SEB Centenary Conference 2023

Professor John Bryant

John Bryant is Professor Emeritus of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Exeter. In addition to his main academic interests he also led the teaching of Bioethics to Biology and to Education students; he has also been a Bioethics adviser to the Higher Education Academy. John is a long-term member of the SEB and is a former President of the Society

Dr Morven Shearer

Director of the Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Studies and Lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews

No bio provided

Dr Chris Willmott

Honorary Associate Professor (retired) and National Teaching Fellow, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of Leicester

Chris Willmott is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Leicester. For the past twenty years, his principal academic interests have focused on the ethical and social implications of developments in biology and biomedicine. He is author of three books on Bioethics topics, including Where Science and Ethics Meet: Dilemmas at the Frontiers of Medicine and Biology, written with colleague Salvador Macip

Dr Teresa Valencak

College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Teresa is Adjunct Prof. Animal Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China and Senior Research Coordinator, Agency for Health and Food Safety, Vienna, Austria

Prof. Ros Gleadow

Monash University

Ros Gleadow is Professor of Plant Sciences at Monash University where she leads the Monash Plant Ecophysiology group. She researches the effect of climate change on food security with a focus on plants that make cyanide and the impact on human and animal health. Current projects are on the effect of CO2, temperature and salinity on growth and allocation of resources in sorghum, cassava, taro and cycads working in Africa, the Pacific Islands and Australia.

She is passionate about plants and the need to communicate the issues around sustainable food production. She is Director of the Monash Agtech LaunchPad, on the board of Eucalypt Australia and the policy committee for the Royal Society of Victoria.

She is a member of the advisory board for the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia and a former member of the Australian Academy of Science’s Committee for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility.

Helen Eaton

Senior Commissioning Editor for Philosophical Transactions B and Biographical Memoirs, Royal Society

No bio provided

Prof. Dr. Nicola Veitch

University of Glasgow

I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Infection and Immunity within the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow coordinating and teaching Infection Biology and Molecular Biology subjects. I am the Programme Lead for Microbiology degree and Coordinate the Outreach capstone projects in final year across the Life Science degrees in MVLS. My research background includes parasitology and genetics, with specific interests in the molecular biology of African Trypanosomes. I am a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and I undertake Scholarship of Learning and Teaching and Public Engagement as part of my role.

Jordon Millward

Imperial College London

Jordon is a PhD researcher at Imperial College London, researching how interactions influence life science students' professional identity and career trajectory. He started his career in agriculture following his readings of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Harper Adams University, where he became a British Poultry scholar. Working within the livestock sector, he developed his passion for teaching by wanting to support the sector, which gave him his start. Continuing to ensure that he has ties to the land-based sector, Jordon is an active beekeeper when not researching or teaching. Capitalising on this passion for the land-based sector, he still maintains an active role in teaching by working alongside organisations like the Brilliant Club whilst ensuring that he maintains his focus on his research, which was motivated by the barriers he saw for his college students and now wanting to find solutions to help students in the higher education sector. He continues looking at different ways to develop his research and teaching skills and how he can enhance representation in the science community, something he has been working on as a member of the SEB OED working group and nomination task force.

 

Josh Hodge

Imperial College London

No bio provided

Dr. Victoria Paterson

University of Glasgow

No bio provided

Prof Dr Claire Garden

Associate Professor, Edinburgh Napier University

Dr Claire Garden (she/her) SFHEA MRSB is an Associate Professor and Head of Learning and Teaching in the School of Applied Science at Edinburgh Napier University.

Claire was appointed as a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University in 2007. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Subject Group Leader in Biomedical Sciences & Microbiology in 2013 and in 2017-8 became Head of Life Sciences with strategic responsibility for over 50 academic staff and in the region of 700 students, alongside teaching and research. Claire became the School's Head of Learning and Teaching in March 2020 and led the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She has adopted a student engagement focussed LTA strategy for her school and is responsible for its planning and implementation.

Claire trained in molecular neuroscience and now focuses on pedagogical research. She researches inclusion, student voice and student engagement, is a member of the RAISE committee, and has published research on novel teaching methods such as gamification and Lego Serious Play. She is also interested in barriers to the inclusion of industry-relevant skills in life sciences curricula and regularly collaborates with external stakeholders on upskilling initiatives. Claire is an active member of SULSA’s Skills Committee and recently led the Catapult-funded Advanced Therapies Skills Training Network upskilling project at Edinburgh Napier University.

Claire has taught and led a wide variety of Biomedical Sciences modules both in Edinburgh and with international partners, she also has experience of programme leadership and external examining. Claire has expertise in curriculum design, development and enhancement, and accreditation and quality assurance. She was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2016, when she also became a Member of the Royal Society of Biology. She is a proud advocate for equality and inclusion.

