Congratulations to James Busfield on being awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy. This is one of a handful of awards made annually by the Higher Education Academy for the UK to recognise individual excellence in teaching. This is excellent news and a very impressive achievement. In addition to the fellowship James will be awarded £10,000 for his personal and/or professional development in teaching and learning. James is the first fellow in Materials or Engineering at QMUL and only the third one ever in the Materials subject area in the UK. James received the College nomination for this award as he is well known for making his modules fun and interactive. Having sought to replace lecture based delivery with problem based learning. Rather than teaching mechanics traditionally, the students learn by designing a bungee for a watermelon or as an alternative to being lectured on how to use analytical equipment, they are invited to solve an imaginary murder working as a scene of crime officer.