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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.

Christine's first degree was a BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Leicester and she continued at Leicester for her PhD in Microbiology in the newly formed Microbiology Department. After research positions in the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne, she came as a postdoc to the University of Nottingham in 1985, joining a newly revived Food Microbiology group in the then Faculty of Agriculture at Sutton Bonington. Christine was appointed as Lecturer in Food Microbiology in 1989 and after several promotions and site name changes was appointed Chair in Food Microbiology in 2006. She is now the Head of the Division of Food Sciences. Her research work is centred on ensuring the safety of the food supply and involves characterization of microbial populations in food products and production environments at the species and sub-species levels and examining the factors influencing their introduction and survival. Christine has a long association with the Society and was previously a Main Committee member from 1990-1993, was the local organizer for several conferences and won the W H Pierce Prize in 1993.

Mark's career began working in the Microbiology Laboratories at the Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge Hospitals on the Wirral whilst attending University in Liverpool. This followed the then-traditional route of training towards state registration as a Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer. Having enjoyed the start to his career at the bench, he moved into the commercial world with Gibco (Life Technologies), and gained experience in the UK microbiology and tissue culture markets, before moving onto industrial bio-processing, and later into business development, and marketing management in Europe and Scandinavia.
International travel soon became a large part of the roles that Mark held, and realizing that new challenges should never be ignored; in 1989 he joined the Pro-Lab Diagnostics Group of companies with its Head Office in Canada and was charged with the responsibility of setting up a European Division. The following 20 years were certainly challenging, presenting many opportunities, and the chance to gain valuable additional business experience and qualifications. The company now employs 16 staff and is recognized internationally for the supply of numerous high quality in vitro diagnostic kits and reagents.

Sally's passion for microbiology started with a BSc degree course from University College London from which she graduated in 1981. Sally then worked in diagnostic bacteriology laboratories at The Royal London and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals before moving into a research role on Lyme borreliosis based at Charing Cross Hospital (now part of Imperial College London).  Whilst in this post, Sally obtained her PhD in 1992 through part-time study. She continued her postdoctoral research on spirochaetes but switching towards those causing relapsing fever. Following these studies Sally was awarded the W H Pierce Prize in 1994.
Sally subsequently moved to the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Weybridge in 2002, where she broadened her research interests to include other bacterial zoonoses such as Brucella, Leptospira, and Coxiella. From this post she has moved into academia in 2007, where she currently holds a Readership in the School of Health and Bioscience at the University of East London. She additionally serves as an associate editor for Clinical Microbiology & Infection and for Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases, as a member of the IBMS Virology Advisory Panel, and on the IBMS London Regional Panel. Her research interests are still largely focussed upon spirochaetes and bacterial zoonoses, particularly those with an impact upon developing countries.
Sally has been a member of SfAM since the days when it was the Society for Applied Bacteriology. She currently serves on the Meetings Subcommittee and has been a regular participant at SfAM meetings for a number of years, both as a presenter and member of the audience.

After completing a degree in Applied Biology (Molecular and Microbiology) at Nottingham Trent University, Samantha studied the ‘Microbial biochemistry of slow sand filters’ for her PhD at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Since then she has retained an interest in microbial communities and biofilm formation.
Thus far, she has had a varied career and has been involved in the microbiological monitoring of waste water treatment plants and coastal waters, lectured in food microbiology, worked on a European Union project to improve the microbiological monitoring of sterilized milk and monitored the quality of beer produced at Guinness.
Since 2005, Sam has worked at NCIMB and is currently Deputy Curator of NCIMB, the UK’s major repository for environmental bacteria. This has enabled her to gain rounded experience as one of her roles is to maintain the current bacterial culture collection of over 8,000 strains and ensure that a number of new bacteria are added to the collection every year to help maintain its relevance to the scientific community. Sam also plays a senior role in operating the safe, patents and secure storage facilities offered by NCIMB which are home to key strains derived from academic or industrial research and which require confidential and reliable off-site maintenance to ISO or cGMP standards.
Sam has been a member of the SfAM for a number of years and continues to enjoy serving on the Main Committee and Meetings Subcommittee.

