Prize Medal Winner Q&As

Learn more about some of our previous Prize Medal winners in a series of Q&A's as they describe what winning the medal meant to them. 

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  Prize Winner Q&A – Professor Wendy Barclay

  The 2023 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Wendy Barclay. In this interview, Wendy talks about her research on respiratory viruses like the ones that cause flu and COVID-19, and understanding which of the viruses out there in nature are most likely to be a problem for us.

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  Prize Winner Q&A – Professor Bonnie Bassler

  The 2022 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Bonnie Bassler. In this interview, Bonnie talks about her research of quorum sensing, advice to early career researchers and her most significant discovery to date.

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  Prize Winner Q&A – Professor Joan Steitz

  The 2021 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Joan Steitz for her research which focuses on studying RNA and its role in living cells. In this interview we learnt more about what winning the Prize meant to her and some of her biggest professional achievements.

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  Prize Winner Q&A – Professor Martin Blaser

  The 2020 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Martin Blaser. In this interview we learn more about his research, how technological advances have driven new advance and what winning the Prize meant to him.

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  Prize Lecture Q&A - Professor Jill Banfield

  The 2018 Microbiology Society Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Jill Banfield from the University of California, Berkeley. Jill investigates the diverse range of microbial communities living in different environments and she has made huge contributions to the disciplines of microbiology, earth sciences and phylogeny.

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  Prize Winner Q&A – Professor Michael Rossmann

  The 2017 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Michael Rossmann for his outstanding contributions to the development of protein crystallography and understanding of virus structures.

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  Prize Winner Q&A – Sir David Baulcombe FRS

  The 2015 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor David Baulcombe FRS who was a co-discoverer of the first ‘small interfering RNA’ (siRNA) and showed that these molecules have a role in gene silencing.

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  Professor Rita Colwell

  The 2014 Prize Medal was awarded to Professor Rita Colwell for her research on global infectious diseases and the provision of safe drinking water across the world.