Kingston University academic recognised with prestigious teaching award

A Kingston University academic has been awarded one of the highest honours in physiology education. 

Dr Nicholas Freestone, Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, has been awarded the Otto Hutter Physiology Teaching Prize and Lecture by The Physiological Society. 

The prize recognises excellence and originality in teaching with the recipient also getting to deliver the prestigious Otto Hutter Prize lecture.  

Dr Freestone, who has been teaching at Kingston University for nearly 25 years, expressed his gratitude at receiving the honour. “The Physiological Society is Europe’s oldest and largest community of physiologists, founded in 1876. Amongst its ranks can be counted at least 61 Nobel laureates. I am immensely proud then that my years of engagement with this prestigious society have been recognised with the Otto Hutter Teaching Prize.

“This is especially the case as I am the first recipient of this prize from a post-92 university. This award shows that students and academics at Kingston University can all aspire to the highest levels of achievement through hard work, determination and resilience."

Dr Freestone's educational philosophy has been informed by his own experiences as the first member of his family to attend university. Throughout his career, he has championed widening participation, diversifying the curriculum to enhance student belonging, inclusive assessment, and the importance of strong role models in higher education. 

His programmes have delivered measurable improvements in student satisfaction, graduate outcomes and degree attainment, while producing graduates who have gone on to successful careers across the pharmaceutical, healthcare and bioscience sectors.

The Otto Hutter Prize, first established in 2014 and named after the late Austrian-born British physiologist, is one of many prizes Dr Freestone has been awarded in recent years. This includes being awarded the Rang Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching by the British Pharmacological society in 2025, being made a National Teaching Fellow in 2021 and named Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year in 2014.  This constitutes a consistent record of teaching excellence over a long career.

Through mentoring staff, leading national networks, contributing to professional societies and influencing educational policy, Dr Freestone has helped shape the teaching practices of hundreds of academics and the learning experiences of thousands of students across the UK.

• Find out more about studying pharmaceutical sciences at Kingston University.