Dr. Shane Austin

Lecturer in Biochemistry, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus

Shane Austin is currently a Lecturer in biochemistry at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. Shane joined The UWI as an assistant lecturer in 2017 and has taught biology, biochemistry and scientific writing courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Shane currently supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research in several areas, particularly the metabolism of organisms in extreme conditions, uterine fibroids in Caribbean women and active learning to improve biochemistry education. Shane is passionate about active learning and has piloted several initiatives in his classrooms in this area. In 2018 he joined the Promoting Active Learning through Mentorship (PALM) network. His work as part of the PALM network increased his involvement in the active learning and education communities. Shane has presented several professional development workshops on active learning strategies and published on the topic. Shane is a member of several societies, including the Society of Experimental Biology, the Malacology Society of London and the American Chemical Society. Recently, Shane has been working with the SEB to improve diversity in the society’s awards through his work with the outreach, education and diversity working group and the SEB Awards Nomination taskforce. Shane is excited to share his experiences and knowledge with colleagues in higher education. 

Dr. Claire Donald

University of Glasgow

Dr Claire Donald is a Lecturer in Microbiology within the School of Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow. Her role involves coordinating courses, developing novel course content and teaching infection biology and molecular biology subjects to students from first year undergraduate level through to master level. Her learning and teaching research interests include establishing effective blended learning resources and designing student centred learning activities within a supportive teaching style. She has been involved in the development and implementation of virtual reality teaching resources since 2017.   

Dr Janis MacCallum

Edinburgh Napier University

Janis MacCallum is a Lecturer and Employability Lead in the School of Applied Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University. She holds a PhD in Immunology and has over 25 years of experience in teaching and research within biomedical sciences. For over seven years Janis worked as Programme Leader within the School’s MSc Biomolecular Suite of programmes where she was involved in redevelopment of a key 2-year master programme in Pharmaceutical and Analytical Science.  

Professor Susanne Voelkel

Dean of School of Life Sciences, University of Liverpool

Professor Susanne Voelkel is Dean of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool. After her PhD in Animal Physiology at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf she spent four years working as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. In 2001 she joined the University of Liverpool where she teaches in the areas of Zoology and Biochemistry. Susanne has a keen interest in educational research and has published in the areas of student engagement, assessment and feedback. She holds a Postgraduate Masters in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and she is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a National Teaching Fellow.

Dr Oana Birceanu

Assistant Professor , The University of Western Ontario

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. I am a comparative physiologist and toxicologist, with a focus in understanding how stressors impact organisms long-term and across generations. My research group explores questions from the level of the genes to whole organisms, using both vertebrate (zebrafish, sea lampreys) and invertebrate (daphnids and planaria) model organisms. In addition to my wet lab research, I have recently taken an interest in using evidence-based approaches to my teaching, drawing from research conducted in the fields of human cognition and the scholarship of teaching and learning, specifically focusing on how educators can support adult learners retain information. As a leader both in a research laboratory and a large (250+ students) teaching laboratory, I am interested in how I can support undergraduate students integrate information across multiple courses and successfully apply it as part of a research project.

 

 

Prof. Luciane Vieira de Mello

Luciane Vieira de Mello is Professor of Bioscience Education in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool (UK). She has conducted pedagogical research leading to several publications. She acted as Associate Editor of the Education section of FEBS Open BIO (2017-2021), and was appointed Editor-in-chief for this Education section in 2022. She also acted as Associate Editor for the Developing Academic Practice Journal (2020-2022).

Prof. Mello is a Principal Fellow of the HEA, Fellow of the RSB, and a member of the Biochemical Society and FEBS. For the former she is the Chair of the Training Panel and a co-chair of the Education Committee. She holds a MA in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Prof. Dr. Sheila Amici-Dargan

University of Bristol, School of Life Sciences

Sheila Amici-Dargan is an Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol. She is also the outreach, education, and diversity (OED) trustee for the Society of Experimental Biology. Her scientific research career started with a PhD in Biophysics at the University of East Anglia, followed by postdoctoral research positions at the University of California Irvine and MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity in Bristol, investigating cellular mechanisms of learning and memory processes. Sheila then chose to swap to a teaching focused pathway in higher education, working for 10 years at Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences before taking up her current post at the University of Bristol in 2020. She is currently seconded for 2 days a week, as a senior academic developer in the University of Bristol’s Curriculum Enhancement Project team and is one of the careers and employability lead in the Faculty of Life Sciences. Sheila has been working with colleagues to explore different approaches to embed employability across the taught undergraduate curriculum and will share staff and student experiences of various ‘embedding employability’ projects at the conference, to stimulate discussion on how we can best support our university students to develop and articulate transversal skills to increase their own employment prospects.

