You learn best when you are having fun. This is one of Timothy P. Jenkins’ three mantras when teaching students in the master’s course AI-guided Protein Science: From Design to Engineering, which was offered for the first time in January 2025.
The other two are that students should become highly skilled at working across disciplines and become experts in a cutting-edge field of research.
In other words, he is ambitious on behalf of the students, and he has developed the course to give them the best possible chance of becoming skilled in a rapidly developing field that is attracting enormous interest from the industry.
His work on the course is now being recognised in the form of DTU’s teaching award, which is given to teachers who have made an extraordinary effort to develop learning, teaching, and education at DTU.
On Tuesday, 7 October, DTU’s Dean of Studies and Student Affairs, Lars D. Christoffersen, presented the award to Timothy P. Jenkins at a seminar on digital learning tools held by DTU Learning Lab.
“Timothy P. Jenkins has reimagined the way of teaching with his course by combining advanced protein technology with artificial intelligence, which is two traditionally separate domains, and it is hugely inspiring to see how well the students have responded to the teaching, which puts them at the centre and equips them well to continue either as researchers at DTU or in industry,” says Lars D. Christoffersen about this year's award winner.
A joint effort
The biotechnology researcher himself is thrilled to receive the award, but he also emphasises that he could not have done it without his colleagues.
“I was extremely happy when I was told that I was the winner of DTU’s Teaching Award this year, because it is not often that you receive praise for your work as a teacher. Most of the time, you get feedback on your research, but it’s a special reward to be recognised for your efforts in educating students,” he says and continues:
“I have spent a lot of time developing this course, and it is undoubtedly a passion project, but I could not have done it alone. I have had help from other lecturers and PhD students, who have all put time and energy into making the course exciting and educational.”
The plan is to offer the course again in June 2026, and although the first course was a great success, it is important for Timothy P. Jenkins to be open to new ideas.
“The students' feedback has been really positive. In fact, one of them wrote in their evaluation that it was the best course they had ever taken during their five years at DTU, but there is still room for improvement, so we are in the process of refining the course so that it will hopefully be even more successful next time,” he says.
