FAU lecturers awarded Prize for Excellence in Teaching

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Bild: Nico Tavalai / privat / Collage FAU

Dr. habil. Nadine Hamilton and Prof. Dr. Dr. Patricia Wiater are this year’s prize winners

Dr. habil. Nadine Hamilton and Prof. Dr. Dr. Patricia Wiater from FAU have both been awarded the Prize for Excellence in Teaching this year. The prize, awarded by the Bavarian Ministry of Science and the Arts, honors their outstanding dedication and the excellent quality of their teaching.

“With innovative and creative teaching, the winners of this award awaken students’ thirst for knowledge and encourage them to study,” Bavarian science minister Markus Blume emphasized in his announcement. The universities nominate suitable candidates for the prize after they have been selected by students.

A passion for their subject and a wide variety of methods

Nadine Hamilton
Nadine Hamilton, who has been a research associate at the Chair of Systematic Theology I (Dogmatic Theology) at FAU since 2010 (Image: Nico Tavalai)

Dr. habil. Nadine Hamilton, who as been a research associate at the Chair of Systematic Theology I (Dogmatic Theology) since 2010, inspires her students by using a wide variety of teaching methods. She passes her enthusiasm for her subject on to her students and she is a good and humorous speaker. Hamilton, who is a lecturer in dogmatic theology, is able to make this theoretical subject more accessible to her students by giving them informative examples drawn from real life. Her teaching is characterized by a wide range of different teaching methods, clear learning objectives and a great deal of interest in her students’ learning processes.

Authentic and focused on students’ needs

Prof. Dr. Dr. Patricia Wiater, Chair of Public Law, Public International Law and Human Rights (image: private)

Prof. Dr. Dr. Patricia Wiater, who has been professor at FAU since 2018 and was appointed Chair of Public Law, Public International Law and Human Rights in 2021, is an extremely enthusiastic, dedicated and motivated teacher who responds to students’ opinions and contributions in a very appreciative manner. Her teaching is characterized by a wide variety of teaching methods, in which she uses the principle of “activated learning” and a practical focus. She adapts her material to her students’ various levels of prior knowledge and supports them in developing an external perspective to current laws so they can acquire some critical distance.

About the Prize for Excellence in Teaching

Every year, FAU nominates two members of its teaching staff for the Prize for Excellence in Teaching awarded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts. The Students’ Representatives select the candidates that the President of the University then nominates. The prize honors the work of the best teachers at state universities in Bavaria and is worth 5000 euros. Teaching staff who have demonstrated excellence in teaching for at least two academic years at a university in Bavaria are eligible to be nominated for the prize.

A joint award ceremony with prize winners from 2021 and 2022 with science minister Markus Blume is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 28, 2023 in Bayreuth.

Further information:

Dr. habil. Nadine Hamilton

Chair of Systematic Theology I (Dogmatic Theology)

Phone: +49 9131 85 22045

nadine.hamilton@fau.de

Prof. Dr. Dr. Patricia Wiater

Chair of Public Law, Public International Law and Human Rights

Phone: +49 9131 85 26415

patricia.wiater@fau.de