WH Pierce prize
Instituted to commemorate the late WH (Bill) Pierce, this prestigious award is given to a microbiologist who has made a substantial contribution to applied microbiology.
This prestigious prize is awarded each year to an early career microbiologist who has made a substantial contribution to the science of applied microbiology. It is worth £6,000 and the recipients do not have to be existing SfAM members.
The award was instituted in 1984 by the directors of Oxoid to commemorate the life and works of the late WH (Bill) Pierce, former Chief Bacteriologist of Oxo Ltd and a long-time member of the Society. Application is through nomination by members of the Society only.
WH Pierce 2020: Joan Geoghegan
The 2020 WH Pierce Prize was awarded to Dr Joan Geoghegan, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and Infection at Institute of Microbiology and Infection, University of Birmingham.
WH Pierce 2019: Lindsay Hall
Exploring the first contact between microbe and their host during the early life developmental window
WH Pierce 2018: Sarah Coulthurst
How to kill your rivals – Type VI secretion system-mediated bacterial warfare.
WH Pierce 2017: Brendan Gilmore
Controlling Biofilms: Probing the Future, Mining the Past
WH Pierce 2016: Jack Gilbert
Invisible influence: how the indoor microbiome influences health
WH Pierce 2015: Nicola Stanley-Wall
Biofilms: looking closely at the matrix
WH Pierce 2014: Vasillis Valdramidis
Integrating principles of predictive microbiology in food processing
WH Pierce 2013: Lori Snyder
Bacterial genome sequence data to conduct comparative analyses
WH Pierce 2011: Brian Jones
Human gut mobile metagenome
WH Pierce 2010: Mark Webber
Mechanisms of quinolone resistance in Escherichia coli
WH Pierce 2009: Katie Hopkins
Rapid identification of antimicrobial resistance genes in Gram-negative bacteria
WH Pierce 2008: Paul Cotter
Dr Paul Cotter is a Funded Investigator at the APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Ireland.
WH Pierce 2007: Dennis Linton
Dr Dennis Linton is a microbiologist at University of Manchester. He largely works on Campylobacters and related species, glycosylation and gene regulation.
WH Pierce 2006: Roy Sleator
Roy is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biological Sciences and a principal investigator at the Centre for Research in Advanced Therapeutic Engineering (CREATE) at Cork Institute of Technology.
WH Pierce 2005: Andrew McBain
Andrew is a professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Manchester. He studied for a PhD in in medical microbial ecology at University of Cambridge with the MRC at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
WH Pierce 2004: Andy Sails
Andrew Sails is the assay research area manager for QuantuMDx group where he manages their assay development programme. Prior to joining QuantuMDx he was a consultant clinical scientist at the Public Health England Public Health Laboratory in Newcastle upon Tyne.
WH Pierce 2003: Jean-Yves Maillard
Jean-Yves Maillard is professor of pharmaceutical microbiology at Cardiff University. He completed a PhD on ‘the mechanisms of action biocides against viruses’ at the Welsh School of Pharmacy.
WH Pierce 2002: Phil Hill
Phil Hill is associate professor in microbiology at the University of Nottingham. His research interests fall into three areas: bacterial gene control, imaging and synthetic biology.
WH Pierce 2001: Stephen On
Stephen is associate dean of research at Lincoln University, New Zealand, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
WH Pierce 2000: Frieda Jørgensen
Senior public health microbiologist at Public Health England
WH Pierce 1999: Joint award D Besra and Simon Park
This research focuses on Campylobacter jejuni, the leading cause of food-borne illness in the UK, and how this pathogen responds to nitric oxide.
WH Pierce 1998: Irene Grant
Irene is a senior lecturer at Queen's University Belfast
WH Pierce 1997: SJ Foster
Simon Foster is professor of molecular microbiology and faculty director of research and innovation at the University of Sheffield.
WH Pierce 1996: Sally Cutler
Sally is professor in medical microbiology at the University of East London.
WH Pierce 1995: EG M Power
Power has contributed to Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Journal of Hospital Infection, European Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Journal of Clinical Pathology and Journal of Medical Microbiology.
WH Pierce 1994: Ian Roberts
Ian was divisional head, research dean (2001-2005 and 2012-2016) and is currently a member of the Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation.
WH Pierce 1993: Christine Dodd
Christine is chair in food microbiology, Faculty of Science, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham
WH Pierce 1992: Peter Green
Peter was Curator of the NCIMB culture collection and head of microbiology services at NCIMB and served two terms on the SfAM Executive Committee.
WH Pierce 1991: Joint award - GR Gibson and HS Tranter
Glenn Gibson is professor of food microbiology, head of Food Microbial Sciences. He co-coined the term ‘prebiotic’ in a paper in 1995 and continued to lead research in the field.
WH Pierce 1990: Jim McLauchlin
Jim McLauchlin was a lead public health microbiologist
WH Pierce prize 1989: Tom J Humphrey
Tom Humphrey did much of the research on salmonella and eggs in the 1980s and ‘90s and advised the British Egg Industry to vaccinate hens against salmonella in 1997, a major public health intervention.
WH Pierce prize 1988: RG Kroll
Department of Microbiology, AFRC Institute of Food Research, Reading Laboratory, Shinfield, UK
WH Pierce prize 1984: MD Collins
Collinsella aerofaciens is a group of bacteria found in the gut and also on the surface of the tongue. It is named after the microbiologist Matthew Collins.