RVC academic receives historic Royal Society honour

A senior RVC academic has been awarded the Royal Society’s Leeuwenhoek Medal and Lecture for outstanding contributions to science.

Joanne Webster, a professor of parasitic diseases at the college, is only the second woman to receive the award since it was inaugurated in 1950 and will give her lecture to the society later this year.

She said she was “utterly delighted and honoured” to be recognised by the society, the world’s oldest scientific academy which dates back to 1660.

Genomics

She added: “I’m especially touched as this medal is in recognition of the achievements of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who, from a humble background, through his passion to drive microscopic research and discovery, revealed for the first time so much of the beauty and complexity of nature – revelations comparable to, but not overtaken by, the genomics tools available today.

“We need all these tools, old and new, to meet our global commitment to protect and improve the health of humans and animals today.”

Prof Webster has been at the RVC since 2014, having previously served as co-director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, which provided treatments to around 300 million people across sub-Saharan Africa.

Tropical disease research

She currently serves as director of the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research and professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London’s Faculty of Medicine, as well as acting as a trustee of Fauna and Flora International, an expert advisor to the World Health Organization and on review committees and panels for groups including the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

RVC vice-principal Oliver Pybus said: “We, at RVC, are incredibly proud of Prof Webster’s achievements in infectious disease research.

“The Royal Society’s prestigious Leeuwenhoek Medal is well deserved recognition for her significant contributions to the field.”