Ana Lazar

Just like every year, there was a high number of nominees for the GUF-100 prize from the Faculty of Science & Engineering. This year can be considered a particular bumper year, however, with 50 nominees. This meant that the faculty selection committee had to work extra hard and, subsequently, that the three presented candidates were all of exceptional quality. This made it enjoyable yet also difficult for the GUF-100 jury to choose a winner. Ultimately, they selected Ana, in particular due to her very good pitch. Ana holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) and another in Philosophy of Social and Economic Sciences, and is currently pursuing the Master’s degree programme in IEM. For Ana, studying for but also connecting two very different disciplines (engineering and philosophy) was a challenge. However, she ultimately experienced this as being highly fulfilling and, as she clarified during her pitch, this helped her to fulfil her real passion: explaining (teaching) difficult topics well. As she wrote in her motivation letter, she would like to become a teacher, ideally by lecturing at a university.

She is completely enthused by the development of a new educational tool; a project about which she is now writing an article. In her view, teaching is not only about transferring knowledge, but it should also lead to critical thinking, wisdom, and innovation.

Ana was nominated by one of her supervisors in a letter full of praise. She has achieved an average mark of 8.8 for her Master's degree programme in IEM until now and she achieved an average of 8.2 for her Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy of Social and Economic Sciences and 8 for her Bachelor’s degree in IEM. She is a research assistant, was the student member for the jury for the Best Practice Award, was a coach in a learning community, and has held various student assistant positions. Ana gave an inspirational pitch, in which she clearly expressed her ambitions, namely to become a fantastic teacher. Ana clearly knows how to communicate information in the right manner, at the right time, and also in an enjoyable way. In short, the jury believes that she has everything in her to fulfil her ambitions.