Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture
Awarded annually to an individual who has made sustained and outstanding contributions to the discipline of microbiology
Established in 1953, the award is named after Marjory Stephenson, a member of the inaugural committee of the Society for General Microbiology (now the Microbiology Society) and its second president (1947-1948). Since the award was instituted, 20 microbiologists have been awarded the Marjory Stephenson Prize and many of them have gone on to achieve distinguished careers and honours.
Nominations for the 2027 Prize will open on Tuesday April 7 2026. The deadline for submissions is 14 June 2026. Details of the nomination process and award criteria can be found below.
Award Criteria and guidance
The Marjory Stephenson Prize recognises those who have made a sustained outstanding contribution to microbiology.
Nominations should include:
- Evidence of a sustained contribution to microbiology – i.e., over a period of years/decades.
- Evidence of significant advances in their field, particularly translational or cross-disciplinary work.
- Evidence of mentoring and training others.
The form will ask you to:
- Outline the distinction of the candidate’s work and contribution to microbiology.
This section should include significant discoveries in the candidate’s field, invention or development of new tools and technologies, or evidence of great originality or foresight.
- Describe the impact of the candidate’s work.
This section should include how the nominee’s work has had an influence in their field and across the breadth of microbiology and note whether there has been, or if there is the potential for, a translational aspect to their work in industry, policy or wider society.
- Provide examples of academic and professional citizenship.
This section could include contributions to public engagement work, teaching and mentoring. Please include links to work and projects where appropriate.
Nominations must also upload a 2-page CV including publications and work relevant to the Prize in the form of a bibliography or ORCID/Google Scholar page. Please include a list of the top ten papers with a narrative of up to 50 words for each. Please also include a statement acknowledging your understanding of the rules of the award scheme.
Nomination information
The deadline for submissions is 14 June 2026.
Nominations for the Prize are welcome from any member of the Microbiology Society, regardless of membership period or category. Nominees do not have to be members of the Society.
Please click the 'Nominate now' button below and log in to your MiSociety account to submit a nomination. You will need to enter some text into all mandatory fields before being able to save a draft of your nomination. Once saved, you will be able to return to edit it; however, once a nomination is submitted, it cannot be amended. You may therefore prefer to collaborate via an offline version and copy it across when ready for submission for ease.
The recipient of the Prize Lecture will receive £1,000 and be expected to give a lecture based on their research at the Microbiology Society's Annual Conference. They will also be strongly encouraged to publish the lecture in one of the Society’s journals, whichever is the most suitable. This decision will be at the discretion of the Editors of the journals.
Unsuccessful nominations will be reconsidered for a further two years, pending confirmation/update of the nomination by the nominators each year. If the period expires and the nomination remains unsuccessful, individuals may be nominated again after a one-year period. This is in place to protect the nominee, as they may wish to withdraw from the process. The Society office will contact you each year in order to update the nomination.
The Microbiology Society is committed to ensuring equal access to opportunities to participate in our activities, and therefore we are asking members who nominate to our Prize Lectures to ensure their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Questionnaire answers are up to date. While it is voluntary to disclose information about yourself, your responses will be instrumental in supporting us to make the Society more inclusive. All of your responses to this questionnaire will be treated as confidential, in line with our privacy policy and data protection laws. Any reporting of the data will be anonymised and will be used to monitor and review the diversity and inclusivity of the Society and its activities.
Previous winners of the Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture
Visit our YouTube channel playlist to watch previous Prize Lectures.