Louise graduated from the University of Reading with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Technology (1990) and a PhD in Food Microbiology (1995). She is the Director of Research in the Cardiff School of Health Sciences. Louise is also a Reader of the University of Wales and her research interests include novel methods for decontamination of bioaerosols and surfaces and implementation of food safety management systems. Louise teaches in the area of food and general microbiology, biotechnology, research methods and processing technology. She is a Fellow of IFST and a member of the International Association for Food Protection and has been a member of SfAM (then SAB) since her PhD studies. She is also a member of  the Welsh Food Advisory Committee of the Food Standards Agency and has recently undertaken a consultancy for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN in Bangladesh.

After completing her degree in Biology, Katie gained a PhD in 2008 from the University of Northampton where she studied the antimicrobial effects of citrus essential oil vapours against Enterococcus sp. This research led to development of an antimicrobial vapour which has since been patented. Her postdoctoral work included looking at the effects of the vapour against fungi such as Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp. on grain and the effects of clinical waste movements on the transmission of Hospital Associated Infections (HAIs). Currently she works as a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Microbiology at De Montfort University; lecturing on both the Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Science degree courses and the Pharmaceutical Quality by Design MSc. She is a Chartered Biologist and her research interests include biofilms, survival mechanism of C. difficile and novel antimicrobials against HAIs. She has been a member of SfAM since 2005 and was one of the founding members of the Postgraduate and Early Career Scientist (PECS) committee.

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.

After completing a BSc in Medical Biochemistry at Birmingham University, Lucy gained valuable research experience through several posts in hospital laboratories and university departments across the West Midlands before settling at Aston University where she completed a PhD entitled: "Renal Dopamine and Salt-Sensitive Hypertension" in 2003. She continued her research career completing several postdoc projects. During this time, Lucy also taught molecular biology practical classes to final year BSc students and spent her spare time writing articles for various university publications. Through this experience she decided that her passion for science came more from talking about it rather than doing it. She was offered the honorary Editorship of Microbiologist magazine and when her postdoc contract ended, she took the position of Communications Officer for Med-Vet-Net, the EU FP6 project on zoonotic disease. This post provided extensive training in all aspects of science communications, from designing a website to corporate crisis management and she put this training to good use when she began working as Communications Officer for SfAM in June 2006. Since then she has developed SfAMs Communications remit to the extent that in June 2009 she was promoted to Communications Manager and the Society appointed Communications Officer Clare Doggett. In 2010 Lucy was awarded a MBA with distinction which she completed part-time at Aston University. In her spare time, Lucy blogs for the Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub. Contact Lucy +44(0)1234 326709.

Mike’s interest in microbiology began when he was about 10 and his grandmother bought him a toy microscope. Thanks to an inspirational teacher, he did a specialist A-level unit in microbiology at De la Salle College, Salford, but it was not until he reached university that he really became interested in the subject. Following a highly successful MSc in Biodeterioration of Materials under the charismatic Gareth Jones, Mike stayed on at Portsmouth Polytechnic to do a PhD in marine bacterial fouling. This project was funded by Hempel Marine Paints and kicked off with a course on antifouling paint technology in Copenhagen, the company’s headquarters. It also involved an interesting evening with the marine testing station staff, sampling local fermentation products! Mike went on to use adhesive yeast and bacteria in the development of a fluidized bed fermenter for fuel ethanol production as a Postdoc in Bernard Atkinson’s inspiring Biochemical Engineering Group at UMIST.
Following appointment as a Lecturer in the burgeoning Biology Department at Manchester Polytechnic, Mike designed a new Fermentation Laboratory and continued his research on fuel ethanol production. Due to waning interest in fuel Mike switched his interest to enzyme, antibiotic, and plant secondary metabolite production. Later, Mike instituted a project to develop an expanded bed biofilm reactor to nitrify wastewater treatment plant effluents as a tertiary treatment. The success of this project led to the incorporation of a spin-out company, Advanced Bioprocess Development Ltd. (ABD), which now has a full-scale prototype operated at a UK water company site by a Licensee.
Mike joined SfAM in 2008 and the Meetings Subcommittee in 2010, to help develop the environmental microbiology area of the Society.