Colin Harwood is Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Newcastle University’s Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology. Following degrees at London and Leeds Universities, he carried out research at Kent University and KabiGen Ab, a biotech company based in Stockholm. He has more than 40 years of experience and over 140 publications on the genetics, physiology and molecular biology of members of the genus Bacillus. In recent years he has focussed on protein secretion and the responses of this group of bacteria to oxidative stress, both areas of significance to the biomanufacturing industry with which he has several collaborations. More recently, as part of an international consortium, he has developed molecular tools to model and monitor the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater systems.

In recognition of his work on its Council over a 15-year period, he was elected as an Honorary Member of the UK Microbiology Society (MS). Until recently, he was a co-opted member of the Executive Board of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) and Treasurer of the Federation of Microbiology Societies (FEMS).  He was invited as distinguished lecturer to the Universities of Kazan (Russia) and Rikkyo (Japan), as chairperson and speaker at the Protein and Antibody Engineering Summit in Lisbon and invited lecturer at the UK/Singapore Synthetic Biology Workshop, sponsored by the Singapore government research agency (A*STAR).