Nicola Stanley-Wall

Nicola Stanley-Wall
Alma materUniversity of East Anglia
Known forBiofilms
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Dundee
Doctoral advisorProf. Tracy Palmer

Nicola Stanley-Wall FRSE FRSB is a Professor of Microbiology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee who works on the molecular mechanism of biofilm formation.[1] Her laboratory investigates how bacteria come together to form social communities called biofilms.[2] More specifically, her research analyses the way the molecules in the biofilm matrix provide support and protection to biofilms formed by the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis.

In 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.[3] In 2018, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[4]

She is an advocate for public engagement in science and has taken part in national and international events. Stanley-Wall was awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Beltane Prize for Public Engagement in 2012 and became Academic Lead for Public Engagement for the School.[4] In this role she led in the process that resulted in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, being the first faculty in the country to be awarded a Gold Engage Watermark by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement. In 2018, the University of Dundee's School of Life Sciences hosted the Magnificent Microbes! event with the Dundee Science Centre.[5] She is a member of the Young Academy of Scotland where she is part of the Excellence in Education group.[6]

As part of her interest in science communication, she and her colleague Kelsey McOwat created the 'Blast a Biofilm' board game to raise awareness and knowledge of biofilms in young learners.[7] Due to the increasing risk of antibiotic resistance and correlating decrease in effective clinical treatments, this work has a clear pathway to impact. In addition, the Stanley-Wall lab has worked with a scientific animation company, Vivomotion, to make an animation that explains what biofilms are and how they impact people's everyday lives.[1]

About her work, she states, "I love my job as it involves original thinking, scientific enquiry, and versatility: skills that I have enjoyed developing over the course of my career."[8]

In 2015, she was part of a team including Cait MacPhee that aimed to develop ice cream that does not melt.[9]

In 2019, Dr Stanley-Wall was one of the female scientists celebrated by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in its photo exhibition at the entrance of the RSE building.[10]

  1. ^ admin (23 May 2019). "Professor Nicola Stanley-Wall". School of Life Sciences. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  2. ^ SLS Dundee (7 March 2014), Nicola Stanley-Wall — In Dundee, retrieved 5 June 2019
  3. ^ "Stanley-Wall, Nicola — Discovery — the University of Dundee Research Portal". discovery.dundee.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Professor Nicola Stanley-Wall elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh | Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance". amr.dundee.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  5. ^ "Magnificent Microbes! | Dundee Science Centre". www.dundeesciencecentre.org.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  6. ^ "YAS Members — Nicola Stanley-Wall". www.youngacademyofscotland.org.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  7. ^ McOwat, Kelsey; Stanley-Wall, Nicola R. (26 January 2018). "Biofilm Building: A Simple Board Game to Reinforce Knowledge of Biofilm Formation †". Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. 19 (1). doi:10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1355. ISSN 1935-7877. PMC 5969445. PMID 29904559.
  8. ^ KEVIN MURPHY, NEIL MCLENNAN & (2014). ART OF ACHIEVEMENT. [Place of publication not identified]: LULU Press INC. ISBN 978-1291867428. OCLC 980494375.
  9. ^ Ward, Victoria (31 August 2015). "Ice cream that does not melt 'could soon hit the shelves'". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  10. ^ Stephen, Phyllis (16 April 2019). "Edinburgh Science Festival – it's all about the women". The Edinburgh Reporter. Retrieved 5 June 2019.