Raúl Toral and Pere Colet win the Best Teacher Award of the 2024–2025 master course

• Raúl Toral and Pere Colet are recognized for their joint teaching, long-standing commitment, and leadership in the Master's program since its inception.
• Their co-authored book and outstanding student evaluations demonstrate their dedication to education in complex systems.

Raúl Toral and Pere Colet, researchers at IFISC (UIB-CSIC), have been awarded ex aequo the Best Teacher Prize for the 2024–2025 Master's program in Physics of Complex Systems at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). This award, funded by the Sicómoro Foundation, recognizes excellence in teaching and dedication to student education in the field of complex systems.

Raúl Toral and Pere Colet have been key contributors to the development and continued success of the Master’s program. Since its inception in 2012, both have played an active and sustained role as educators, coordinators, and supervisors. They have jointly taught two core subjects, Simulation Methods and Stochastic Processes, and have supervised a large number of high-quality master theses (16 by Raúl Toral and 12 by Pere Colet, including 2 co-supervised works). Raúl Toral previously served as the program's director whereas Pere Colet has been a long-standing member of the master’s academic committee. Both were also involved in the recent update of the program’s syllabus.

Together, they author the textbook Stochastic Numerical Methods: An Introduction for Students and Scientists, which has become a key reference for students in the field. Their dedication has consistently been recognized in student surveys, where they have received remarkable evaluations year after year.

The Sicómoro Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting research and the study of complex systems, funds this award, which includes a personal grant of 500 euros and a commemorative trophy. The Foundation's mission is to promote a new epistemology, based on the concept of systems, that transcends the limits of reductionist analytical methods, supporting initiatives that advance the science of complexity.

This award not only highlights the excellent teaching of both Raúl Toral and Pere Colet but also reinforces the importance of the Sicómoro Foundation in supporting academic excellence and research in the field of complex systems.

Image: Raúl Toral (left) and Pere Colet (right).