AMI welcomes two new members to its Board of Trustees

Applied Microbiology International has welcomed two new trustees to the AMI Board of Trustees - Dr Helen Onyeaka and Otto Balsiger.

Dr Helen Onyeaka was elected by AMI’s members following a ballot in May. She is Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She specialises in food microbiology, food safety, and sustainable food systems, with a particular focus on food security , microbial innovations and food waste valorisation. 

Helen is the Deputy Director of the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA) and co-founder of the HeTa Food Safety Research Centre.

READ MORE: Dr Helen Onyeaka named as winner of Basil Jarvis Food Security and Innovation Award 2024

READ MORE: Nominations for the 2025 Horizon Awards now open

Her work bridges the gap between science and policy, and she is actively involved in interdisciplinary initiatives addressing climate change, food security, and sustainable innovation. Helen also serves on the editorial boards of NPJ Science of Food and Foods (MDPI), and is passionate about mentoring early-career scientists and promoting inclusion within the microbiology community. 

Charity sector

Otto Balsiger is an FCCA qualified accountant, who started his professional career auditing commercial businesses. In 2011 he moved into the charity sector leading finance teams within charities.

He joined the British Society for Immunology (BSI) in 2018 and is their Director of Finance, Membership and Publishing. His responsibilities include Corporate Services, Membership, the BSI’s portfolio of journals and he is their Data Protection Officer.

In his role as Treasurer Otto will lead the trustees in the oversight of AMI’s strategic financial management. He was appointed by the Trustees following an open recruitment campaign in early 2025.

Second term

Meanwhile, Professor Catherine Rees has been re-elected for a second term as a trustee. She has been a Trustee for three years.

She is Professor at the University of Nottingham, where her work focuses on understanding bacterial physiology to improve food preservation and more recently the development of rapid detection methods for mycobacterial pathogens in the agricultural and dairy sectors.

Cath is a founder of PBD Biotech Ltd, a spin-out biotechnology company that is commercialising a new, rapid, molecular test for detecting mycobacteria for both humans and animals.

Professor Rees also served as an editor for the Journal of Applied Microbiology and Letters in Applied Microbiology for 11 years and has been a member of the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Foods - a non-statutory committee that provides expert advice to Government on questions relating to microbiological issues and food safety – since 2022. 

Farewell and thank you

AMI has bid a fond farewell and thank you to four trustees who have retired from the Board of Trustees. Mr Oern Greif has been AMI’s Treasurer since 2019. Dr Arpita Bose, Dr Tajudeen Bamidele and Dr James Timmis have all been trustees since 2022. We thank them for their hard work in supporting the work of AMI.