Prize Winners

Congratulations to the following microbiologists who have been awarded Society prizes. They will be delivering their lectures at the Society’s  Annual Conference 2014 from 14 to 17 April 2014 at the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool.

Professor Rita Colwell - Prize Medal

Professor Rita Colwell (University of Maryland) has been awarded the Prize Medal. This is presented annually to an outstanding microbiologist who is a global leader in their field and whose work has had a far-reaching impact beyond microbiology. She will deliver her talk entitled Climate change, oceans, and infectious disease:  Cholera pandemics as a model at 12:10 on Monday 14 April.

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Dr Colwell holds a BS in Bacteriology and an MS in Genetics from Purdue University alongside a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Washington. She is Distinguished University Professor both at the University of Maryland at College Park and at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Senior Advisor and Chairman Emeritus, Canon US Life Sciences, Inc., and President and Chairman of CosmosID, Inc. Her interests are focused on global infectious diseases, water and health, and she is currently developing an international network to address emerging infectious diseases and water issues, including safe drinking water for both the developed and developing world, in collaboration with Safe Water Network, headquartered in New York City.

Dr Colwell served as the 11th Director of the US National Science Foundation, 1998–2004. One of her major interests includes K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate science and engineering education and the increased participation of women and minorities in science and engineering. 

She is a nationally respected scientist and educator, and has authored or co-authored 17 books and more than 800 scientific publications. She produced the award-winning film Invisible Seas, and has served on editorial boards of numerous scientific journals.

Dr Colwell has been awarded 55 honorary degrees from institutions of higher education, including her Alma Mater, Purdue University, and is the recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, bestowed by the Emperor of Japan, the 2006 National Medal of Science awarded by the President of the United States, and the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize awarded by the King of Sweden. A geological site in Antarctica, Colwell Massif, has been named in recognition of her work in the Polar Regions.

Professor Nikolay Zenkin - Fleming Prize Lecture

Professor Nikolay Zenkin (Newcastle University) has been awarded the 2014 Fleming Prize Lecture in recognition of his research on the molecular biology of microbial RNA polymerase. He will deliver his presentation entitled Multiple personalities of RNA polymerase active centre at 12:10 on Wednesday 16 April.

Nikolay Zenkin was born in 1979 in the small town of Dubna, the nuclear physics research centre of the former USSR. He graduated from Moscow State University, Department of Molecular Biology, Biological Faculty in 2001 and obtained a PhD from the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2004. During the course of his PhD Nikolay worked in the laboratory of Professor Konstantin Severinov at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Jersey, where he returned after completing his PhD as a post-doc. In 2007, Nikolay was offered a Lectureship at the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences at Newcastle University, where he started and continues to run his laboratory. In 2009, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer and in 2013 to full Professor.

(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) PROFESSOR NIKOLAY ZENKIN, PROFESSOR LAURA PIDDOCK AND PROFESSOR STEPHEN CURRY

Professor Laura Piddock - Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture

Professor Laura Piddock (University of Birmingham) has been awarded the 2014 Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture in recognition of her work on antimicrobials. She will deliver her talk Understanding the basis of antibiotic resistance as a platform for early drug discovery at 12:10 on Tuesday 15 April.

Laura started her research career in a clinical environment and carried out her PhD with Professor Richard Wise. Since then she has successfully integrated this background with academic research, furthering understanding of the mechanisms of antibiotic action and resistance of antibacterial drugs. Her current research focuses on understanding mechanisms of antibiotic resistance as a basis for drug discovery and includes multidrug efflux and regulation of multidrug efflux pumps,  and furthering understanding of the mechanism of transfer of plasmids between bacteria. Laura has an international track record in working on bacteria isolated from animals and humans. She has been an expert advisor to the World Health Organization on antibiotic resistance and a member of the UK Food Standards Agency Advisory Committee on the Microbiology Safety of Food. Laura has received numerous awards and is a Fellow of the Society of Biology, and the American Academy of Microbiology, and a member of the Wellcome Trust Peer Review College. She is also Director of Antibiotic Action. She has been awarded a Chair in Public Engagement from the British Society in Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.  These activities have resulted in significant recent interactions with politicians, policy-makers, industry, the media and the general public and allowed her to engage with broad audiences and explain issues including the use of antibiotics in animals.

Professor Stephen Curry - Peter Wildy Prize for Microbiology Education

Professor Stephen Curry (Imperial College London) has been awarded the 2014 Peter Wildy Prize for Microbiology Education in recognition of his extensive work in communicating microbiology to a diverse audience. He will deliver his lecture entitled Science communication: a communicable disease? at 17:35 on Monday 14 April.

Stephen Curry, a native of Northern Ireland, is a Professor of Structural Biology at Imperial College where he teaches life sciences students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. His main research interests are in the molecular mechanisms of replicating RNA viruses such as foot-and-mouth disease virus and noroviruses.

A regular science blogger since 2008, he writes about his research, the scientific life past and present, and about the range of interactions between science and society on his blogs at Reciprocal Space and the Guardian.

A founder member and now vice-chair of the Science is Vital Campaign, Curry is also a member of the board of directors of the Campaign for Science and Engineering. He is an advocate of open access scholarly publishing and has taken a keen interest in recent, successful moves to reform the libel law of England and Wales. He can be found on twitter as @Stephen_Curry.