Congratulations to Professor James Fergusson from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), who has been awarded a 2025 Pilkington Prize. His award marks the third consecutive year in which course leaders in the Mathematics Faculty have been recognised for their outstanding teaching, following the Pilkington Prizes awarded in 2024 to Professor Julia Wolf and to Dr Jonathan Evans in 2023.
The Pilkington Prizes are awarded annually by the University of Cambridge to recognise outstanding contributions to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. The prizes recognise excellence across the full spectrum of teaching activity, including major contributions to teaching and assessment within the Department, Faculty or University, engagement with and feedback from students; enthusiasm for the subject, and providing challenging and stimulating teaching at all levels.
Launching new courses in Data Intensive Science - James Fergusson
James Fergusson is Course Director for the MPhil in Data Intensive Science, and Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science. His Pilkington Prize recognises both his exceptional teaching, and his outstanding contribution in launching the innovative and exciting new MPhil in Data Intensive Science programme.
"I am deeply honoured—and a bit overwhelmed—to receive this award," says Fergusson. “When we established the MPhil, our goal was to create a programme that was as rigorous and challenging as any Cambridge course should be. But just as importantly, we were committed to ensuring that the student experience was welcoming, personal, supportive, and collaborative, with kindness at its core."
James Fergusson
"This award means so much because it reflects the effort we put into shaping that culture—through team-building and social activities, proactive mental health support, and building a diverse and collaborative cohort. This is not my achievement; it belongs to all of our teaching and administrative team, and also to our fantastic first cohort, who embraced and built upon these values to make the programme such a success."
Fergusson is an outstanding lecturer, who always presents material with remarkable clarity and expertise and focusses on equipping students with skills that can be used in practice.
Fegusson’s dedication, creativity and heartfelt involvement in establishing and supporting the new MPhil in Data Intensive Science has already left an enduring legacy. As well as the cohort of students registered for the course, hundreds of others access the materials online.
Fergusson launched this innovative new course, which lies at the intersection of AI, data and the physical sciences. His exceptional leadership has seen it through from original design and recruitment to delivery, and is now ensuring that it is continually improved. As the Pilkington Prize citation highlights, "at every stage, his highest priorities have been the success and well-being of the students, and he has fostered a real sense of community that is deeply appreciated by and valuable for his students and colleagues alike".
Transforming Part III - Julia Wolf
The 2025 Pilkington Prize awarded to James Fergusson is the third consecutive year that the outstanding teaching and student support within the Faculty has been recognised. James Fergusson’s recognition sits alongside the prizes won by Professor Julia Wolf in 2024 and Dr Jonathan Evans in 2023.
Julia Wolf
For the five years prior to the award of her Pilkington Prize in 2024 Julia Wolf, Professor of Pure Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics (DPMMS), served as the Director of Taught Postgraduate Education, where she was a hands-on manager of the Part III course. Occasionally described as "the most challenging mathematics course in the world", the Part III taught Masters course is renowned for its excellence. Part III currently attracts around 250 students a year, and provides an unrivalled breadth of study. The course typically offers around 75 course options for students to choose from, and many are taught by world leaders in their field of research.
Wolf has a deep commitment to both the mathematical education and the overall wellbeing of our students. She was instrumental in reforming the structure of the course to ensure that all Part III students, with their diversity of backgrounds and interests, have the most positive and fulfilling experience possible during their time in Cambridge.
In addition to her transformational leadership of Part III, the Pilkington Prize recognised Wolf’s work as an inspiring educator. She is an exceptionally well-regarded lecturer across all years of the Tripos - in the 2023/24 academic year she lectured both the Numbers and Sets Part IA course and the Introduction to Additive Combinatorics course for Part III. Feedback from students is testament to her outstanding teaching, with students across the board praising the clarity and structure of her presentation - and, in the words of one Part IA student quoted in the citation, describing her as an "absolute academic weapon".
Ensuring the quality of the Cambridge education experience - Jonathan Evans
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Julia Wolf worked heroically alongside Jonathan Evans, Director of Undergraduate Education (who was awarded a 2023 Pilkington Prize) - to protect the quality of the Cambridge education experience. Faced with an unprecedented situation, they liaised with the many stakeholders across the collegiate University to establish consistency and consensus. Under extremely difficult circumstances, both Wolf and Evans worked tirelessly to coordinate the online provision of lectures, supervisions, example classes and office hours, overcoming huge challenges to ensure that the examinations - both online and in-person - were rigorous and fair.
Jonathan Evans
Jonathan Evans (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) is described by students as "just a brilliant lecturer", who is "very engaging" and "makes difficult concepts seem easy". Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Evans continued to strive to improve the student experience, and to scrutinise how the Tripos could be further improved, for example in considering Part II reform.
Evans' Pilkington Prize also recognised his work as an outstanding Director of Undergraduate Education for the Faculty, with a comprehensive understanding of the complex structure and operation of the undergraduate Mathematical Tripos, and a profound commitment to maintaining and enhancing the quality of Mathematics education in Cambridge. His Pilkington Prize citation highlighted the caring and compassionate way Jonathan puts the interests of students first, and is focused on maximising the learning of the entire student body to allow all to achieve their potential.
"All of us in the Faculty of Mathematics are proud of the achievements of our colleagues Jonathan Evans, Julia Wolf and James Fergusson who have won the Pilkington Prize over the last three years," say Colm-cille Caulfield, Head of DAMTP, and Ivan Smith, Head of DPMMS.
"The Faculty of Mathematics has a deep and long-standing commitment to excellence in the teaching of mathematics, which naturally goes hand in hand with our commitment to excellence in mathematics research. Sharing the excitement of learning new mathematics, and reflecting on and developing the best environment for learning new mathematics, runs through everything we do. We are delighted that the outstanding efforts of our colleagues have been recognised by the award of the Pilkington Prize: well done all three!"