Awards and prize lectures

Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture

1953 D.D. Woods The Integration of Research on the Nutrition and Metabolism of Micro-organisms
1955 C.B. van Niel Natural Selection in the Microbial World
1957 A. Lwoff The Concept of Virus
1959 G.S. Wilson Faults and Fallacies in Microbiology
1961 B.C.J.G. Knight The Growth of Microbiology
1963 M. Robertson Some Aspects of the Protozoa and Their Way of Life
1965 Sir Christopher Andrewes The Troubles of a Virus
1967 S.R. Elsden Energy Relations and Fermentations, 1930 - 1967
1969 J. Monod The Bacterial Cell as a Cybernetic System
1971 E.F. Gale 'Don't Talk to Me about Permeability'
1973 R. Dulbecco Cell Transformation by Viruses and the Role of Viruses in Cancer
1975 E.S. Anderson Push Hard - or How to Promote Resistance
1977 J.-M. Ghuysen The Concept of the Penicillin Target from 1965 until Today
1979 D. Herbert These Narrow Engines...
1981 P.H. Clarke Adaptation
1983 M.R.J. Salton From Walls to Membranes
1985 P. Wildy Little Fleas and Lesser Fleas
1987 D.A.J. Tyrrell The Common Cold - My Favourite Infection

Since 1988, following a review of the Society's prizes and awards, the Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture, renamed the Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture, has become the Society's principal prize, and a second prize lecture, sponsored by the Colworth Laboratory of Unilever Research and titled the Colworth Prize Lecture, has been instituted.

Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture

Awarded biennially for an outstanding contribution of current importance in microbiology

1990 P.M. Nurse (now Sir Paul) On Fission
1992 J.R. Guest Oxygen-regulated Gene Expression in E. coli
1994 A.P.J. Trinci Evolution of the Quorn® Myco-protein Fungus Fusarium graminearum
1996 K. Gull Oneness and Otherness in Eukaryotic Microbes
1998 R. Thauer Biochemistry of Methanogenesis
2000 D.W. Holden In vivo Genetic Analysis of Salmonella Virulence
2002 S.T. Cole Comparative and Functional Genomics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
2004 S. Falkow Thoughts on Persistent Bacterial Infections
2006 Sir John Skehel Invasion by Influenza Viruses
2008 A.B. Rickinson Studies with an Oncogenic Virus: How to Survive a Lifetime with EBV
2010 J. Tommassen Assembly of outer membrane proteins in bacteria and mitochondria

Colworth Prize Lecture

Awarded biennially for an outstanding contribution in an area of applied microbiology (sponsored by the Colworth Laboratory of Unilever Research)

1989 G.T. Yarranton Efficient Expression of Heterologous Genes in Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells
1991 P.D. Minor The Molecular Biology of Polio Vaccines
1993 G. Dougan Microbial Pathogens as Probes of the Mucosal Immune System
1995 M.J. Bibb Understanding and Manipulating Antibiotic Production in Streptomyces
1997 G.S.A.B. Stewart Challenging Food Microbiology from a Molecular Perspective
1999 L.E. Macaskie Applications of Micro-organisms to Heavy Metals and Nuclear Wastes Decontamination
2001 P.D. Marsh Are Dental Diseases Examples of Ecological Catastrophes?
2003 T. Humphrey Oh for an 'Ome of My Own'. Salmonella and Campylobacter as Zoonotic Pathogens
2005 R.W. Titball Gas Gangrene, an Open and Closed Case
2007 P. Williams Look Who's Talking: Communication and Co-operation in the Bacterial World
2009 G.M. Gadd Metals, Minerals and Microbes: Geomicrobiology and Bioremediation

Peter Wildy Prize in Microbiology Education

Awarded annually for an outstanding contribution to microbiology education, of school or university students, the general public, or professional groups

2001 A.J. Cann Microbiology and the Web: a Nerd's Eye View
2002 J.M. Grainger Heeding the Unseen: a Necessary Life Skill
2003 R.A. Killington Walking with the Viruses
2004 N.R. Thomson Taking an Educated Guess: the ART of Whole Genome Analysis
2005 J. Verran Yes, but is it Microbiology? (Using Links Between Microbiology and Art in Undergraduate Programmes)
2006 R.E. Sockett Not Just Germs - Bringing Bacteria to Life
2007 S. Cutting Ten Years in Vietnam
2008 C. Smith Stripping Down Science: The Naked Scientists
2010 S. Assinder TBC

SGM Prize Medal

The Society for General Microbiology Prize Medal is new for 2008 and is to be awarded annually to a microbiologist of international standing whose work has had a far-reaching impact beyond microbiology

2008 S. Prusiner Prion Biology and Disease
2009 Sir Paul Nurse Controlling the Cell Cycle

Fleming Lecture

Awarded for outstanding research in any branch of microbiology by a microbiologist in the early stages of his or her career

1976 G.W. Gooday Biosynthesis of the Fungal Wall - Mechanisms and Implications
1977 P.C. Newell Cellular Communication During Aggregation of Dictyostelium
1978 G.A.M. Cross Immunochemical Aspects of Antigenic Variation in Trypanosomes
1979 J.E. Beringer (now Sir John) The Development of Rhizobium Genetics
1980 D.J. McGeoch Structural Analysis of Animal Virus Genomes
1981 D.J. Sherratt The Maintenance and Propagation of Plasmid Genes in Bacterial Populations
1982 B.G. Spratt Penicillin-binding Proteins and the Future of ß-Lactam Antibiotics
1983 R.A. Dixon The Genetic Complexity of Nitrogen Fixation
1983 R.W. Honess Herpes Simplex and 'The Herpes Complex'
1984 P.M. Nurse (now Sir Paul) Cell Cycle Control in Yeast
1985 J.W. Almond Genetic Diversity in Small RNA Viruses
1986 D.B. Kell Forces, Fluxes and Control of Microbial Metabolism
1987 C.F. Higgins Molecular Mechanisms of Membrane Transport: from Microbes to Man
1988 G. Dougan An Oral Route to Rational Vaccination
1989 G.J. Boulnois Molecular Dissection of the Host-Microbe Interaction in Infection
1989 A.J. Davison Varicella-Zoster Virus
1991 L. Boddy The Ecology of Wood- and Litter-rotting Basidiomycete Fungi
1992 G.L. Smith Vaccinia Virus Glycoproteins and Immune Evasion
1993 N.A.R. Gow Directional Growth and Guidance Systems of Fungal Pathogens
1994 I.S. Roberts Bacterial Polysaccharides in Sickness and in Health
1994 C.J. Dorman DNA Topology and the Global Regulation of Bacterial Virulence Gene Expression
1995 J. McKeating Functional and Antigenic Consequences of HIV Envelope Variation
1996 A.M. Carr Cell Division and Mitosis in the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe
1997 C.J. Stirling Protein Targeting to the Endoplasmic Reticulum in Yeast
1999 D.J. Richardson Bacterial Respiration: a Flexible Process for a Changing Environment
2000 P. Simmonds The Origin and Evolution of Hepatitis Viruses in Humans
2001 B. Kenny Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli - a Crafty, Subversive Little Bug
2002 B.C. Berks & T. Palmer (Joint) Moving Folded Proteins Across the Bacterial Cell Membrane
2003 C. Boshoff AIDS-associated Cancer and KSHV/HHV-8
2004 M.S.B. Paget Managing Redox Stress in Bacteria
2005 A. Whitehouse Understanding the Latent-Lytic Switch in Gamma-2 Herpesviruses
2006 F. Sargent Constructing the Wonders of the Bacterial World: Biosynthesis of Complex Enzymes
2007 G.L. Challis Mining Microbial Genomes for New Natural Products and Biosynthetic Pathways
2008 C. Simmons Understanding Emerging Pathogens: H5N1 Influenza and Dengue in Vietnam
2009 N.R. Stanley-Wall The Complexity of Biofilm Formation by Bacillus subtilis
2010 S.P. Diggle Microbial Communication & Virulence: Lessons from Evoluionary Theory

Fred Griffith Review Lecture

A personal overview of an area of microbiology by a distinguished contributor, awarded in recognition of long service to the science

1966 W. Hayes Genetic Transformation: A Retrospective Appreciation
1968 R.C. Lancefield Current Problems in Studies on Streptococci
1970 M.R. Pollock The Discovery of DNA
1972 C. MacLeod (given by A.W. Downie) Pneumococcal Transformation - A Backward View
1974 R.D. Hotchkiss The Dawning Years of the DNA Revolution
1976 H.L. Kornberg (later Sir Hans) Genetics in the Study of Carbohydrate Transport by Bacteria
1978 T.A. Trautner Transfection
1980 F.E. Young Impact of Cloning in Bacillus subtilis on Fundamental and Industrial Microbiology
1982 K. Murray (now Sir Kenneth) Hepatitis Virus Genes in Bacterial and Animal Cells
1984 R.H. Pritchard Control of DNA Synthesis in Bacteria - A Molecular Clock
1986 C. Gross Regulation of the Heat Shock Response in E. coli
1989 H. Smith Pathogenicity and the Microbe in vivo
1991 J. Davies Biology of Antibiotic Resistance
1992 C.A. Mims Viral Interactions with the Immune System
1993 A.C. Baird-Parker Foods and Microbiological Risks
1995 J.P. Arbuthnott (now Sir John) Bacterial Toxins - Mysteries, Miasma and Molecules
1997 K.F. Chater Taking a Genetic Scalpel to the Streptomyces Colony
1999 W.D. Donachie The Deceptive Simplicity of the Escherichia coli Cell Cycle
2001 N.E. Murray Immigration Control of DNA in Bacteria: 'Self versus Non-self'
2003 S. Cohen The Many Faces of Bacterial Plasmids in Microbiology and Medicine
2005 D.J. Ellar Bioengineering Beneficial Bacillus Toxins
2007 R. Moxon Bacterial Variation, Virulence and Vaccines
2009 J. Errington From Spores to Antibiotics via the Cell Cycle

Kathleen Barton-Wright Memorial Lecture

Awarded jointly with the Institute of Biology and alternately with the Society for Applied Microbiology

1986 M.C.E. Van Montagu Transgenic Plants
1988 D.A. Hopwood (now Sir David) Contributions of Streptomyces to Fundamental Genetics
1990 W.A. Hamilton Microbiology as an Interface in Science and Society
1992 A.H. Rose Yeasts, the Oldest of Man's Cultivated Plants, Continue to Present Problems
1994 C. Ratledge Microbial Oils: Biotechnology and Biochemistry
1996 S.G. Oliver Yeast as a Navigational Aid for Genome Analysis
1998 B. Holloway The Less Travelled Road in Microbial Genetics
2000 M.E. Bruce Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
2002 A.J.P. Brown Dissection of Virulence Attributes in the Pathogen Candida albicans - a Gordian Knot

The Kathleen Barton-Wright prize fund at the Institute of Biology is now exhausted.