The aim of the award is to celebrate and mark outstanding scientific achievements to scientists applying flow cytometry in the field of immunology or cell biology.
Winners receive complimentary registration to a relevant RMS meeting where they will be presented with their award. They may be invited to produce an article for infocus magazine.
2025 Winner
Dr Florian Mair, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland
Florian has made a number of outstanding contributions in the field of cytometry during a relatively short period of time.
His journey from PhD and post-doc, to running a Core facility has been a remarkable one, in which cytometry has been pivotal. Dr Mair completed his PhD at the University of Zurich in 2013 and did post-doctoral research there while also working within the University’s Flow Cytometry Facility.
In 2017 he moved to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle in the Lab of Martin Prlic, which looks at T cell responses in inflammation. While in the Prlic Lab, he developed the first 28 colour fluorescence panel to look at human dendritic cells. At the time, this was the maximum number of analytes that could be measured.
He also became a prominent member of ISAC and delivered a well-received tutorial at the CYTO meeting in Vancouver on fluorescence panel development. Additionally, he delivered a talk and tutorial at the Babraham Spectral Cytometry Symposium in 2023. His teaching style is ideal for drawing in the inexperienced without baffling them with too much information.
In May 2022 he moved back to Switzerland to become Scientific Director of the flow cytometry facility at the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) in Zurich. In this position he has utilised the power of spectral cytometry to develop larger panels, particularly in the immunological field, and recently published an OMIP with the first 50-colour spectral panel (still developed at the ‘Fred Hutch’).
As experiments become more complex, so do both panel design and data analysis, and Florian has been developing a new metric to assess spreading error after unmixing, which will have a great impact on the way spectral experiments are devised.
Eligibility:
- All awards are open to applicants worldwide.
- The award will normally be made to nominees who have engaged in independent research for less than 10 years.
How to submit a nomination:
- Applicants may self-nominate or be nominated by a colleague or collaborator.
- Applications and nominations should be submitted to Jade Sturdy.
- Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae and a letter stating which section award they wish to be considered for.
- Nominators should submit a curriculum vitae for the nominated candidate and a statement (maximum length 1 page) outlining the merits of the candidate and their suitability for the specific award (please note - if you wish to nominate someone without notifying them of the nomination, a shorter CV i.e. a bio from LinkedIn will be accepted).
- Nominated candidates will be contacted after the closing date to confirm that they are happy for their nomination to be considered.
- In each case the relevant science section will consider applications.
Previous Winners
2023 - Chris Hall
Chris Hall is Flow Cytometry Facility Deputy Manager at The Babraham Institute, Cambridgeshire, UK.
He is currently the Flow Cytometry Facility Deputy Manager at The Babraham Institute. In this role he demonstrates expertise in cell sorting, experiment design, data analysis, and flow cytometry analysis.
Previously he ran an efficient and reliable flow cytometric service at EMBL, Rome, at the Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit. Here, he provided instrumentation, education, and expertise for all flow cytometry and cell sorting needs.
Chris has made, and continues to make, a significant contribution to the discipline of flow cytometry in terms of his academic output, professional affiliations, teaching activities and freeware-based codes for cytometry analysis.
Prior to working in flow cytometry, Christopher was involved in the RAGULA clinical trial at King’s College London and worked as a microbiologist at GSK and Findus UK.
Chris willingly and enthusiastically contributes to the flow cytometry community as an active member of ISAC and is currently a member of the ISAC Emerging Leader programme.
He has established a course to teach R flow cytometry data analysis to non-bioinformaticians, which can be found on the facilities GitHub page. He also sits on workshop forum panels at meetings and conferences and is an active participant in discussions.
Over several years now, Chris has made an immense contribution to flow cytometry. His technical expertise, academic contributions, and role as an educator have been invaluable to his colleagues.
2021 - Gert Van Isterdael
Gert has made, and continues to make, an enormous contribution to the discipline of flow cytometry and imaging cytometry in terms of his academic output, professional affiliations and teaching activities. As Flow Cytometry Manager at VIB, Gert runs an internationally renowned and state of the art research facility that develops and applies many cytometric applications to study various aspects of biology and is actively involved in research projects for allergy, asthma and cancer. Gert has been working with the VIB to develop the role of Flow Manager and establish a business strategy for the facility to provide state of the art services for the long-term benefit of the VIB scientists.
Gert willingly and enthusiastically contributes to the flow cytometry community as an active member of ISAC, is currently on the Emerging Leaders program; and at meetings and conferences he chairs sessions, sits on forum panels and is an active participant in discussions. Gert is specifically keen and actively involved in activities to develop the cytometry community’s skills in automated analysis technics.
Chair of the RMS Flow Cytometry Section, Mr Derek Davies said: “Gert has become a hugely important figure within the Flow community, not only running a world-renowned facility but contributing in so many ways through his academic output, teaching activities, and desire to develop the skills of others. It is our great pleasure to announce him as the recipient of this award.”
2016 - Dr Karen Hogg