Professor Nigel Brown elected as SGM President

5 July 2012

The Society for General Microbiology (SGM) is pleased to announce that its governing Council has elected Professor Nigel Brown as the next SGM President.  Nigel will formally take over from Professor Hilary Lappin-Scott in September 2012,at the Society’s Annual General Meeting.


Nigel is currently Senior Vice-Principal at The University of Edinburgh, where he is also Head of Planning, Resources and Research Policy and Professor of Molecular Microbiology. He will retire from this position later this year to focus on his Presidency and other work in science and higher education policy and science communication.


Nigel has worked in the fields of molecular genetics and microbiology for over 30 years and has published more than 150 scientific papers. Nigel is former Director of Science and Technology at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) where he had responsibility for the BBSRC science strategy and for competitive grant funding, as well as a number of Research Councils UK activities.


Nigel said, “I am delighted to have been elected as President at such an important time for the Society. We face a number of societal issues, such as new and re-emerging diseases, public access to research information, and the role of science in policy-making, as well as facing many scientific challenges. I hope to work with the membership in addressing these, and to take forward many of the developments initiated under Hilary Lappin-Scott’s presidency.”


Current SGM President Professor Hilary Lappin-Scott said, “These are challenging times for scientific societies and for the discipline of microbiology. I am delighted that the SGM will be led by Nigel Brown who, with his wealth of scientific, policy and leadership experience, is well-placed to respond strongly to these pressures and develop new initiatives to promote the art and science of microbiology to stakeholders. I have every confidence that the Society will flourish under his leadership.”


Notes for Editors


For further information please contact Laura Udakis, Press and Social Media Officer,Society for General Microbiology. Tel +44 (0)118 988 1843 Email l.udakis@sgm.ac.uk

Professor Nigel Brown holds Honorary Professorships at the universities of Nottingham and Swansea. He is a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, Chair of the Edinburgh Consortium on Rural Research and former Chair (2010-2012) of the Deans of Science and Engineering in Scotland. He represents the UK scientific community on the European Science Foundation Life and Environmental Sciences Committee. He is a Chartered Chemist and a Chartered Biologist and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2011.


The Society for General Microbiology (SGM) is a membership organization for scientists who work in all areas of microbiology. It is the largest learned microbiological society in Europe with a worldwide membership based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes and schools. The SGM publishes key academic journals in microbiology and virology, organizes international scientific conferences and provides an international forum for communication among microbiologists and supports their professional development. The Society promotes the understanding of microbiology to a diverse range of stakeholders, including policy-makers, students, teachers, journalists and the wider public, through a comprehensive framework of communication activities and resources.