Kenneth Timmis, PhD profile page

Professor Kenneth Timmis studied microbiology at Bristol University, undertook postdoctoral training at the Ruhr University Bochum, Yale and Stanford and headed research groups at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, the University of Geneva Medical Centre, the German National Research Centre for Biotechnology in Braunschweig (later, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) and the Technische Universität Braunschweig. His research focus was environmental microbiology, microbial pathogenesis and vaccine development and microbial biotechnology, mostly involving genetic approaches. His group pioneered metabolic design strategies and tools and created novel bacteria able to remove environmental pollutants from contaminated soil and water. Timmis is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the American Academy of Microbiology and the European Academy of Microbiology, the latter of which he is currently President. He was the founding editor and editor-in-chief of three primary research journals, namely Environmental Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Reports and Microbial Biotechnology. In 2019, he set in motion the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative and is currently engaged in recruiting teaching resources for this initiative.