Maynooth University Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Peter Mulligan and Rachel O'Neill have both won the prestigious 'UK and Ireland Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Statistics Support'. Peter is a University Tutor in the Mathematics Support Centre (MSC), and Rachel is a University Tutor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the MSC, and she is part of the 'ICT and STEM Enhancement' project funded by the HEA. The international awards, which had five winners in total, were announced at the CETL-MSOR Conference (link: http://sigma.coventry.ac.uk/CETLMSOR2021) on Thursday 2nd September, which was run simultaneously online and in-person at Coventry University.

The following summaries of their achievements were given when the awards were announced:

Peter Mulligan began working for Maynooth University's MSC in 2010, delivering 20 hours of tutoring, including drop-in and on-demand workshops. He went on to become the first full-time MSC tutor in Ireland in 2016. Peter publishes practice-based research and assists with the collation and creation of suitable videos and pdfs for both Maynooth University and secondary school students in Ireland. Peter also leads local tutor training and was key to piloting a national tutor training program in 2019-21. Peter has been a committee member of the Irish Mathematics Learning Support Network (IMLSN) since 2017, developing the IMLSN Tutor Excellence Award, which launched in 2019.

Rachel O'Neill tutors in the MSC which she also used as a student. She enjoys getting to know each student so that she can offer help that complements the student's strengths and challenges them. Her excellence as a tutor has also been recognised by receiving an IMLSN Tutor Award in 2019. Rachel often collaborates on projects and presents regularly at conferences and workshops to disseminate their work and ideas. More recently, Rachel has investigated improving student engagement with online environments and she developed a new booking system to organise one-to-one appointments which has had positive feedback.