Professor MALCOLM BENNETT
| Post Nominals | BVSc PhD MRCVS FRCPath |
|---|---|
| Biography | I am currently: • The Academic Lead for Industrial Liaison and Knowledge Exchange for the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences; • Head of Division of Veterinary Medicine within the veterinary school; • A member of the University’s Biosafety committee. At the University of Liverpool, I was: • Co-chair of the University’s Knowledge Exchange (KE) Strategy Group and KE External Advisory Group, working with industry, local government and the third sector; a member of the University’s Sustainability Policy Board, Council’s Safety Committee, and I chaired the University’s BioSafety Sub-Committee. • Prior to that I was Dean of the Liverpool Veterinary School and a member of the University’s Senior Management Team through a period of fundamental restructuring, and before that Head of the Department of Veterinary Pathology, and Associate Dean for Teaching and BVSc Programme Director. I completed the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education’s Top Management Programme in 2012, including an international week with business and university leaders in Atlanta. • I am a non-executive director of MediLinks East Midlands, a not-for-profit organisation providing advice and investment for SMEs in the medical and life sciences sector. • Until recently, I was a member of the Advisory Committee for Dangerous Pathogens (jointly DH, Defra and HSE), its TSE Risk Assessment Group and various ad hoc group. I was also a member of an ACDP Working Group on occupational bovine tuberculosis (TB) in response to death of an abattoir worker, and I recently led on developing new ACDP Guidance for safety in animal PM/dissection facilities. • I have participated in several Cabinet Office/SAGE scenario exercises on pathogen release and other matters as an independent scientific adviser. • I have been a member of government policy working groups, e.g. the Welsh Assembly’s Scientific Panel that reviewed the control of bovine TB in Wales in 2011. • I was a founding member of the North West Zoonosis Group, a cross-sectoral organisation that advises regional bodies and plans for emerging and zoonotic outbreaks across NW England, including running desk-top, multi-agency scenarios to test national contingency plans. • I was a member of the Rural Forum and the Innovation Panel for Cheshire and Warrington LEP, and involved in developing and writing its SEP. My role was to focus on synergies between the industrial and agricultural/rural sectors. • I developed and organised a series of events on rural issues at the House of Lords (‘Rural Economic Forum’), sponsored by Lord Oulton Wade, that brought together academics and parliamentarians with other invited policy makers and influencers. Issues discussed included mega-farms and rural planning, rural governance, ecosystem services, emerging livestock diseases, and landscapes, health and wellbeing. • I have been a member of Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and, inter alia, its Education and Professional Standards Committees, As a member of RCVS/EAEVE accreditation panels, I have been involved in the accreditation of several high-profile veterinary schools internationally, most recently: James Cook University, Queensland; St George’s University, Grenada; Cambridge University and the Royal Veterinary College. • Until 2017 I was a Trustee of the North of England Zoological Society, which owns and runs Chester Zoo, one of the largest and most well-respected zoos in the world. • I organised One Health conferences and workshops in Shanghai, Atlanta and Liverpool (and was an invited participant in similar events in South Africa and Qatar). I have organised and hosted international visits e.g. of animal health policy makers from China to discuss animal health and welfare policy and challenges. • Following delivery of a CPD course on epidemiology to state veterinarians in Saudi Arabia, I commissioned to write a series of papers for the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture on veterinary education, the regulation of the veterinary profession and a feasibility study for a Middle East Centre for One Health, to be based in Riyadh. • I acted as liaison to TV and radio series about the veterinary school at Liverpool, and I contribute to TV and radio on behalf of the University of Nottingham, talking about a range of infectious diseases. |
| Research Interests | Research interests are the ecology and transmission of infectious diseases, particularly those that cross-species, such as zoonotic infections, and new and emerging infectious diseases. Many of these derive from wildlife, and are best studied using ecosystems services / One Health approaches. Hence much of my research has been interdisciplinary, including working with behavioural and social scientists and economists, cross-institutional, and often cross-sectoral, and have involved working closely with stakeholders. Outputs include: • More than 130 peer-reviewed papers (H-Index in mid-30s), invited books and book chapters, and grant income (as PI or co-PI) of >£20m. • I have successfully supervised/co-supervised 34 PhD students to completion, and I currently supervise/co-supervise 3 PhD (working on rabies control, ecotoxocology and disease, molecular epidemiology of bovine TB) and 2 MRes students (bovine TB and badgers). Projects include: • Studies of natural infections in wild rodents, both as ecological models of the interactions between endemic infection and host population dynamics and applied to public health. Pathogens studied include poxviruses, hantaviruses, Borellia / Lyme disease, and Anaplasma in UK, and plague in Kazakhstan (Wellcome Trust, EC, BBSRC funding) • Epidemiology/ecology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in wild and domestic animals and in man (industry, Defra, BBSRC funding) • The role of wildlife in enteric zoonoses: verotoxigenic E. coli, campylobacters and salmonellosis( Defra, HEFCE, EC funding). • Infections and population dynamics in wild birds, including sparrows. • TB and badgers on the edge of the cattle bTB epidemic area (funded by Defra, BBSRC and various farming and wildlife charities). • AMR in wildlife and the environment (EPSRC, industryand charity funding). • Wildlife and water-borne protozoa, cryptosporidiosis, giardiosis and acanthamoebiasis (water companies funding). • Ecotoxicology of heavy metals and their interactions with wildlife populations, infections and AMR (NERC and government agency funding). |
| Teaching and Learning | Infectious diseases Emerging and zoonotic infections Veterinary parasitology Veterinary Public health • I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have been a member of national subject benchmarking panels. • I have been an external examiner for undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses at UK universities in veterinary, biosciences and interdisciplinary programmes. I have been external examiner for around 20 PhD theses at UK and overseas universities. • As Associate Dean for Teaching at Liverpool veterinary school, I developed QA systems and oversaw the introduction of two new undergraduate programmes (including being Programme Director for a novel intercalated BSc in Veterinary Conservation Medicine), and I was heavily involved in developing the VTRI-funded MSc in Infection and Disease Control and the MSc Veterinary Science programmes. |
| PhD Supervision Availability | Yes |
| PhD Topics | Infectious diseases Zoonoses One Health |