Young Microbiologist of the Year 2019 Competition: Meet the finalists
16 July 2019
The Microbiology Society is pleased to announce the finalists of the 2019 Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year competition, which takes place during our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in September.
The competition, which is closely fought every year, gives early career microbiologists the chance to go head-to-head to be recognised as the best communicator of the year. For this year’s competition the finalists were shortlisted by the Society’s Divisions, from entrants who presented at our 2019 Annual Conference and 2018 Irish meeting. The finalists will each give a 15-minute presentation on their research to a panel of judges chaired by the Society’s Professional Development Committee Chair.
The 2019 Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year Competition finalists, and the poster or talk titles for which they were shortlisted, are as follows:
Eukaryotic Division
- Davis Laundon, Marine Biological Association, UK - Shining new lights on chytrid cell biology: Quantitative live cell imaging of rhizoid development in an early-diverging fungus
- Laura Petch, University of Kent, UK - The impact of natural genetic variation on protein aggregation in Saccharomyces species
Irish Division
- Christine Jordan, Imperial College London, UK - Understanding how bacterial products from the microbiota enter the host, determining where they aggregate, and their influence over immune cells at these sites
- Gareth Raynes, Aberystwyth University, UK - Investigating correlations between endophytic bacteria halotolerance and salt stress mitigation in their host plants
Prokaryotic Division
- Sarah Worsley, University of East Anglia, UK - The chemical ecology of protective microbiomes in plant roots and leafcutter ants
- Naoise McGarry, Trinity College Dublin, UK - Characterisation of rpoS alleles in UPEC strain CFT073
Virology Division
- Daniella Lefteri, University of Leeds, UK - Modulation of arbovirus infection by mosquito saliva
- Michaela Conley, University of Glasgow, UK - Assembly of a portal-like structure in Feline calcivirus following receptor engagement
This year, the finalists will be joined by 2018 finalist, Paula Seoane (Eukaryotic Division), who was unable to present at last year’s AGM due to technical difficulties.
- Paula Seoane, University of Birmingham, UK - Exploring the effects of Interferon α on Cryptococcus neoformans infection
All Microbiology Society members are invited to attend this year’s final at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 12 September. Find out more, including the day’s full schedule.
Image: Sir Howard Dalton.
