Mathematician Don Shearman wins 2025 Lawson-Croft Award

We are proud to announce that Don Shearman, an Education Focused Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, has won the 2025 Lawson-Croft Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics and Statistics Support.

Mr Shearman was conferred the award at a two-day conference at the University of Liverpool, England, last week.

The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching – Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research in Higher Education Conference (CETL-MSOR) is a key annual event within the broader sigma Network in the UK, aimed at bringing together practitioners from the full range of the learning, teaching and support communities within the disciplines of Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research in higher education.

The Lawson-Croft Award recognises outstanding and sustained contributions to mathematics and statistics support. Named in honour of Professors Duncan Lawson MBE and Tony Croft, pioneers in establishing the UK-wide mathematics and statistics support community, the prestigious Lawson-Croft Award celebrates excellence and long-term impact in the field.

Appointed to UNSW in mid-2024, Mr Shearman is the first international (non-UK) recipient of the award - marking a significant milestone in the award's history.

The judging panel's full citation reads:

“The winner was an integral part of their team, providing over 10,000 drop-in consultations, over 1,600 workshops and supporting over 31,000 students, having a sustained positive impact. They have introduced multiple initiatives that improved student engagement including introducing maths cafés where feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“They introduced the Numbas platform, and led their support service in developing interactive resources, including explore-mode questions and interactive graphical questions, an asynchronous question board and active-learning “whiteboard tutorials” to their institution, which has facilitated referral of individual students to the support service by tutors.

“Furthermore, they have developed a suite of intelligent diagnostic tools, which guide students to tailored learning modules.

“During their career they have managed their service website, data collection, and led program evaluation and improvement. They are a key member of a Numeracy Working Group, providing expert advice on school-to-university transitions, support models, and program evaluation.

“Some general positive feedback they have received included … “I will certainly be using your workshops again”; “They have helped me improve my confidence greatly!”; “You can really see the value of the workshops and the practice quiz”. This also strengthened the service’s impact by building close relationships with unit coordinators, closing the loop between study and support.

“The winner is a generous team player, openly sharing innovations and credit: “With this person, it’s always ‘us’ and ‘we’ and they are so willing to share their expertise” (MESH colleague). They promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing, organising First Year in Maths meetings, building community amongst Australian Maths and Stats educators. They introduced international collaborations, including co-hosting Sigma-Australia virtual coffee mornings (at ridiculous times in the morning or evening!), and have been involved in international studies and conferences.

“The winner of the Lawson-Croft Award for 2025 and our first international winner is Don Shearman.”

We extend our warmest congratulations to Mr Shearman on this exceptional and well-deserved recognition.