MMEG 2025 would not be possible without the expertise and dedication of the organising committee.
James McDonald
James McDonald is Professor of Microbial Ecology at the University of Birmingham, and is a member of the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) and the Institute of Microbiology and Infection (IMI). His research team apply a combination of cultivation-based and molecular approaches to characterise and engineer both host-associated and environmental microbiomes, to understand their role in host health status, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem function. Current research focusses on microbiome engineering approaches to address key global challenges such as waste management and sustainable fuel production (using microbiomes to produce biofuels and biogas), and in combating tree disease (engineering microbial communities for disease suppression and health promotion). Prof. McDonald is also interested in integrating knowledge on microbiome engineering and microbiome science across diverse systems (e.g. plants, humans, industrial systems) to identify key scientific principles that underpin microbiome assembly and function.
Sophie Powell
I'm a CENTA-NERC PhD student at the University of Birmingham in James McDonalds lab group. I'm working on the impact of elevated carbon dioxide concentration on oak leaf microbial communities at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research Free Air Carbon Enrichment (BIFoR-FACE) facility. I’m from the West Midlands and started my PhD in 2023 after completing a Biological Sciences MBio degree at the University of Warwick.
George Thomas
I am a first year PhD student at the University of Birmingham in James McDonald's lab group, where my work focusses on the screening of landfill microbes for plastic degrading activity. We use microfluidic droplet technology and fluorescence-based probing in our workflow. This enables high-throughput, sensitive detection of these potentially industrially relevant microbes, where we hope to help address the growing issue of plastic pollution. Prior to starting my PhD, I completed a BSc in Genetics at the University of Nottingham, and a subsequent MSc in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Birmingham.
Bethany Pettifor
Dr Bethany Pettifor completed her undergraduate studies, an MScRes, and a PhD in Biological Sciences at Bangor University in north Wales, where she worked on biotic agents associated with oak decline in the UK.
After her PhD, she moved to the University of Birmingham and took a position as a postdoctoral researcher and lab manager in the James McDonald lab group, where she is currently based. This position includes research into a range of environmental microbiology projects, from tree health, to anaerobic digestion to plastic degrading microbes in landfill, as well as day to day running and supervision of the lab and research group.
Ozge Eyice
Dr Eyice is a microbial ecologist, working on microbial diversity and metabolic pathways of methane production within coastal sediments, peatlands and anaerobic digesters treating industrial wastewater. She received her PhD from University of Warwick in 2012 and she began her independent academic career as a Lecturer at the Queen Mary University of London in 2015. She currently works as Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham.