What you need to know about science policy at SfAM
Hear how you can engage with policy makers from members of the SfAM Policy Subcommittee and why you should get involved.
The policy subcommittee (PSC) are a group of scientists from a range of different backgrounds, disciplines, and career stages who help shape and direct SfAM’s policy. But what does being a PSC member this actually involve?
From organising events, contributing to policy outputs including press releases, consultation responses, and policy briefings, to advising SfAM’s Executive Committee on policy and public affairs. Members of the current PSC will share their experiences of being involved in SfAM’s policy work. The PSC is recruiting for new members to be appointed at the AGM (15 July 2021) so this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about this opportunity.
Come and hear us discuss how we engage with policy makers and how you can contribute to our work at any level.
Christiana Okosun
Christiana is a student at the university of Abuja, Nigeria and a researcher at Federal institute of biotechnology, working as a trainee.
Mark Fielder
Mark began his career at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath where he became a trainee Biomedical Scientist. He completed a Microbiology degree at Kings College, London and followed that with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, working on bacterial causes of rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Following this he won the Tadion Rideal prize for outstanding post-graduate work in molecular science. Mark then moved on to St George's Hospital medical school to work with Professor David Lewis and Professor George Griffin on the use of Cholera toxin and the heat labile toxins of E. coli as adjuvants for mucosal vaccines. Following this, he became a Lecturer at Kingston University which is where he is currently based and in 2011 became Professor of Medical Microbiology.
Caleb Marsh
Caleb recently completed his undergraduate degree in Medical Biochemistry at Kingston University and is about to begin a PhD at the University of Nottingham, in the field of Agriculture and Food Security. He will be selecting a title focused on Antimicrobial Resistance. Caleb has been passionate about AMR since first hearing about it while volunteering in a veterinary practice as a teenager. The importance of this issue was stressed to him and dictated his choices from that point on. He completed a summer internship assessing the antimicrobial properties of a novel coper containing fabric and in his final year dissertation project; optimising an on-site rapid diagnostic for Staphylococcus aureus in the Kingston microbiology lab. This confirmed his passion for microbiology and research. Whilst completing his undergraduate degree, Caleb enjoyed organising talks and events with fellow students. He hopes to continue this as part of the ECS committee, while continuing the effort to welcome new and current members to engage with ECS events.
- Twitter:
- @CalJMarsh
Clare Taylor
Clare has been a Society member since 1997, when she was a PhD student at the University of Manchester. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Medical Microbiology at Edinburgh Napier University, where she is also Head of Student Experience and Employability in the School of Life, Sport & Social Sciences. The main focus of her research is on understanding host-microbe interactions, particularly of intracellular bacteria that cause human infection, and the aims of her research are to understand how bacterial gene expression is modulated in response to the host environment, and how this contributes to microbial pathogenicity. Clare is also involved in several multi-disciplinary projects and the applied aspects of her research include developing novel antimicrobial strategies. She has a keen interest in public engagement, including performing at Edinburgh Fringe, and also chairs the University’s Public Engagement Forum. Clare is active in encouraging women into science working alongside colleagues across STEM disciplines and Equate Scotland. Clare served on the Executive Committee of the Society from 2010 – 2014 and is also a Features Editor for Microbiologist.
- Twitter:
- @CT_Microbiol
Lucy Harper
After completing a BSc in Medical Biochemistry at Birmingham University, Lucy worked in hospital laboratories and university departments across the West Midlands. In 2003 she completed a PhD entitled: "Renal Dopamine and Salt-Sensitive Hypertension" and continued her research career, completing several postdoc projects. During this time, Lucy also taught molecular biology practical classes to final year BSc students and spent her spare time writing articles for various publications. Through this experience she decided that her passion for science came from talking about it rather than doing it. She was offered the honorary Editorship of The Microbiologist magazine and when her postdoc contract ended, she took the position of Communications Officer for Med-Vet-Net, the EU FP6 project on zoonotic disease. Lucy began working as Communications Officer for AMI in June 2006. Since then, she has developed AMI's Communications remit and in June 2009 she was promoted to Communications Manager. In 2010 Lucy was awarded a MBA with distinction, which she completed part-time at Aston University. After a period of maternity leave, Lucy returned to the Society as Deputy CEO, and was then appointed as Chief Executive in November 2014.
Lucy’s key achievements for the organisation since then:
• Strategy - defining the purpose of AMI including rebrand and name change
• Growth of reserves by 53% from 2014 to 2021
• Diversification of investments into ESG
• Strategic relocation to London and then remote working
• DE&I focus
• Growth of core team
Leading AMI through change to operations, governance, and strategy, Lucy takes a collaborative approach, listening to all stakeholders to ensure integrity and openness in communication and decision-making.- Twitter:
- @lucyharper
Jacob Hamilton
Jacob started off as a chemist, completing an undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Science at Kingston University in 2017, including a year-long placement at GlaxoSmithKline’s Ware site. During his undergraduate, a module on infectious disease caught his attention and inspired his intertest in microbiology. Jacob then went on to do a Masters by Research in Microbiology in Prof Mark Fielder’s lab, where he investigated the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance markers in the microbiome of birds of prey, during this time he became an active member of AMI, attending various events and writing blog pieces. Currently Jacob is conducting his PhD in Prof Matt Hutching’s lab at the University of East Anglia, where he is researching microbial symbiosis with insect and plant systems, and how these may be a source of novel antimicrobials.
