Applied Microbiology International (AMI) has announced the winners of its 2026 Horizon Awards, recognising six individuals whose work is advancing applied microbiology across scientific research, public health, environmental conservation and social inclusion.
The awards celebrate researchers and professionals whose contributions address global challenges through the practical application of microbiology. According to AMI, the prizes recognise excellence across several domains, highlighting the role of the field in responding to issues ranging from climate change and food security to infectious diseases and biodiversity conservation.
This year’s recipients include scientists working in Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside an equality, diversity and inclusion leader whose work focuses on improving representation and opportunities in higher education and research.
Climate research, food security and environmental conservation
Professor Chris Greening, a Professor of Microbiology at Monash University in Australia, has received the WH Pierce Global Impact in Microbiology Prize. The award recognises contributions that address global challenges through applied microbiology.
Greening leads the CLIMB: Climate and Microbiology Research Unit and serves as Director of the Global Change Program. His research examines how microorganisms can help society respond to climate change and other global challenges. His work spans atomic to ecosystem scales, investigating how microbes regulate greenhouse gases, sustain terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and influence One Health.
Through partnerships with industry and research programmes, his findings have contributed to agricultural methane reduction initiatives, pathogen surveillance systems, Antarctic stewardship and microbial conservation. Greening has published more than 180 peer-reviewed articles and received the 2023 Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year. He has also been elected to three microbiology academies and recognised as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
The Basil Jarvis Food Security and Innovation Award has gone to Professor Marciane Magnani of the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil. A food microbiology researcher, Magnani focuses on food safety, predictive microbiology, fermented and functional foods, and microbiome-related approaches.
Her research combines microbial ecology, fermentation and One Health perspectives, with particular attention to native biodiversity and sustainable food systems. She has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and holds editorial positions at several scientific journals, including Food Research International and Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. She is also Deputy Editor-in-Chief of AMI’s Letters in Applied Microbiology.
Magnani coordinates Food Science at CAPES, part of Brazil’s Ministry of Education, and is a research productivity fellow at CNPq under the Ministry of Science and Technology. She also serves as an expert on the FAO/WHO roster for Microbiological Risk Assessment and participates in international expert meetings on omics-based technologies.
Professor Jack Gilbert of the University of California, San Diego, has received the Rachel Carson Environmental Conservation Award. A microbiologist and Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Science, Gilbert is known for his contributions to microbial ecology. He co-founded the Earth Microbiome Project and the American Gut Project, established the journal mSystems, and has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed publications, including the popular science book Dirt Is Good.
He is also the principal investigator at UC San Diego for the US National Institutes of Health’s $175 million Nutrition for Precision Medicine programme and co-chair of the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group.
Public health, infectious diseases and diversity initiatives
Professor James Ebdon of the University of Brighton in the UK has won the John Snow Public Health Innovation Prize for his work on water, sanitation and water-related diseases.
His international research uses bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria, and other microbial indicators to investigate water contamination and public health risks. Projects in India, Malawi, Nepal and Bangladesh have examined possible typhoid transmission routes in densely populated communities, sources of human faecal pollution in surface waters, problems with shallow-well construction and the effectiveness of emergency sanitation interventions.
Ebdon’s work on bacteriophages also contributed to a UK government inquiry into their antimicrobial potential, launched in November 2022. He currently co-directs research at the University of Brighton’s Centre for Environment and Society.
The Christiana Figueres Policy to Practice Award has been presented to Professor Stephen Obaro, Professor of Pediatrics and Senior Scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the United States. Obaro founded the International Foundation Against Infectious Diseases in Nigeria (IFAIN), which supports infectious disease research and healthcare capacity-building.
For more than two decades, his research has addressed pneumonia, typhoid fever, antimicrobial resistance, sickle cell disease and emerging infectious threats affecting children, particularly in Africa. Evidence from his studies in West Africa has helped inform vaccine development, disease surveillance strategies and clinical guidelines.
Through IFAIN, Obaro has helped establish a multidisciplinary research platform covering laboratory development, surveillance and graduate training. Its laboratory network has supported collaborative research in Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana, including through the Joint West Africa Research Group.
The Dorothy Jones Diversity & Inclusion Achievement Award has been awarded to Afua Acheampong, an equality, diversity and inclusion strategist with more than eight years of experience advancing racial equity in higher education and research.
As Head of the Black Internship Programme at Health Data Research UK, Acheampong led efforts to improve access and career development for Black students and graduates in health data science. She also created Nottingham Trent University’s Black Leadership Programme in 2019, which has supported and graduated more than 800 Black students.
Previously, she led race equality initiatives at Queen Mary University of London, securing the institution’s first Race Equality Charter award. She is Deputy Chair of the Black in Biomedical Research Advisory Group, a Medical Research Council board overseeing investment in racial equity in biomedical research, and serves as Finance Chair of the Minoritised Life Scientists Future Forum.
Read More :