 

Dr Javier Santos-Santos

Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU)

Born in the capital of the United States, Dr. Santos-Santos moved with his family back to Spain in his adolescence. There he graduated in Environmental and Systems Biology at University of Salamanca, having performed during that time his Erasmus at the Laboratory of Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates in Ghent University. Posteriorly he mastered in Evolutionary Biology at the Complutense University of Madrid, and afterwards continued his research at the National Museum of Natural History in the same city, where he realized his doctoral thesis in collaboration with the University of Barcelona, and performed a research stay at the Comparative and Evolutionary Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of Ottawa through an Erasmus Mundus grant. After defending his PhD and struggling to obtain funding for his investigations during the covid pandemic, he decided to change career paths and mastered in Teaching in Secondary Education. Currently, he is based in Brussels where he applies his experience and transversal skills in the Program Office of the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking. A European private-public partnership that defends the implementation of the European Commission’s policies in industry and private investment. As a member of the SEB since 2013, he is enthusiastic to share his experience at this session of the OED Group to support the development of motivated students and educators alike that want to achieve societal change with their research in the face of professional uncertainty.

Dr Davide Viaggi

BIObec consortium

Full Professor in Agricultural Economics and Rural Appraisal. Working since almost 30 years in the field, with research interests focused on bioeconomy, agricultural policy evaluation, economics of water use in agriculture, environmental evaluation, economics of agri-environmental schemes, farm management. He was the coordinator of the FP7 projects CAP-IRE and CLAIM, of the H2020 projects PROVIDE and CONSOLE, all of which related to the role of the CAP in rural areas and the provision of environmental and climate public goods. He is now coordinating the BBI project BIOBEC. He also participated in several other EU projects in these fields, including many closely connected to the measurement of CAP impact on the environment (e.g. LIFT, SPARD, BIOBIO) and the Bioeconomy (Transition2Bio, Coopid, BIOGOV.NET). Davide was editor-in-chief of the journal “Bio-based and applied economics” and published in 2018 the book “The Bioeconomy. Delivering sustainable green growth”, CABI, UK. Is part of the steering group of the international master “Bioeconomy in the Circular economy - BIOCIRCE” and of the Coordination Group of the European Bioeconomy University.

Dr Dave Lawson

University of Bristol United Kingdom

David Lawson is a behavioural ecologist at the University of Bristol Biological Sciences department with an interest in animal behaviour and plant-pollinator interactions. David’s research investigates the reasons why flowers produce such complex, multisensory displays, and the effects of rain on flowering plants and their visitors. Currently, David has a focus on pedagogical research relating to inclusive and accessible education, particularly decolonising the biological sciences curriculum, where he supervises student-led projects.

Dr. Katharine Hubbard

Reader in Bioscience Education, University of Hull

Katharine Hubbard is a Reader in Bioscience Education at the University of Hull, where she is also responsible for developing the University of Hull Inclusive Education Framework and awarding gap strategy. Her teaching focusses on cell biology, plant biology and microbiology, as well as inclusive approaches to lab based teaching.

Her educational research focusses on awarding gaps, staff-student partnership and how students engage with scientific literature, while her disciplinary research background is in plant signal transduction. She is a National Teaching Fellow, Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE, former SEB President's Medallist (SEB+ 2017) and RSB HE Bioscience Teacher of the Year (2016). 

: https://www.hull.ac.uk/staff-directory/katharine-hubbard
: @@KEHplantsci

Dr. Nick Freestone

School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry, Kingston University, London

Nick Freestone is an Associate Professor in Physiology and Pharmacology and Course Leader for a suite of undergraduate degrees in Pharmaceutical Science at Kingston University in south west London.  He is co-Chair of the Royal Society of Biology’s “Bridging Awarding Gaps in the Biosciences” Network and a member of the British Pharmacological Society’s Inclusive Pharmacology Education Steering Group. He was also, until recently, an Education Theme Lead for The Physiological Society. In 2014 he was the UK’s Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year as awarded by Oxford University Press and the Higher Education Academy and is now Chair of the panel of judges for this award for the Royal Society of Biology. In 2021 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for his work in addressing awarding gaps both in his local teaching environment and also nationally.

 

Dr Emily May Armstrong

Science communicator and geneticist ,

Dr Emily May Armstrong is a science communicator and geneticist with a passion for inclusive science and imaginative plant-futures. Her award-winning creative communication style empowers audiences to reconsider their place in the world through the lens of genetics, identity, plants, and art. Emily holds a PhD and MSc in Plant Molecular Epigenetics from the University of Glasgow, as well as a BSc(Hons) in Genetics from the University of Essex. She has collaborated with institutions such as The Wellcome Collection, The Universities of Bristol and Glasgow, and The Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts, using immersive and interdisciplinary approaches to storytelling through lectures, videography, discussions, and hands-on activities.

Professor Winston Morgan

Professor Morgan is a Professor of Toxicology, Equity and Inclusive Practice at the University of East London. He splits his research and scholarly activity between bioscience research and research into the outcomes for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Students and Staff in Higher Education. Professor Morgan also researches factors which contributes to poorer medical outcomes of individuals and groups on the basis of race and ethnicity.