Fleming Prize Winners

“I am deeply honoured to receive the Fleming Prize, a recognition that holds special significance for me. Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin not only transformed medicine but also laid the foundation for modern antibiotic research, saving millions of lives. His legacy has been a profound source of inspiration throughout my journey as a scientist. Today, as we face a growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, I am reminded of the indispensable role antibiotics play in safeguarding global health. It is especially meaningful to have our AI-driven approach to antibiotic discovery recognized, despite the initial scepticism that machines could transform the future of antibiotics. This award motivates my team and me to continue advancing scientific research and tackling antibiotic resistance, one of the greatest challenges in modern medicine. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my team, collaborators, and family. This recognition is a testament to our collective efforts and unwavering dedication to science.” 

“I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected for the 2024 Fleming Prize! The successes so far in my career have been a product of many people’s efforts in many countries, from field assistants in Latin America, to students and postdocs in the US and the UK, to mentors and collaborators in academia and beyond. It is these diverse interactions, each brining distinct perspectives and expertise, which make science creative and fun, allowing myself and my team to thrive personally and scientifically. It is inspiring and exciting that the Microbiology Society has decided to recognize our science, which, siting at the interface of ecology, epidemiology, evolution, and virology, often feels on the fringe of any single field. I am delighted to have the opportunity to bring my perspectives to this year’s conference and draw attention to the challenges and opportunities we face in trying to curb the spread of pathogens between species.”

"The Fleming Prize is a very elite prize, there have been a lot of famous people who have received this prize in the past whose research I actively follow: Tracy Palmer, Nicola Stanley-Wall, Sarah Coulthurst, Edze Westra and many others. It validates that what we are doing in the laboratory actually matters. I am proud to receive the prize, of course, but I am also delighted for our entire lab. My name is there on the website, but the recognition definitely has to be shared with everyone who has contributed to the work, which is the lab."

“I have sat in the audience at many a Microbiology Society conference in awe of the Fleming Prize lecture presentations. To find out I have been awarded the Fleming Prize for 2022 is really quite mind-blowing, but I could not be more thrilled and thankful. The award is testament to the many inspiring researchers around the world with whom I have been fortunate to work with. While there are too many to name, I want to pay particular tribute to Professor Stephen Cummings, who had seen a scientist in me long before I did, and to Dr Janet Berrington and Professor Nick Embleton for their unwavering support over the past decade. I am also grateful to my research group, who have truly bought into my passion for microbiology and continue to drive the research to new heights.

The upcoming Microbiology Society conference in Belfast will be my first in-person meeting for over two years and I cannot wait to feel the buzz and to chat all things microbiology with new friends and old!”

“I am truly thrilled and thankful for this nomination and prize, which highlights to me that microbiology is a field which embraces inter-disciplinary exploration and testing of ideas based in theory that can be applied across systems from the lab to natural communities. The prize reflects the creativity, enthusiasm, and hard work of my wonderful lab group and collaborators, with whom I continually feel very lucky to work. I am also grateful to the Society for being a hub for research that crosses boundaries of plant and animal research, brings together ecology, evolution, and molecular biology, and emphasises that microbial organisms are the engines of biodiversity on earth.”

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“I am absolutely delighted to have been selected for the 2020 Fleming Prize, the oldest accolade of the Microbiology Society. It is a huge and unexpected honour to be recognised in this way for my work on the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary ecology of CRISPR-Cas systems. I would like to thank the Microbiology Society for this prestigious award and the University of Exeter for their support during my research trajectory. I also want to acknowledge my talented lab members and collaborators whose dedication, persistence and creativity have formed the foundation for this award.”

“I was really delighted and honoured to get the news that I will receive the Fleming Prize. Research is a such team effort, so I want to acknowledge many talented lab members and collaborators – past and present.”

“I was delighted to hear that I have been awarded the Fleming Prize. I have been a member of the Microbiology Society since the beginning of my PhD and have been inspired and supported by the community it represents ever since. Therefore, receiving this award is a great honour.”

