Officers

My remit is to manage the Princess Margaret Laboratories and Elizabeth Creak Building with its team of fourteen technical staff. We are an independent, centralised group and our role is to support and facilitate teaching, research and knowledge exchange for almost all of our institution’s lab-based activities, as well as a number of laboratory practicals and rotations for the joint Harper Keele Vet School. This is a pretty wide remit given that this ranges from soil and other environmental sciences to animal nutrition, microbiology, entomology, molecular biology, anatomy and physiology (including large farm animals), crop protection and production and animal health. Fortunately, I have a highly skilled and professional team of technicians and together we ensure that classes run, and that research and knowledge exchange is supported. There are also a couple of academic-led research labs in other parts of the campus and I have input into those too, deploying essential technical back-up and helping to ensure that safety standards are maintained.

As well as my lab manager role I also chair the university’s Facility Managers’ Group which feeds into our Academic and Operational Leaders Groups, thus providing a voice for technical staff amongst senior managers.

Outside of work I’m kept busy with my family (one husband and two children) and we are active members of a local Christian fellowship of which I am both a trustee and the treasurer.

I’m currently a Research and Facilities Manager at the Henry Royce Institute hub building at the University of Manchester, following 20+ years in various technical roles.  In that time I’ve worked across various disciplines at the University, in a series of different roles.  The research environment has changed so much over that period – technical staff need to be more organised and informed than before, keeping better records, while doing ever more complicated work.

Keeping me busy away from work: travel, cats, sewing and Eurovision.

Tony is the Head of Technical Services: STEM & Health Sciences within the University of Lancashire’s LIS Leadership Team, he provides strategic leadership for technical services supporting teaching, research and specialist learning environments across STEM and health disciplines. He leads and develop multidisciplinary technical teams, oversees the delivery of safe, effective and customer-focused technical services, and drives continuous improvement, innovation and operational excellence. Working in partnership with academic and professional services colleagues, he ensures that facilities, equipment, resources and staff capability are aligned to institutional priorities, while maintaining high standards of health and safety, compliance, governance and resource management. Through leadership of technical projects, workforce development and service enhancement initiatives, he enables technical services to make a significant contribution to the University’s educational, research and organisational objectives.

Tony is also Treasurer of the university branch of Unison and plays an active role in working with University leadership to improve working conditions for staff across all departments.

Outside of work, Tony is a member of the Preston Dragons Dragon Boat team and also finds time to be an active participant in his local Round Table, raising funds for local community as well as spending time with his young family.

Gwyneth has a bachelor’s degree in Botany from Trinity College Dublin and an MSc in Plant Taxonomy and Biodiversity from the University of Edinburgh. She has over 20 years of experience as a member of Technical Staff in the School of Biology and Environmental Science in University College Dublin (UCD), working her way from Technical Officer and Senior Technical Officer to her current role of Chief Technical Officer Ⅰ. Here she manages a team of 14 people and has overall responsibility for all teaching and research facilities within the school as well as managing technical support for fieldwork. She is also a member of the University Management Team Sustainability Group, University Executive Health & Safety Committee and the All-Ireland Research Culture Network demonstrating her commitment to institutional well-being and environmental responsibility. When not contributing to the academic world, she is are most likely to be found on a hockey pitch, a tennis court, or travelling around another country.

Allison Hunter, a Laboratory Resource Efficiency Advisor, currently seconded from her Department of Life Sciences’ Technical Operations Manager role, has 16 years’ experience in lab sustainability.  She initiated King’s College London’s very first lab sustainability project in 2008 when the building she worked in had reached its power limit.

In 2014, having identified a need for more dedicated sustainability support for freezer sustainability at King’s College London, she was awarded HEFCE Catalyst Funding. This work, mainly on freezer energy savings, was recognized by the first King’s College London Sustainability Award in 2014 and a S-Lab Making a Difference Award in 2015. 

She has chaired a lab sustainability workshop in conjunction with My Green Labs (https://www.mygreenlab.org/) [mygreenlab.org] and S-Lab in 2019: Certification and Sustainable Laboratories: Equipment and Operations (Pillars – Irish Green Labs [irishgreenlabs.org]) and presented another webinar later the same year on autoclaves and sustainability Autoclaves [mygreenlab.org].

In October 2024 she was one of the organisers of a sector-wide initiative on Pathways to a Sustainable Laboratory Supply Chain.

8 ways you can help make research labs more sustainable | Imperial News | Imperial College London [imperial.ac.uk]

She is a lifelong technician with an HND in Applied Biology, an MSc in Biomolecular Organization from Birkbeck College and is a Fellow of the Institute of Science and Technology.  Her professional technical career has covered the techniques, safety and lab refurbishments in many research areas including motor neurone disease models, neurodegeneration, developmental neurobiology, zebrafish aquarium build, plant growth and disease, protein crystallography, and electron microscopy of protein structures Nature, 371(6494), 261-264. https://doi.org/10.1038/371261a0 [doi.org].

She has been advocating the Technician Commitment and professional registration and development of technical staff since 2012 at King’s College London and Imperial College London.  

James Fox became Communications officer in April 2025. James is the Head of Technical Operations for Biology, HYMS and Health Sciences at the University of York. He oversees and facilitates support services to research and teaching. His role is diverse, he is also the deputy DSA, fire warden and phlebotomist, to name but a few elements of it!

He sits on several departmental as well as faculty and university level committees contributing to H&S, EDI, sustainability, operations and technician commitment. Externally, in addition to working with the UBMA, he is an editor on the IST’s Tech Magazine and works with the Science Council promoting and reviewing Professional Registration  applications and with the Technician Commitment reviewing action plans. More details are on our departmental website or on the UBMA news page.

Edel Durack is the Chief Technical Officer for the Biological Sciences department at the University of Limerick (UL).

Edel graduated from the University of Limerick with a BSc in Food Science & Technology and subsequently completed her PhD in the area of food microbiology. Since completion of her PhD, Edel has worked as a post doctorate researcher in the Biological Science department and the Chemical Sciences department within UL in the areas of biochemistry and drug delivery. Edel moved to the Bernal Institute at UL in 2018 managing the suite of biological labs within the Institute. Late 2020 Edel returned to the Biological Science department as a senior technical officer and then as Chief Technical officer.

An advocate for recognition of technical staff within higher level institutions, Edel is one of the founding members of the All-Ireland Technical Staff Network (AITSN) and the University of Limerick Technicians commitment (TC) working group and would hope to sign up to the TC in the coming year.

Outside of work Edel loves the outdoors, live gigs and sporting occasions, and has a passion for traveling.

Natasha Reed, Kathy Lees & Natalie Kennerley (Seconded to committee for conference organisation from the 2027 conference hosts – Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)

Mark Cosgrove and Mandy Taylor