Winners of Applied Microbiology Awards 2022

Winners of Applied Microbiology International Awards 2022 announced at Science Museum ceremony in London

The winners of the annual Applied Microbiology International Awards 2022 have been announced at a glittering ceremony at London’s Science Museum on 29 November 2022.

Organised by Applied Microbiology International, the awards celebrate the brightest minds in the field and promote the research, groups, projects, products and individuals who are shaping the future of applied microbiology.

The guest of honour was Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam MBE, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham who was named an Honorary Fellow at the prestigious event.

The event was also an opportunity to officially announce a major rebrand for Applied Microbiology International (previously Society for Applied Microbiology) following an intensive 12-month strategic review. The new brand reflects the organisation’s status as a global community of microbiologists who have come together to advance scientific impact in the field.

The winners of the four awards categories were chosen from a hotly contested field featuring nominations from more than 30 countries.

The WH Pierce Prize was awarded to Joshua Quick of the University of Birmingham, for his research into low-cost amplicon sequencing methods which have been critical in outbreak responses to Ebola, Zika and the Covid19 pandemic in which over 10 million genomes have been sequenced.

Founded in 1984 in memory of the late WH (Bill) Pierce, former Chief Bacteriologist of Oxo Ltd and a long-time member of the Society, the WH Pierce Prize is awarded to a scientist who has used microbiology to make a significant contribution to One Health advancements.

The Dorothy Jones Prize was presented to Davide Bulgarelli, a Senior Lecturer and a Principal Investigator at the University of Dundee, whose research sits at the interface of multiple disciplines, encompassing plant genetics, microbial ecology, and computational biology. 

The award, which is named after Dr Dorothy Jones, who served as President of Applied Microbiology International from 1989 to 1991 and was the third female President of the Society, goes to a scientist who has used microbiology to make a significant contribution to our understanding of terrestrial life, rhizospheres and soil microbiomes, or to the preservation of our global ecosystem.

The Basil Jarvis Prize was awarded to Tanushree B Gupta, an AgResearch senior scientist based at the Hopkirk Research Institute in New Zealand who works in the space of dairy and meat microbiology, determining sources of pathogens and spoilage bacteria that reside in farms and can enter the food chain causing quality and safety issues. She is also exploring novel and natural ways for compounds to enhance the shelf life and safety of food in the food chain. 

Named after Professor Basil Jarvis, a distinguished researcher in the field of food microbiology and a past President of Applied Microbiology International, this prize is presented to a microbiologist who has made a significant contribution to food safety, food fermentations and food security.

The winner of the Applied Microbiology Product of the Year Award was the Innovate Autosampler III, from Hygiena®, headquartered in Camarillo, California.