Professor Liz Sockett of the School of Life Sciences has become the first female University of Nottingham scientist to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society. She is one of 50 eminent scientists from across the world to be elected to the prestigious society this year.
Reacting to her new fellowship, Professor Sockett said: “I’m very honoured to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. It is recognition of what a fascinating living creature the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is, and what amazing details can be discovered by working with diverse colleagues who bring insights, dedication and kindness to work daily.”
“I’ve always had an amazing research group, from the very early days when we did manual DNA sequencing of bacterial genes, listening to recordings of ‘the Three Tenors’; to now when we use multi-colour microscopy, and handle problematic pathogens, to advance our understanding of how bacteria can evolve to kill each other.
“Science is hard work and I’ve not always been right, but we’ve been good at picking ourselves up again and trying a new approach when things didn’t turn out as I hoped.
“Our current lab is a wonderful team to work with: Carey Lambert and Rob Till have made Bdellovibrio research blossom since the early days. Jess Tyson and Paul Radford have added many applied science skills to our experimental repertoire, along with important discoveries from our postgraduate and undergraduate researchers, technical staff, and visiting fellows.”
Professor Sockett will be formally admitted as a Fellow to the Royal Society at the Admissions Day ceremony in July, when she will sign the Charter Book and the Obligation of the Fellows of the Royal Society.
To find out more about Liz’s research, listen to BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific.
Posted on Wednesday 17th April 2019