Congratulations to Dr Diogo Verissimo who has received one of this year’s MPLS outstanding Supervision awards for his contribution to academic supervision and support.
MPLS run this annual award scheme to celebrate colleagues who foster an environment in which students and researchers can thrive and who demonstrate leadership and best practice in nurturing and supporting research colleagues in their role as DPhil supervisors.
Diogo is a Research Fellow in the Department of Biology and part of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU). His interests focus on the use of social science tools to influence human behaviour towards more sustainable alternatives and improved biodiversity. Working globally across Latin America, South and Southeast Asia and West and Central Africa in topics as varied as illegal wildlife trade, human-wildlife conflict, overfishing or invasive species management he applies marketing theory and tools and design and evaluate behaviour change.
As a supervisor Diogo is dedicated to nurturing his team’s professional development, actively identifying ways to advance each individual’s critical skills and personal goals by providing opportunities in training, peer review, public speaking etc whilst also encouraging his team to collaborate and network with the wider research community. Diogo promotes a positive and inclusive working culture both within his team and within in the wider department.
Katie Blake is one of the graduate students of Diogo who nominated him for the award. Funded by EPSRC, Katie is using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the impact of digital media types (such as video games and documentaries) on audiences’ perceived connection to nature, as well as their support for conservation efforts. Katie says of Diogo:
"I feel privileged to be supported by Dr Veríssimo for my PhD. His unending patience, guidance, and encouragement enables his students to flourish as independent researchers in a demanding and competitive sector and has made our doctoral journeys infinitely more rewarding."
A list of all of this year’s awardees can be found on the MPLS website.
