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Martin is a graduate of the Universities of Warwick (BSc Molecular Sciences) and Manchester (MSc, PhD Microbial Chemistry). After leaving university, he spent 10 years as a member of the Microbiology and Fermentation Section at the Tropical Products Institute in London where his work involved research, development and advisory work on the exploitation of renewable resources available to developing countries. Among the projects he worked on at TPI were the production of vinegar from export reject bananas, fermentation alcohol production, biogas from food wastes, and fermented cassava and fish products.

In 1984, he was appointed as Lecturer in Food Microbiology in the Microbiology Department of the University of Surrey where he later became Professor and is currently Emeritus Professor of Food Microbiology. In addition to his teaching duties at Surrey, Martin was one of the organizers of the WHO Advanced Food Microbiology Course and he maintained an active research programme in a number of aspects of food microbiology including the physiology of foodborne pathogens, lactic acid bacterial fermentations and natural antimicrobials. He has authored or edited 7 books and more than 100 papers, reviews and book chapters in these areas including a popular student textbook on food microbiology with Professor Maurice Moss.

He has been a member of SfAM since 1984, served on Committee (2000-2003) and was Meetings Secretary (2004-2009). He became President in July 2011.

Mark began his career at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath where he became a trainee Biomedical Scientist. He completed a Microbiology degree at Kings College, London and followed that with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, working on bacterial causes of rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Following this he won the Tadion Rideal prize for outstanding post-graduate work in molecular science. Mark then moved on to St George's Hospital medical school to work with Professor David Lewis and Professor George Griffin on the use of Cholera toxin and the heat labile toxins of E. coli as adjuvants for mucosal vaccines. Following this, he became a Lecturer at Kingston University which is where he is currently based and in 2011 became Professor of Medical Microbiology.

Steve has worked the majority of his professional life as a microbiologist within the NHS in Sheffield, although he did have a brief spell as a medical representative. He is currently Bacteriology Departmental Manager at the Northern General Hospital, which is part of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. Steve is also an external lecturer for both Sheffield Hallam and Hull Universities on a variety of different subjects. Steve has publications on many different organisms and various techniques. He is a Chartered Scientist and is working towards a PhD on the effect of silver in wounds, as he feels chronic wounds is an area that many microbiology departments tend to ignore. Steve is the current Chairman of the Microbe Symposia and also helps organize the annual joint Orthopaedic/Medical Microbiology meeting, both held in Sheffield. Steve is also Chairman of the Sheffield and district IBMS branch and is the current national Specialist Advisor to the IBMS for Microbiology. Steve’s main objective is to break down some of the professional barriers that still exist in the NHS, hopefully resulting in the introduction of Healthcare Scientist Consultants in Microbiology, in a similar way to that which has happened in the nursing profession. Steve is also the Scientific Director of the newly formed UKOMS medical, who specialize in diagnosing and advising on orthopaedic infections.

Andy is a Consultant Clinical Scientist at the Health Protection Agency Laboratory in Newcastle upon Tyne where he is Head of Molecular Diagnostics and Research and Development. His main responsibilities are the management and scientific leadership of the molecular diagnostic laboratory and all of the research and development (R&D) activities in the regional HPA laboratory. He began his microbiology career in 1991 as a trainee Biomedical Scientist at Preston Public Health Laboratory. Further postgraduate study at Preston resulted in a Masters degree in Biomedical Science and then a PhD which he completed in 2000. He then left the UK and undertook postdoctoral research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA. He returned to the UK in 2003 to take up his current post at Newcastle, where he leads the development and evaluation of new technology and methods for microbiological diagnosis, identification and typing within the laboratory.  

His main research interests include the detection and epidemiological fingerprinting of pathogens and the application of molecular diagnostic methods to clinical microbiology to aid the diagnosis and management of infectious disease. He also is a part-time lecturer at the University of Northumbria where he teaches Biomedical Science. He has served on several editorial boards including Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Journal of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and the Journal of Open Microbiology. He has been a member of the Society since 1996 and joined the Executive Committee of the Society in 2005, serving as an Ordinary Member until 2008 before becoming the Honorary Meetings Secretary in 2009.   

When he is not working he enjoys spending time with his family on their allotment, playing the guitar, mandolin and banjo, and socializing with friends and family.

