Early Career Committee

Katherine Paine

Early Career Committee Chair , University of Edinburgh

Katherine completed her PhD in Chris MacDonald’s lab at the University of York using yeast as a model organism to study membrane trafficking. This project involved using a wide range of microscopical techniques such as SIM and FRET study the regulation of cell surface membrane proteins. She is now a postdoc in Simon Wilkinson’s group at the University of Edinburgh in the field of autophagy where she continues to use a variety of microscopical techniques to answer biological questions. 

Liam Rooney

Early Career Committee Vice Chair , University of Strathclyde

Liam is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Liam has a background in mammalian cell and molecular biology but developed his skillset as an optical microscopist and microbiologist during his PhD. Since 2016, Liam has focussed his research on the development and application of optical microscopy methods to study how bacteria interact with each other and their environment. His research involves various bacteriological phenomena; from understanding bacterial gliding motility, visualising colonisation behaviours using transparent soil, observing nutrient transport channels in bacterial biofilms, and super-resolution imaging of bacterial and fungal cell-to-cell interactions. Liam’s current research focuses on developing open microscopy solutions for the life sciences. He is the current Chair of the RMS Early Career Section and has sat on the RMS Life Sciences Section Committee since 2018, and is also heavily involved in the Microbiology Society.

Rebecca Saleeb

Early Career Committee Deputy Chair, University of Edinburgh

Rebecca is a postdoc in the Edinburgh Single-Molecule Biophysics group at the University of Edinburgh. She completed an interdisciplinary PhD with Dr Paul Dalgarno and Prof Rory Duncan, developing and using FLIM-FRET and super-resolution technologies to understand late-stage autophagy. She subsequently spent a number of years as a bio-imaging specialist/facility manager for the Edinburgh Super-Resolution Imaging Consortium, Lisbon’s Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown and Queen Mary University of London, where she helped researchers apply optical microscopy to diverse questions of biology, spanning neuroscience, cancer, immunology and cardiovascular biology. She returned to dedicated research in 2021, working in the lab of Mathew Horrocks to explore the structure and pathogenic capacity of α-synuclein aggregates, a hallmark of Parkinson’s Disease. 

Myfanwy Adams

infocus Representative, Cornell University & John Innes Centre

Myfanwy obtained her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Wellesley College (Massachusetts, USA) where she worked with Dr. John Cameron and Dr. Louise Darling to characterize the interactions between cardiac potassium ion channels via electrophysiology and fluorescence microscopy. Currently, Myfanwy is in her final year of her PhD in microbiology at Cornell University (New York, USA) working in the lab of Dr. Joshua Chappie to elucidate the structural features and mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions using X-ray crystallography, biophysical and biochemical techniques. Upon degree completion, she will start as a post-doctoral research scientist at the John Innes Centre with Dr. Dmitry Ghilarov to leverage cryo-electron microscopy in pursuit of better understanding protein molecular machines in bacterial systems.

Zoe Barr

St Andrews University

Zoe completing her PhD at the University of St Andrews and the James Hutton Institute, and will begin a post-doctoral position at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Her research focus is the structure and function of the plant cell membrane contact sites, plasmodesmata, particularly using confocal microscopy and serial-block-face scanning-electron-microscopy.  

Zoe was awarded her PGCAP and Associate fellow of higher education academy (AFHEA) in 2024, and has a continued interest in pedagogical practice. During an internship with the RMS, Zoe wrote an impact report on the outreach programme ‘Hitachi Global STEM Outreach Project portable SEM.

Niamh Burke

University College Dublin

Niamh Burke is a final-year PhD student and Anatomy Demonstrator at University College Dublin (UCD) and a Postgraduate Representative with the Microscopy Society of Ireland. During her undergraduate degree in Physiology in UCD, Niamh completed a short project under the supervision of Dr Mark Pickering. It was here where she developed a strong interest in building simple, low-cost, open-source lab instruments. Taking a brief break from the world of open hardware, Niamh then worked as a Research Assistant in the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Group in the UCD Conway Institute under Professor William Gallagher. Following this, Niamh returned to the Pickering Lab for her PhD, which focuses on designing open and accessible tools to measure microplastic pollution in the sea. 

As the representative for the Microscopical Society of Ireland on the Early Career Committee, Niamh works to increase engagement and encourage networking between the RMS and Irish Early Career Researchers. 

