Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles studied medical microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a PhD in microbiology at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford. She spent almost a decade at Imperial College London, before relocating to Aotearoa New Zealand as a Health Research Council Hercus Fellow in 2009. Siouxsie heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab, where she and her lab are searching for new antibiotics as well as trying to understand how bacteria evolve to become more infectious. Siouxsie also has a keen interest in demystifying science. She is an avid tweeter and has worked with artists and illustrators, as well as her daughter to make a kid’s show about microbiology. In 2017 she published her first book, ‘Antibiotic resistance: the end of modern medicine?’.

Siouxsie has won numerous awards for her research and science communication efforts, including the UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) 3Rs prize, the NZ Prime Minister’s Science Prize, the NZ Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication Prize, the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s Callaghan Medal, the Universities New Zealand Critic and Conscience Award, and New Zealand Tertiary Education Union Excellence Award. In 2019, she was appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to microbiology and science communication.

When the pandemic arrived, Siouxsie joined forces with Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris to make the science of the pandemic clear and understandable. Their award-winning graphics have been translated into multiple languages and adapted by governments and organisations around the world. Siouxsie was named as one of the BBC’s 100 influential women of 2020 and Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year for 2021.

Check out more of Siouxsie’s work at the University of Auckland website.