Geoff graduated in 1975 with a degree in Pharmacy from what was then Brighton Polytechnic. Following pre-registration training at the Royal East Sussex Hospital in Hastings he became a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1976. His interest in microbiology did not begin until he embarked on a PhD, again at Brighton Polytechnic, on endospore formation in Bacillus species. Having gained his PhD in 1980 he joined the academic staff at Brighton where he was a general dog’s body and taught just about everything. Over the intervening period Geoff has supervised 30 PhD students mostly, but not exclusively, in the area of microbiology. His research interests have centred on pharmaceutical microbiology and included infections associated with implanted medical devices; microbial biotransformation of xenobiotics; mode of action studies of biocidal agents and alternative strategies for infection control. Much of this work has had a commercial focus and the primary source of funding has been the pharmaceutical industry. He has published over 100 peer reviewed research papers and is co-editor of a text book on microbial standards and regulations for the pharmaceutical industry.
For 10 years between 1980 and 1990 Geoff served as Secretary to the South East England Regional Committee of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Between 1998 and 2001 he was a member of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Group committee of the RPSGB where he provided microbiological expertise. He is currently a member of the Chemistry, Pharmacy and Standards Expert Advisory Group to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Having been a member of SfAM for over 20 years Geoff joined the Executive Committee in 2003, became honorary Vice President in 2007 and President in 2008. He continues to serve on the Finance and Meetings Subcommittees.

Philip began his career working in the Medical Microbiology laboratories of a major university teaching hospital. During this period, as well as training in medical microbiology he was involved in teaching, education and research and published over 60 peer reviewed articles. In 1990 Philip became the Laboratory Manager, a role which he fulfilled for five years before he was approached by a commercial company, Mast Laboratories to become their Laboratory Director. This role included directing new and existing product development, quality control, quality systems and providing scientific expertise. During this initial period he was also fortunate to complete a Master in Business Administration at Sheffield Business School. After 1998 Philip was also given the role of Production Director, which amongst many other things introduced him to Lean Manufacturing and Material Requirements Planning principles. He remained in the commercial sector until 2005 when he moved to take on the newly created position of Chief Executive Officer for the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM). Contact Philip +44(0)1234 326661.

Following graduation in 1958 from the University of Reading, Basil worked in the dairy industry and then as a biochemist in the NHS when he also gained a PG diploma in Clinical Biochemistry. In 1962, he obtained a DSIR Fellowship to work on mycotoxins at the Tropical Products Institute (TPI) but left to become Assistant Lecturer, subsequently Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, in Microbiology at the National College of Food Technology, University of Reading. In 1967 he was awarded his PhD and, in 1968, an EMBO Fellowship at the University of Oslo. In 1971 he was appointed Chief Microbiologist at the Leatherhead Food Research Association and was promoted to Deputy Director in 1978, when he also obtained a PG Management Diploma (equivalent to an MBA). In 1983 he joined Grand Metropolitan (foods division) as R&D Director and from 1987–95 was Technical Director of HP Bulmer. Following early retirement he set up his own consultancy.

He has been a visiting professor at Reading since 1977 and from 1984-2006 was also Honorary Professor in Microbiology at the University of Surrey where, in 1971, he had instigated the WHO postgraduate course in Food Microbiology, for which he served as Secretary and subsequently as Chairman of the organizing committee. He has published five books and over 200 research papers and book chapters on diverse aspects of food microbiology.

Basil served on Committee from 1985 to 1990, as Vice President (1986–87) and as President (1987–89). He was appointed an Honorary Member in 1990, a Custodian Trustee from 2005–08 and has been an ex-officio member of the Finance Subcommittee since 2006. He is a Fellow of the Society of Biology, (formerly Institute of Biology) where for many years he was the National Coordinator of Branches, and of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. He has served on many official committees and currently is the UK representative on the ISO Statistics Group for food microbiology methods (ISO TC34/SC9).

Image © Katie Jarvis

Professor Silley is a well-travelled and respected microbiologist on an international stage. He actively works in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food and environmental industries with a client base ranging from local industry to the multi-national pharmaceutical sector. He has extensive experience of the European and US regulatory systems with regard to microbiological requirements for successful registration of antimicrobial compounds and feed additives.
Currently Professor in Applied Microbiology within the School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Peter is also a consultant to a number of multi-national pharmaceutical companies, spending a significant proportion of his time in the USA. Prof. Silley is a past President of the Society for Applied Microbiology and has represented IFAH as part of the European VICH delegation on the Microbial Safety Task Force. He is a member of the CLSI Subcommittee on Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Prof. Silley has a first degree from the University of Birmingham in Bacteriology and a doctorate from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne within the Department of Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition. He has held appointments within the pharmaceutical industry with Cyanamid, ICI, and Glaxo, public sector positions with the Department of Agriculture, and academic appointments with Queen's University of Belfast and the University of Bradford.