awarded the SURF Education Award. Timon has a long history of teaching in the Nanobiology programme, including the Bachelor course in Quantum Mechanics and the Master course in Soft Matter. Moreover, he is the programme director of the MSc Nanobiology, which means that he has the final say in many important matters regarding the curriculum and the content of the courses.
The SURF Education Award is awarded each year to three educational professionals who have made a big contribution to online education innovation. For over 5 years, Timon has campaigned for open education by publishing his own open textbook and leading a collaboration with the TU Delft Library to allow other teachers to do the same. Many of these open learning materials make use of Jupyter Notebooks, an interactive environment which allows students to actively engage with the material. Right now, the catalogue of learning material already exceeds 30 open textbooks, which may still increase: Timon has contributed to instructions and templates to lower the barrier and pave the way for other educators.
Both the jury and his colleagues emphasize the accessibility and efficiency of Timon’s work, as well as his active attitude to gathering feedback from both teachers and students. As a study association, we’re very proud of Timon and happy to have him in our corner. Congratulations!