Press Releases

Researcher elected to Society for General Microbiology Committee – University of Reading

Release Date : 14 June 2004

Dr Paul Lawson, of the Food Microbial Sciences Unit located within the School of Food Biosciences, has been elected to the Committee of the Systematics and Evolution Group, one of the 12 special interest Groups within the Society for General Microbiology (SGM). "It is a great honour being nominated and then elected to this prestigious body," said Dr Lawson. "It again demonstrates that our group takes a leading role in the UK, and is a world-class laboratory." SGM was founded in 1945 and is now the largest microbiological society in Europe. It has over 5000 members of whom 75% are resident in the UK. The remainder are located in more than 60 countries throughout the world. Almost all full members are qualified to doctoral or higher level; there are 1000 postgraduate student members. Other classes of membership include Schools and Corporate. The Systematics and Evolution Group is dedicated to the theory and practice of classification, nomenclature and identification. The study of evolutionary relationships through phenotypes and genotypes. Special areas of interest include biodiversity, bioinformatics and culture collections. The Group is committed to holding collaborative events to promote better understanding of the central role of systematics in biology. Dr Lawson will attend his first meeting to take up this appointment at the 155th Meeting to be held at Trinity College Dublin, 6-9 September 2004. end For further information, please contact Craig Hillsley, the University's press officer on 0118 378 7388, or c.hillsley@reading.ac.uk