Morning Chair: Hermaleigh Townsley, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
Hermaleigh is an ST4 Infectious/Diseases Registrar and Academic Clinical Fellow based at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and the University of Sheffield, and a member of the HIS Trainees Committee.
Ellie Wishart, Senior Medical Affairs Manager, Nanosonics
As Senior Medical Affairs Manager for EMEA for Nanosonics, Ellie Wishart is responsible for engaging with thought leaders and key professional organisations on infection prevention & decontamination and speaks at national & international conferences on such topics.
Ellie has a degree in Microbiology from University College Dublin, Ireland and has been involved in the provision of Infection Prevention solutions to Healthcare facilities for over 20 years.
Nanosonics is an Australian infection prevention company that has successfully developed and commercialised a unique automated disinfection technology, the trophon® device, representing the first major innovation in high level disinfection for ultrasound probes in more than 20 years. The trophon device is fast becoming the global standard of care for ultrasound probe disinfection.
Pat Turner, Director, Turner Decontamination Advisory Services Ltd
Over 35 Years of expertise in Medical Device Decontamination
Dr Gayti Morris, Consultant Microbiologist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Gayti Morris has been a Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Infection Control Doctor at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Teaching Trust since 2016. She has interests in surveillance of HCAIs such as S. aureus bacteraemia, paediatric microbiology and education & training. Dr Morris has been involved in the HIS throughout her career, initially as a trainee representative and more recently as a Council Member. She has also been a member of the RCPath Joint Medical Microbiology & Medical Virology Specialty Advisory Committee and currently contributes towards the UK SMI Bacteriology Working Group.
Chair (Afternoon): Jincy Jerry
Jincy Jerry is the Director of Infection Prevention and Control at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Scotland. She has expertise in clinical disinfection, decontamination, surveillance, outbreak management, and healthcare ventilation. She is known for her leadership in infection control and innovation, including pioneering the use of Robotic Process Automation in healthcare. Her work has earned multiple awards, including the ICPIC Innovation Academy Awards, Bright Spark award and Hospital Manager of the Year Award.
Dr Phil Norville BSc. MSc. PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, IPC Partners
Phil has over 15 years’ experience working with healthcare organisations, helping to improve and implement effective infection prevention solutions. Phil has a PhD in microbiology from the University of Cardiff and a Master of Science in Infection Prevention and Control from the University of Dundee. Phil is currently a Research Fellow leading a programme of research around the safe reuse of medical devices and products at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School as a Research Fellow, working as part of the Green Healthcare Hub.
Thomas Pottage, Head of Biosafety, Air and Water Microbiology Group, UKHSA
Thomas Pottage is head of the Biosafety, Air and Water Microbiology Group at UK Health Security Agency, Porton Down. He has been part of the group for over 20 years. Thomas has worked on a range of projects during his employment at UKHSA including those in the decontamination, Biosafety, waste management and environmental microbiology fields. He has led numerous research and commercial projects during his time within the Biosafety Group, investigating the efficacy of environmental and gaseous decontamination in settings such as healthcare, laboratories and for space agencies. With outputs from these projects inputting into national guidance and standards. Currently Tom is an expert on Project 99: Strengthening Biosafety and Biosecurity capabilities in East and Central Africa training participants on effective waste management processes. Tom is co-head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Applied Biosafety and Training.
Dr Katy Sinka, Consultant Scientist, UKHSA
Katy Sinka is a consultant epidemiologist and head of the STI section at the UK health security agency. She has worked for many years at national level in England and Scotland on the surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases, specialising over that time in HIV, STIs, vaccine preventable diseases and CJD. She currently leads on developing local level data and intelligence about HIV and STIs on monitoring emerging and re-emerging infections, such as shigella, syphilis and mpox and on public health aspects of CJD.