Brendan Gilmore
Brendan graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacy (1999) and a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry (2004) from Queen’s University Belfast. He was appointed to a Lectureship in Pharmaceutics (Pharmaceutical Microbiology) in July 2004 in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s. In 2005 he was a visiting researcher in the laboratory of Prof Howard Ceri, University of Calgary, where he remains a visiting scientist in the Biofilm Research Group. He was promoted to Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology in 2015. His research aims to elucidate the mechanistic and biochemical pathways central to the process of microbial biofilm formation and to uncover novel targets for prevention of microbial biofilms; spanning microbiology, chemical biology, and synthetic/medicinal chemistry directed toward antimicrobial and anti-biofilm applications. His main interests include the role of proteolytic enzymes in biofilm formation and development of novel approaches for biofilm control in chronic infections. He has an active research interest in antibiotic biodiscovery from marine bacteria and achaea (extreme halophiles). Brendan is the 2013 recipient of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Science Award for his research contributions in the field of biofilm control and pharmaceutical microbiology. He is an editor of the textbook ‘Hugo & Russell’s Pharmaceutical Microbiology’ (8th Ed) and is responsible for teaching all aspects of pharmaceutical microbiology and infectious diseases to undergraduate pharmacy students at QUB.
- Twitter:
- @BrendanFGilmore
Suzy Moody
Suzy Clare is an early career academic. She graduated with BSc Hons Microbiology from Cardiff University, followed by a Post-Graduate Diploma in Clinical Nursing at Bournemouth University. She completed her MSc Infectious Disease from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine while working as an ICU nurse, before working overseas for two years in a variety of healthcare settings in Africa and Asia. On returning to the UK, she completed her PhD studying Streptomyces bacteria at Swansea University. After two post-doctoral placements studying transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics in a variety of fungal and bacterial systems, she is now a Lecturer at Kingston University establishing her research group studying bioremediation of plastics. She is currently also a Council member of the Royal Society of Biology. She returned to nursing part-time during the Covid-19 pandemic and works on Critical Care at University Hospital Southampton.
Olumuyiwa Igbalajobi
Dr. rer. nat. Olumuyiwa Igbalajobi is from Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State, Nigeria and currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. In the last 16 years, he has worked with various pathogenic organisms including Shigella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus nidulans and Alternaria alternata. His present research focus on the mechanism of virulence in the encapsulated yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, an encapsulated yeast responsible for an estimated 300,000 cases of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis per year. The disease accounts for over 15% of all AIDS-associated deaths.
Dr Igbalajobi is the founder of scholarship cafe, a platform that provides scholarship and funding openings as well as resources for prospective undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs and faculty. Since inception of this initiative, he has mentored and provided guidance to over 30,000 applicants across the world including Nigeria, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mexico e.t.c. He is also the co-founder of Voices in STEMNg (VISNG), a non-profitable organization fostering the development of STEM and other related courses in Nigeria.
Dr Igbalajobi had his first degree in Microbiology from the University of Ado-Ekiti, his master in Mycology under the Korean Government Scholarship Program (KGSP), and his PhD from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. Dr Igbalajobi is the current Vice President-External, University of British Columbia, Postdoctoral Association. His mandate is to push for the interest and general well being of about 1000 postdocs in UBC at the local and national level.
Sarah Maddocks
An enthusiastic, self-motivated microbiologist and principle investigator with extensive expertise in the field of infectious disease, a good publication record and significant experience in the design, execution and management of research projects.
Lisa Rivera
After completing an MA in International Relations at the University of St Andrews and MSc in Global Politics at the London School of Economics, Lisa worked for politicians in both London and New York. Her experience of providing constituent support and conducting policy research while assisting these elected officials led to a career focused on promoting public interest policies. Prior to joining SfAM, Lisa was part of the Policy and Public Affairs Team at another membership organisation. As the Policy and Public Affairs Manager at SfAM, Lisa is responsible for leading the Society’s external engagement programme in order to promote the profile of members and the impact of their work.
Joey Shepherd
Joey is a Lecturer in Microbiology at the University of Sheffield’s School of Clinical Dentistry. After graduating from Leeds University in 1995 with a BSc. in Microbiology, and the University of Sheffield with an M.Med.Sci. degree in Microbial Pathogenicity, Joey completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2002. She then moved to Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, to work for Prof. Peter Libby developing near infra red in vivo molecular probes. Joey returned to the University of Sheffield in 2007 as a PDRA, where she developed a 3D model of infected tissue engineered human skin, subsequently used in several further studies. Joey took up my first academic post as a Senior Lecturer in the Biomedical Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University in 2014, and was appointed to her current post in April 2015.
