Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award 2015-2016 – Andrew Tootell

Posted by:

Photograph of Andrew Tootell with VC Teaching Award

On 8th June Andrew received the Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award for the academic year 2015-2016. Andrew is a lecturer in the School of Health Sciences, Directorate of Radiography. He has been Programme Leader for the MSc Nuclear Medicine Imaging for 7 years. He teaches on the Nuclear Medicine MSc, BSc (Hons) Radiography and dental x-ray programme. He was nominated for this award partly because of his passion for his specialist subject. Students at all levels acknowledge his ‘special abilities’ in making challenging subjects understandable to a diverse range of students, many of whom have limited prior knowledge of the subjects. Dr Fred Murphy, Programme Leader for the BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography programme, noted

Over the last few years I have had many conversations with students stating that Andrew is brilliant at explaining some complex physics in a simple manner. He uses lots of props and analogies which the students find easy to understand.   This is an important skill for a lecturer dealing with level 4 students of different backgrounds.

Andrew’s abilities extend beyond the classroom. For the MSc Nuclear Medicine Imaging he has developed new people into his team and they have become very effective in their roles. He has recruited to target and for the coming academic year applications look extremely healthy. Educational leadership within the medical imaging facility in the school has come on leaps and bounds because of his hard work and radiography as a whole is benefitting from this. Aside managing the imaging facility Andrew is also Radiation Protection Supervisor for it.

Besides teaching, Andrew has a 20% workload allocation for research. His research focus is direct measurement and mathematical modelling of radiation to humans who undergo x-ray imaging. This focus has a clear relationship with teaching and the Directorate of Radiography use Andrew’s research in undergraduate and postgraduate student learning. Andrew plays important roles in various research projects. This academic year he has first or co-authored 3 conference posters/presentations and published 2 research papers, 1 in [American Journal of] Medical Physics and 1 in [Canadian] Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences. He will also submit a further research paper during this academic year to the British Journal of Radiology. His conference and journal papers are listed below. Andrew also plays an advisory role for one PhD student on the supervisory team.

Journal papers

Thompson, J. D. Chakraborty, D. P. Szczepura, K. Tootell, A. K. Vamvakas, I. Manning, D. J. Hogg, P., Effect of reconstruction methods and x-ray tube current–time product on nodule detection in an anthropomorphic thorax phantom: A crossed-modality JAFROC observer study. Medical Physics, 2016. 43(3): p. 1265-1274.

Tootell, A.K, McEntee, M. Szczepura, K. Hogg, P. Effective dose and risk from imaging of the lumbar spine subsequent to SPECT: A Phantom Study. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 2015. DOI 10.1016/j.jmir.2016.04.012

Journal paper to be submitted during this academic year

Tootell, A.K, Szczepura, K. Hogg, P, Comparison of calculated and estimated effective and equivalent organ doses in CT of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis. For British Journal of Radiology.

Conference papers and posters

Cartwright, Z. Szczepura, K. England, A. Tootell, A.K. Multiple Myeloma: A comparison of Computed Tomography vs Conventional Radiography for radiation dose and increased cancer risk. In European Congress of Radiology, 2016, Vienna, Austria

Raed. M.A, England, A. Tootell, A.K. Mercer, C. Hogg, P. Radiation risk from screening mammography. P-204.  In United Kingdom Radiological Congress, 2016, Liverpool, UK

Li, J. Szczepura, K. Tootell, A. England, A. Positioning for a conventional skyline patella projection: Evaluation of torso position and its relationship with eye lens and thyroid dose. P-203.  In United Kingdom Radiological Congress, 2016, Liverpool, UK


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *