We are thrilled to announce the finalists for the inaugural BSI Immunology Awards!
The BSI Immunology Awards aim to celebrate the remarkable achievements of individuals and teams shaping the future of immunology in a variety of ways. The winners of these six awards shortlisted below, and of the BSI Outstanding Ambassador for Immunology Award and the Outstanding Contribution to the BSI Award, will be announced on Thursday 20 April at our 'Transforming the immunology landscape' event during the BSI Immunology Awards networking reception and ceremony.
We look forward to celebrating the achievements of the immunology community and wish all the finalists the best of luck!
Please note, there are three award categories for which a shortlist won’t be released – scroll down to find out more about the selection process.
Sponsors
Thank you to our sponsors who are supporting this event. The Kennedy Trust is a Principal Sponsor, Miltenyi Biotec is a Sponsor and Mabtech is a Supporter of 'Transforming the immunology landscape'
If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact our Head of Events & Conferences, Jane Sessenwein, at j.sessenwein@immunology.org.
Finalists
BSI Research Excellence Award
- Professor Rosemary Boyton, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Omer Dushek, Oxford University, UK
- Dr Masahiro Ono, Imperial College London, UK
- Professor Irina Udalova, Oxford University, UK
- Professor Lucy Walker, University College London, UK
- Dr Tim Willinger, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
BSI Early Career Research Excellence Award
- Professor J M K Chandima Jeewandara, University of Sri Jayewardenapura, Sri Lanka
- Dr Sebastiaan De Schepper, University College London, UK
- Dr Madhvi Menon, University of Manchester, UK
- Dr Pedro Papotto, University of Manchester, UK
- Dr George Robinson, University College London, UK
- Dr Simone Webb, University of Newcastle, UK
BSI Outstanding Team Award
- Arthritis Therapy Acceleration Programme (A-TAP): Unlocking the cellular basis of Immune Mediated Inflammatory Diseases
Oxford/Birmingham/UCL/University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire
Industry: Celsius, Janssen, GSK
Patient Charities: National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS), Crohn's & Colitis UK, National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society (NASS), British Sjögren's Syndrome Association (BSSA)
- Cellular Genetics: Rapid COVID-19 immune response
Wellcome Sanger Institute/ collaborators in Cambridge, Newcastle and University College London
- Northern Ireland Multiple Sclerosis Research Network
Queen's University Belfast/ Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
- Southampton Antibody and Vaccine Group (AVG)
University of Southampton
BSI Diversity and Inclusion Award
- Tomi Akingbade, University of Cambridge, UK
- Dr Dave Boucher, University of York, UK
- Dr João Marcos Brandet, Lerngruppe: Neuroanatomie, Neurophysiologie und Demyelinisierende Erkrankung
- Dr Anne Corcoran, Babraham Institute, UK
- Laura Eghobamien, Black Medical Scientific Network
- Dr Donald Palmer, Royal Veterinary College, UK
- David Posner, University of Cambridge, UK
BSI Public Engagement Award
- Professor Sheena Cruickshank, University of Manchester, UK
- Professor Daniel Davis, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Megan MacLeod, University of Glasgow, UK
- Dr Victoria Male, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Faith Uwadiae, Wellcome Trust, UK
BSI Immunology Teaching Excellence Award
- Dr Sophie Rutschmann, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Jose Saldana, St George's, University of London, UK
- Dr Maggie Trela, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Tom Wilkinson, Swansea University, UK
We would like to extend our congratulations to all the shortlisted nominees. We are delighted to recognise your hard work, dedication and contribution to immunology.
Thank you
Huge thank you to the other nominees, all of whom are doing inspiring work to deliver positive outcomes for health, and to all the individuals who submitted a nomination, for themselves or others, for helping us promote the impact and significance of our field. We hope that you continue enabling immunology to thrive and consider submitting nominations in future BSI Immunology Awards.
Finally, thanks also go to our judges for their time and expertise in reviewing all the nominations, and to the BSI Nominations Committee.
Selection process
The shortlisted nominees for these six awards have been selected after careful review and deliberation by an expert judging panel, whose recommendation was then ratified by the BSI Nominations Committee.
For the BSI Outstanding Ambassador for Immunology Award and the Outstanding Contribution to the BSI Award, the BSI staff drew up a shortlist of suggestions after consultation with BSI committee members. This shortlist was then reviewed by the BSI Nominations Committee. The winners will be announced on Thursday 20 April at our 'Transforming the immunology landscape' event during the BSI Immunology Awards networking reception and ceremony.
At the British Society for Immunology, we are committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in all aspects of our work, and this includes the BSI Immunology Awards.
Due to the overall lack of diverse representation in the submissions received for the BSI Outstanding Leadership Award, in particular lack of women nominees, we have decided not to release a shortlist or announce any winners for this award this year. This decision has been made after careful consideration and thorough consultation with the BSI Nominations Committee and the judging panel.
The decision to not move forward with awarding this category this year isn’t a reflection of the quality or merit of individuals nominated. We greatly appreciate their outstanding leadership work, and the time and effort spent by the nominators.
With this course of action, we aim to maintain our original commitment to ensure the diversity amongst the award nominees and recipients reflects the diversity within the wider immunology community. Additionally, to hold our promise to take positive action towards meaningful change in this area and to continue being transparent about our progress, we will review our processes for for future years and report on relevant EDI data in our new yearly EDI reporting system, as well as launch a community engagement campaign in the next few months, for which we will call on our members to get involved – more details on this shortly.
The BSI Immunology Awards networking reception and ceremony, taking place at our ‘Transforming the immunology landscape’ event, will bring our community together in a one-of-a-kind showcase of stellar contributions shaping the future of immunology. We hope to see many of our wonderful community there, as well as in our ongoing EDI journey.
We would like to take this opportunity to encourage all our members to take a look at our Diversity & Inclusion framework, which outlines our commitment to how we are working with our community to ramp up our EDI work, and to reach out with questions, comments or feedback on this framework or diversity and inclusion matters. Please do contact us at inclusion@immunology.org.
Thank you for your understanding and support as we navigate this complex issue. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at awards@immunology.org.
Judges
BSI Early Career Research Excellence Award, BSI Immunology Research Excellence Award, BSI Outstanding Leadership Award, BSI Outstanding Team Award
- Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters, University of Surrey, UK
- Emma Koppe, GSK, UK
- Dr Divya Shah, Wellcome Trust, UK
- Dr Matthew Siggins, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Kavitha Sooriyakumar, University Hospitals Birmingham, UK
BSI Diversity and Inclusion Award
- Professor Gary Entrican, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Dr Faith Uwadiae, Wellcome Trust, UK
- Dr Anna Zecharia, British Pharmacological Society, UK
BSI Public Engagement Award
- Professor Matthias Eberl, Cardiff University, UK
- Dr Sean Elias, University of Oxford, UK
- Dr Cristina Fonseca, Science Communicator
- Dr Lana Woolford, University of Edinburgh, UK
BSI Immunology Teaching Excellence Award
- Dr Fiona Culley, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Nigel Francis, Cardiff University, UK
- Dr Donald Palmer, Royal Veterinary College, UK