The RSC Education Award

The award, now in its second year, was established by the RSC to recognise continuing high-level contribution to education in the chemical sciences. Page will receive £2000, a medal and a certificate at the RSC's general assembly in November.

Chemistry, for chemistry's sake...

Page remembers being inspired by the challenge of chemistry at school, rather than any particular teacher as is often the case. She gained a first-class honours degree in chemistry from the University of Reading, and continued along the traditional academic pathway, doing a PhD in her chosen field of transition-metal chemistry and moving on to post-doctoral research.  

After a 'career break' to bring up her young family, Page returned to Reading in 1991 to continue her post-doc research in electron diffraction on a part-time basis. During this time she decided to do a part-time PGCE with the Open University, alongside her post-doc studies, with the aim of becoming a secondary school teacher. She didn't know it then, but this decision would set her up for a career, not as a school teacher but as a university lecturer who would become committed to forging links and facilitating initiatives across the secondary-tertiary interface.