The Affiliated Research Centre (ARC) of PHE is a multicentre ARC encompassing Porton, Colindale and the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards. The PHE ARC is one of a network that stretches worldwide and are all incorporated under the Open University. The ARC provides to PHE academic credentials that in turn provide opportunities to staff both for postgraduate degrees and to develop academic postgraduate training and supervisory experience and credentials as a postgraduate examiner. In this seminar the PHE ARC co-ordinator Dr Ann Rawkins and the chair of the Postgraduate Training Sub-Committee of PHE, Prof Timothy Gant will give and overview of the ARCs and specifically the PHE ARC and the opportunities it provides. ARC Students Luke Price and Leonie Fransen will additionally be available at the end of the seminar to answer questions about the student experience as part of the ARC.
Ann Rawkins nee Williams, PhD is a Scientific Leader for the TB research programme at the Public Health England laboratories at Porton Down, Salisbury. She is the current Research Degrees Co-ordinator for the PHE Open University, Affiliated Research Centre and a member of the PHE Postgraduate Training sub-committee. She graduated from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in 1985 and joined a team researching Legionnaires' disease in the Pathology Division of the Centre of Applied Microbiology and Research at Porton Down and remained at that site working in different departments. In 1995 Ann gained a PhD on the virulence mechanisms of Legionella pneumophila through part-time study with the Open University. She also studied Salmonella infection in humans and poultry but her main area of post-doctoral research for nearly 25 years has been TB, with a focus on novel TB vaccine development and evaluation, publishing in the name of Williams. Timothy Gant is Head of the Department of Toxicology in the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England and Visiting Professor at King's College London. He is the current Chair of the PHE Postgraduate Training sub-committee. He graduated from the School of Pharmacy, University of London in 1985 and gained a PhD in Pharmacology in 1988. He then joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda Maryland, USA in the Laboratory of Experimental Carcinogenesis researching mechanisms of therapeutic drug resistance in cancer. In 1993 he left the NCI for a position at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit and gained tenure with them in 2002. In 2011 Tim joined Public Health England (then the Health Protection Agency). His current external roles include chairing the Emerging Issues Committee for the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) in Washington DC and service on the scientific advisory board and several committees of the European Centre for the Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC). He has also served as chair of the External Scientific Advisory Panel (ESAP) for CEFIC/LRI for four years.