The Faculty of Science's Pedagogical Award to Medicinal Chemist

Kristina Luthman, professor of medicinal chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, has been named the recipient of the Faculty of Science’s 2018 Pedagogical Award.

She received the award for her dedication to undergraduate education and for always focusing on the students. Kristina Luthman has had a significant role in establishing medicinal chemistry in Gothenburg, which in turn has made it possible to begin the pharmacy and prescriptionist programmes.

How does it feel to be named the recipient of the faculty’s 2018 Pedagogical Award?

“It feels amazing and it’s a great honour to be awarded the faculty’s Pedagogical Award. I’m very happy.”

You have worked with educational development for a long time. How do you view what you have achieved educationally?

“Teaching is both important and a fun part of the work. Teaching and meeting with students ensure I am always up-to-date within my field. I also work with developing modern courses within medicinal chemistry, and a useful part of this work is linking what happens within research to the education.”

What are you working on right now in terms of educational development?

“I’m involved in several courses and right now I’m focusing on making them work as good as possible. Otherwise, there isn’t so much new happening for me within educational development.”

Explanatory statement:

“Professor Kristina Luthman has had a significant role in establishing medicinal chemistry in Gothenburg. Luthman has also contributed to ensuring dermatochemistry began as a subject at the University of Gothenburg. With a leading medicinal chemistry programme at the university, the pharmacy and prescriptionist programmes were established as important professional programmes. Through her dedicated work in several significant working groups and committees, Luthman has had a major influence in how both these programmes have been designed since their start, which is also true for courses in organic chemistry. Today, Luthman is a leading medicinal chemist in Europe and she has maintained a large amount of research activities over many years. In addition, in Luthman we see a very appreciated teacher, by both students and colleagues, who has shown great professionality in how she tackles her mission within undergraduate education. With a student-focused approach, she has created a balance of requirements and fairness, contributed with important expertise and eagerly driven development of her subject for the benefit of many programmes at the University of Gothenburg.”

The Faculty of Science’s Pedagogical Award is awarded annually to focus attention on good efforts within education. The award, which consists of a SEK 100,000 operational contribution.