Jarka Glassey is a Professor in Chemical Engineering Education in the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials at Newcastle University. Her area of research interest in relation to this project is curriculum design and employability skills development (see list of selected relevant publications below). She is the chairperson of the IChemE Education Special Interest Group, leading the educational initiatives of IChemE worldwide. She also acts as an accreditation assessor and a Senior Officer of the IChemE Education and Accreditation Forum with responsibility for pedagogical research, a member of the strategic committee of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on the Future pedagogic practices in engineering education, a Principal Fellow of the HEA and a Secretary of the Working Party on Education (WPE) of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). Her contributions to the advancement of engineering education and her high quality educational practice were recognised by the prestigious ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award, one of only five awards to all engineering educators in the UK to be awarded annually, the Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teacher award and the National Teaching Fellow award. She has extensive experience of leading on research projects either as a principal or co-investigator, including involvement in EU funded projects (the latest relevant project is Marie Curie Initial Training Network in bioprocess education, BioRapid, in which Prof Glassey acts as a coordinator).At Newcastle Prof Glassey is involved in the Pedagogical Reasearch in Chemical Engineering and Materials (PRICEM) group as well as one of the conveners of the University Learning and Teaching Forum.
Her role in the proposed project will be leading on pedagogical development as well as project management, coordinating all aspects of the overall project. She has worked personally on projects with the lead staff of each partner in her role of the WPE secretary so a strong and effective working relationship and communications are established within the partnership.