Jo Cull

Oxford Brookes University

Joanna is a PhD student on the Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP at Oxford Brookes University, supervised by Professor Susan Brooks. She has a background in molecular biology and cancer research, with an MSc in Oncology from the University of Nottingham and a BSc (Hons) in Human Biology from Loughborough University. Joanna uses a lot of microscopy, including confocal, to help understand the functional role of glycosylation, notably in cell motility. 

Nischita Kaza

Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Nischita is a bioengineering Ph.D. candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, where her research focuses on developing label-free microscopy techniques in the Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Lab. Prior to pursuing her graduate studies in the United States, she obtained an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India in 2018. Her undergraduate research experiences introduced her to the field of biomedical imaging and sparked her interest in optical microscopy. Currently, Nischita's research is centered around deep-ultraviolet (UV) microscopy, a high-resolution, label-free imaging technique used for molecular analysis of cell and tissue samples in clinical and biomedical applications. Within the lab, she is actively involved in various aspects of microscopy, including optical engineering, instrument development, sample preparation, and image analysis. Alongside her research, Nischita is passionate about teaching and community outreach, with aspirations of pursuing a career in academia. Nischita will serve as a liaison between the RMS and other microscopy and optics societies based in the USA and hopes to create more opportunities for collaboration and networking between early career researchers across international borders. 

Ofentse Makgae

Johnson Matthey Technology Centre

Ofentse is an electron microscopist at Johnson Matthey Technology Centre (JMTC) working on the development and applications of various sample preparation, imaging, and spectroscopic techniques to study a wide range of industrial materials from catalysts to polymer membranes. The techniques include (Cryo)FIB (2D and 3D), SEM, and (S)TEM (in situ gas, 4D, EELS, and EDX). He holds a D.Phil. in Materials from the University of Oxford. Before joining JMTC, Ofentse held a postdoctoral research fellowship in environmental TEM and focused ion beam (FIB) at the National Centre for High-Resolution Electron Microscopy (nCHREM), Lund University, Sweden, followed by a principal researcher position at AlixLabs AB on FIB method development and HRTEM imaging of proprietary semiconductor nanowire technology. As an industry representative, Ofentse aims to foster stronger connections between early-career academic microscopists within the RMS and their industrial counterparts, create opportunities for early-career microscopists in the industrial sector to engage with the RMS, and enhance the engagement and visibility of the RMS in the industrial sector.

Jacob Pattem

AFM & SPM Section Representative , Cardiff University

Dr Jacob Pattem is a multidisciplinary biophysical scientist whose research lies at the interface of physics, micro-to-molecular biology, and nanotechnology. He utilizes advanced multiscale, 5-dimensional correlative AFM-based microscopy approaches (X, Y, Z imaging, force, and time), revealing structure-function relations in human, animal and plant health and disease. His research focuses on unravelling molecular informed mechanisms that underpin biophysical responses to complex biological processes such as dental erosion, single-cell microbial colonization, biofilm control, mucus barrier modulation, gene-structure function in plant health and alternatives to anti-microbial resistance in infection. Throughout this he has always aimed at conducting research with the goal of clinical translation for patient benefit, particularly, those suffering from debilitating health conditions and 3rd world rural communities with poor access and reluctance to treatment.

Alex Payne-Dwyer

University of York

Alex is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of York. He specializes in studying  biomolecular condensates, and their capillary and single-molecule physics, using fluorescence coupled with optical tweezers. These condensates have diverse functions, underpinning antimicrobial resistance, managing biological memory, and even contributing to carbon fixation.

His background is in physical chemistry and optics, but during his PhD at Durham University, he developed into a multidisciplinary light microscopist and image analyst.  He has subsequently designed and delivered projects ranging from a clinical trial on human fertility, to postdoctoral work in cardiac imaging, and a JSPS Fellowship focused on molecular cell signalling in cancer. He constantly seeks new models, organisms, and condensates to investigate and finds ways to measure their behavior on the smallest scales possible with light. 

He is a leader for the representation of ECR scientists at York and informs strategy for improved Research Culture. He also advocates for Open Research standards in light microscopy through the QUAREP-LiMi network.

Dana Perry

Natural History Museum

Dana is a Microscopy Specialist at the Natural History Museum. She received her BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science from the University of Surrey, then obtained a PhD from the same university in 2023, in collaboration with The Pirbright Institute. This PhD project involved a range of microscopy techniques, including FRAP and STED, to study intracellular structures induced by HSV-1 infection. She has since moved into a core facility role at the Natural History Museum, running the Light Microscopy Facility, which includes supporting a variety of curation- and research-based projects involving basic light and confocal microscopy.

