Congratulations to Professor Mark JF Brown from the Department of Biological Sciences, who has been awarded Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year in the 2023 Times Higher Education Awards.

Mark Brown has successfully supervised 54 students (Masters and PhD) over 20 years, actively encouraging students from less privileged backgrounds to continue into doctoral research. He is committed to providing opportunities for the next generation of researchers and academics.

Mark completed his PhD in Biological Sciences at Stanford University, was a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, and joined Royal Holloway in 2008. He has been an adviser to Natural England and DEFRA, a member of the IUCN Bumblebee Specialists Group, and a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.

Mark and his research colleagues in the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour are global leaders in understanding the impact of agrochemicals and pathogens on bumblebees. Their work has directly informed national and international assessments of, and responses to, these threats, through changes in practice and policy.

Mark has also led the pan-European research consortium, PoshBee, studying honey bees, bumble bees, and solitary bees, who face a range of human-driven threats and are in decline in Europe and around the globe, bringing together experts from science with beekeepers and farmers to develop new tools and methods to keep bees healthy.

The THE award winners were announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday 7 December 2023.