“Winning the Fleming Prize from the Microbiology Society is an unexpected but fantastic honour. Looking down the list at previous winners is pretty intimidating, but I hope I can continue my work and follow a similar career path."

“Winning this award is an immense honour and a reflection on the hard work of many individuals over numerous years. I admire many of previous Fleming Prize lecturers and hope to make an equally important contribution to the field of microbiology over the course of my career.”

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“I looked at the list of previous winners and saw that a couple of them were Nobel laureates – I’m very proud. It’s my first big prize so I’m delighted with the recognition.”

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“To be awarded this prize is really a very great honour, especially as some of the previous recipients are people I admire and respect most in science. I’m especially pleased because Brian (Spratt) my postdoc advisor won this prize thirty years ago.”

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“I am very pleased and honoured to receive this award from the Microbiology Society. Understanding how bacteria form biofilms is a large and expanding field and I am extremely grateful that my own research contributions have received this accolade at this stage of my career.”

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“It was a great honour as somebody who was trained as an organic chemist and so I was very grateful to the Microbiology Society for accepting the research from other disciples in order to make positive contributions to microbiology”

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“I am very pleased and honoured to receive this award from the Microbiology Society. Understanding how bacteria form biofilms is a large and expanding field and I am extremely gratified that my own research contributions have received this accolade at this stage of my career.”

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"We had two separate ideas that turned out to be the same. It was just amazing, a highlight of your scientific career, to be recognized as an independent scientist and for other people to recognize the importance of that discovery."

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“Winning the Fleming Prize was probably the proudest moment of my research career. It gave me self-belief and the confidence to try out new ideas and forge new collaborations.”

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"Winning the Fleming Prize had a dramatic effect. On a personal level I felt it was the first recognition I had received from my peers and professionally it opened doors for my promotion."

"Winning the Fleming prize was a major event in my early career. The exposure helped me to build my network of collaborators, which was perhaps even more valuable at a time that predated the era of electronic communication and social media."

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"As a young lecturer winning the Fleming Prize was very important to me. The previous year I had won the equivalent award from the British Mycological Society, so I knew that mycologists thought that my work was interesting. Winning the Fleming prize meant that microbiologists in general thought that my research was valuable. This inspired me to keep on asking questions about a group of organisms that are crucial to the way that the ecosystems of our planet work, despite most people not realising this."

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“I was working in industry when I won the Fleming Award and it was marvellous to get the boost of this academic recognition at the time. It encouraged me to stay close to my scientific goals.”

“Receiving the prize was a personal honour and provided external validation that my research was making a difference at an early stage in my career. The award gave microbiology a prominence it might not otherwise have had.”

"A welcome recognition that microbiology was ready to move from a qualitative to a quantative science (my title was: Kell DB: Forces, fluxes and the control of microbial growth and metabolism, The twelfth Fleming lecture. Journal of General Microbiology 1987; 133: 1651-1665.”

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“1985 was a time of major transition for me. I was awarded the Fleming Prize and after 12 years of being employed on short-term grants and fellowships, I got a tenured position in the Imperial Cancer Research Fund’s Lincolns Inn Fields Laboratory, and for the first time my research became well supported.”

"I felt deeply honoured to be awarded the Fleming Prize. It reassured me that I was making an impact and was an important stepping stone towards the pursuit of exciting new challenges ahead."

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“It gave me the confidence that I was on the 'right track' as a Molecular detective passionate about DNA and Chromosomes”

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"For me, the Fleming Award came at a turning point in my life and in much biological science. Put crudely, and surely to upset many excellent scientists, an era of clone and sequence to answer "all" biological questions arrived. Thank you for enabling me to celebrate an extremely exciting and rewarding period in my life."

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"In 1977 the Fleming Prize Lecture was a new prize with the aim to encourage early career scientists to pursue a career in microbiology at a time when it seemed that it might be swamped by other related disciplines. I am grateful to the Society for their recognition of my early work as it gave me additional confidence in trying to project my microbial studies to the wider biological community."

The winner of the 1976 Fleming Prize was Professor Graham William Gooday, University of Aberdeen, UK.

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