Besaiz Sanchez Sanchez

King's College London

Besaiz is a postdoc in the Randall Centre for Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King’s College London. He is a developmental biologist from Granada, one of the most beautiful areas in Andalucia, Spain. He completed his PhD in the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology (Seville), he studied the role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in cell migration exploiting in vivo imaging in the Drosophila embryonic hemocytes. He started his postdoc in Stramer’s group in September 2016 to continue his studies on ECM, and in addition, the role of the actin cortex in regulating hemocyte motility. Since then, he has contributed to numerous projects in the lab, developing novel genetic tools that, together with confocal and super-resolution microscopy for live imaging, have enabled them to make exciting scientific discoveries.

Steven Servin Gonzalez

University of Warwick

Dr Steven Servin Gonzalez completed his PhD at the University of Warwick, where much of his work was flow cytometry focused. He joined the technical staff of the University as the Flow Cytometry Specialist where he was one of the founding members of the Bio-Analytical Shared Resources Laboratories, leading the Flow Cytometry Shared Resources Laboratory (FlowSRL) of the school of Life Sciences. In the University of Warwick he supports training, planning and other cytometry related topics, specialising in imaging flow cytometry and non-conventional samples.

Jennifer Simpson

Electron Microscopy Section Representative, The Pirbright Institute

Jennifer is a Senior Microscopist at The Pirbright Institute.  She studied for a BSc Hons in Biology at the University of Portsmouth and joined The Pirbright Institute Bioimaging group in 2002.  After leaving to work in an NHS histopathology laboratory for two years, she returned to The Pirbright Institute in 2012.  She collaborates on a variety of research projects using confocal microscopy and electron microscopy including STED, CLEM and tomography.  She was recently awarded the RMS Diploma for her project researching Marek’s disease virus in chicken feather follicle epithelium.

Madeline Tisi

Imperial College London

Maddy is currently an advanced imaging specialist at Imperial College London, working in the Facility of Imaging by Light Microscopy (FILM) where she manages the Hammersmith site overseeing applications in STED, FLIM-FRET, and high-throughput automated microscopy. Maddy has a wealth of experience from her PhD research at King's College London and the Francis Crick Institute, which she completed in 2024, where she investigated cellular metabolism in cancer and bioengineered stem cell models alongside the development of a custom novel multi-photon lightsheet. Her PhD thesis examined the development and metabolic characterisation of phenotypically distinct astrocyte subtypes using FLIM-FRET to quantify diverse metabolic profiles during maturation and reactivity. Maddy possesses extensive interdisciplinary expertise in both cell biology and multiple types of microscopies including multiphoton microscopy, super-resolved microscopy, dual-inverted light sheet microscopy, and advanced quantitative microscopy techniques.

Gea van de Kerkhof

Central Laser Facility, Harwell

Gea is a microscopist focused on technique development for correlative/multi-modal imaging in the Life Sciences. She has experience with light, electron and X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. During her PhD she investigated the optics of structurally coloured bacteria and plants. Afterwards she worked at Diamond Light Source in a combined industrial role with Johnson Matthey. There, she developed techniques and workflows for in-situ liquid microscopy across the I14 nanoprobe beamline and a Cs corrected TEM. Now, she develops cryogenic correlative light and electron microscopy at the Central Laser Facility, in the Octopus imaging cluster. Here, she works on cryo-FIB lift-outs, with lamella to use correlatively between super-resolution fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy.

Tim Young

Light Microscopy Section Representative , University of Cambridge

I qualified as a Biomedical Scientist in 2012 after completing my bachelor’s degree at The University of Essex but never entered practise. Instead I moved towards research; my first job was a technician with the MRC Epidemiology Unit, here I used a variety of methods to perform batch analysis of large cohorts of samples.
After this I moved towards cancer research and worked as a research assistant for Prof. Bruce Ponder in conjunction with the NHS Papworth Histology team. The research was directed towards the investigation of DNA repair dysfunction which can cause a genetic predisposition to lung cancer, particularly in smokers.
Then, in 2016, I joined the lab of Christian Frezza at Uni. Of Cambridge as part of the mass spectrometry team before becoming the lab manager and microscopist. When the lab moved out of the country I joined Prof. Paul Lehner’s team in CITIID and am continuing my RMS diploma here.