On the 18th September 2018, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine celebrated our talented staff community and recognised some of the great work taking place around the School including its two MRC Units. The Director’s awards 2018 were given to individuals under the categories: Academic (Outstanding contribution, Outstanding team, Early Career); Professional Service (Outstanding contribution, Outstanding team, Early Career); Public Engagement; Education (Excellence & Innovation for learning, teaching, assessment or wider student experience, Excellence and Innovation in Developing Students as Researchers). Dr Assan Jaye, Head of Research Training and Career Development was presented with the Director’s Award for Excellence and Innovation in Developing Students as Researchers.  Dr Assan Jaye was recognised for his immense contribution in supporting Researcher Leadership training since he took up the post as Head of Research Training and Career Development in 2016.

He was able to draw up and implement a strategic approach to support training and identify and develop bright minds in a researcher development pathway. The training support he built was underpinned by strengthening a governance system that includes the eleven-member Training and Scholarship Award Committee, which he chairs; Higher Degrees Committee for evaluating MPhil/PhD candidate applications; independent third-party monitoring of PhD students; and instituting an operation and management plan guided by developed policy documents.

This Researcher Leadership Development Programme is yielding positive outcomes in that four out of six early postdocs in 2017-18 were able to gain post-doctoral research grants by their own efforts.