AMI appoints four new Trustees to Executive Committee
Applied Microbiology International has announced the appointment of four new trustees to its Executive Committee.
Dr Marc Dumont and Dr Kate Lagerstrom will join the Executive Committee as new trustees, while Dr Samantha Law and Dr James Williamson were re-elected to serve as trustees for a second three-year term of office.
New trustees
Kate recently completed her PhD in Biology at Stanford University where she studied the genetic diversity of distribution of Escherichia coli among a wild animal community. She will soon begin a post-doctoral research position at Princeton University where she will continue to study human impacts on host-associated microbial communities.
Marc is an Environmental Microbiologist with a wide range of research interests focused primarily on methane-oxidising bacteria but extending to the wider roles of microbes in biogeochemical cycles, ecology, environmental health, antibiotic resistance, and their potential application in sustainable agriculture. He is based at the University of Southampton (UK).
Samantha has worked at the National Collection of Marine and Industrial Bacteria (NCIMB), the UK’s major repository for environmental bacteria, since 2005 and has been the Curator of the collection for more than 10 years.
James is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham, focusing on Engineering Biology and synthetic biology approaches to build microbes capable of producing high value products.
Saying farewell
AMI also paid tribute to two Trustees who stepped down at the AGM on July 18, Professor Sally Cutler and Dr John Threlfall, who are both longstanding members of SfAM/AMI.
Sally is a Professor at the University of East London. She will continue her involvement with AMI as the Chair of our One Health Advisory Group.
John is a Committee Member at the UK Health Protection Agency and was elected to the AMI Executive Committee in 2021.
AMI President Professor Jack Gilbert said: ”Sally and John served as trustees at a critical time, overseeing the development and approval of our new strategy and the move from the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) to Applied Microbiology international (AMI).
”Our Trustees are all volunteers who play a vital role at AMI. They are responsible for much of the strategic decision-making which contributes to the successful running of the organisation. We are eternally grateful for their support and stepping up to serve as trustees.
”Thank you to all the AMI members who put themselves forward to serve as trustees and those members who participated in the ballot to select our trustees. Voting is an important way for AMI’s members to influence the way in which the organisation is run.
“AMI selects new trustees on an annual basis, and all AMI members are eligible to stand for election. AMI believes that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and personal experiences reflect the diversity of our membership base. It is not necessary to have previous experience as a trustee and applicants receive consideration without regard to their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.”