Why did you become an AMR Centre director? 

I am an interdisciplinary AMR scientist and wanted to connect with other members of LSHTM who work on AMR. Of course, this can be done by any member of the Centre, but I wanted to lead the direction of events and activities to better support interdisciplinary AMR science at LSHTM.  

What are your main responsibilities as a co-director to the Centre? 

They are very varied! The main thing is to support the fantastic team to keep the AMR Centre normal activities run smoothly – with our monthly seminars, fortnightly newsletters and annual events such as the short course and publication prize. Kat (my co-Director) and I also rotate chairing the monthly Management Committee meeting where we get updates from our team on what’s happening in their AMR research space and discuss what we want to do with the AMR Centre. She and I are also the contact points for the press requests and external links to AMR research at LSHTM. Then there is the final part - thinking on what we can and should do as a Centre in the wider AMR space, as well as how to best support out LSHTM community. This has led us both to develop a “Data” event for later this year but also to have funding to support attendance at conferences and open publishing for LSHTM AMR Centre members.  

What is your favorite AMR Centre memory so far? 

There are many – from fun twitter storms for World Antibiotic Awareness Week done over zoom, to the retreat last year and AMR Centre Connect events. I honestly find the seminars and presentation events the most enjoyable part – hearing brilliant speakers from a range of backgrounds talking in detail to their angle of AMR is always inspiring. 

What are you most looking forward to for AMR Centre in 2024? 

In 2024, I’m most looking forward to our data event in October where we’ll build on our themes of what AMR data can do and where the gaps are for supporting evidence-based policy with the new LSHTM DASH Centre. I’m very keen that we do better with understanding the power but also the limitations of routine surveillance data and to develop tools to enhance it for local decision making. I’m also involved in running RESIST3 – the third iteration of our modelling of AMR research workshop in April, which will be a great opportunity to connect with quantitative researchers in AMR. And of course, I’m looking forward to our seminars to improve my AMR knowledge – I know we already have a great and varied line up of speakers!