The LSHTM AMR Centre is already nearing its third birthday – and aging well, we hope! – which gives us a chance to reflect on progress to date and to consider next steps. From the start, the AMR Centre has taken an interdisciplinary approach, hosting and collaborating with initiatives that bring together lab scientists, medical and veterinary specialists, social scientists, public health historians, statisticians and modellers, health economists, students, and many others.

This three-year mark is also an opportunity to pass the baton for some of the Centre’s management team positions, which are volunteer posts typically held for three-year terms. Would you like to get more engaged with AMR-related activities at LSHTM and elsewhere? Do you have some fresh ideas for the Centre’s direction and influence?

LSHTM academic staff are welcome to express interest in leading one of the “disciplinary pillars”: Biological & Pharmacological Sciences, Clinical & Veterinary Sciences, Humanities & Environmental Sciences, or Epidemiology & Modelling. The fifth pillar, Economic, Social & Political Sciences, is newly headed by Dr Rebecca Glover who will hold the position through 2021. Expressions of interest are welcome on a rolling basis throughout 2019, and may be made in person to the Centre co-directors or a current pillar lead, or by email to amr@lshtm.ac.uk.

Some notes from the current pillar leads, to give a flavour of what's involved: 

• Dr John Manton, head of Humanities & Environmental Sciences, helped to produce the WASH and AMR roundtable hosted in July 2017, and as of 2019 is welcoming two doctoral students to LSHTM to focus on historical dimensions of AMR, which will benefit this pillar for years to come. John says: “Coming together as a management group to see how a health problem can be tackled from all sides has been really eye-opening for someone who's used to reporting on disasters that are done and dusted (aka history). … the insights into how we can work in an interdisciplinary fashion – in terms of both pragmatic and intellectual inputs – has been a key positive.”
   
• Dr Sam Willcocks, head of Biological & Pharmacological Sciences, values the routine interactions with fellow AMR enthusiasts and experts in different disciplines both during management meetings and Centre seminars and events. Sam says: “…it has been great to represent LSHTM and contribute to everything from Longitude Prize and Science Museum events to [the Microbiome Goes Mainstream event], to Living Library events to showcase our work directly to the public, interacting with members of the WHO and the Hong Kong Health Ministry, to helping establish the AMR short course. The rotating newsletter is a nice way to shine a light on topics that are especially pertinent to your discipline while reaching a broad audience. I am convinced the work of the AMR Centre has been behind the huge interest every year from students wanting to work on AMR projects, especially in the biological sciences pillar.”
   
• Dr Rebecca Glover, new head of Economic, Social & Political Sciences, can already speak to some the advantages of her role; she appreciates “having a ready-made excuse to keep on top of the AMR literature for newsletter writing. Also, getting to know more about the rich and varied work that colleagues at the school are conducting, and having the chance to meet AMR researchers from across different faculties.”