Prestigious awards bestowed at IBMS AGM

2017 marked the seventy-fifth annual general meeting of the IBMS. As part of this meeting, the Institute also wished to recognise a number of members’ significant contributions and support to the Institute across a number of years.

 

50 Year Medal

This medal is awarded to members with half a century of continuous membership. In recognition of his continuous membership and dedication to the Institute, an IBMS 50 year medal was awarded to John Hepworth.

John’s career began at the Public Health Laboratory in Wakefield in 1966. Since then he earned a reputation as an expert in microbiology, with his work being published in journals such as The Lancet and Thorax. John was involved in the founding of the IBMS North West Region in 1994, where he was elected branch secretary. He has since represented the region at Council and has organised meetings, symposia and today he organises publicity for his local branch. He was awarded Life Membership in 2013.

 

Honorary Membership

IBMS Honorary Membership is awarded to an individual who has shown an exceptional level of service to the IBMS at the branch or regional level.

 Whilst he was unable to be present at the AGM, the IBMS was pleased to note the awarding of IBMS honorary membership to Ronald Templeton.

Ronald joined the IBMS in 1959 when the IBMS was still the Institute of Medical Laboratory Technology. For the Institute, he acted as a CPD officer and worked as a Senior Training Tutor and Lecturer at John Moores University in Liverpool, where his collaboration with Programme Leader Dr Janice Harland developed a 10 credit module called ‘Preparing for Work’ which combined with a one year placement, led to what is today known as the coterminous/integrated degree used by universities around the UK. He also was a founding member of the Institute’s Microbiology discussion group.

 

Life Membership

IBMS Life Membership is awarded to formally recognise a person’s considerable contribution and support to the Institute across a number of years.

The Institute was pleased to award Life Membership to members Betty Kyle and Dr David Petts.

Betty joined the IBMS as a fellow in 1983 and became a Chartered Fellow in 2004. She has devoted years of service to the IBMS; as a Regional Council Member, as well as acting as a Specialist Diploma Examiner for Haematology and a Registration Portfolio Verifier. Today she works in the Haematology department at Wishaw General Hospital, where she is the strategic lead Biomedical Scientist for Haematology in Lanarkshire and the lead Healthcare Scientist for Education in NHS Lanarkshire laboratories.

David joined the IBMS in 1961 and became an IBMS Fellow in 1967. He was an examiner for the IBMS Fellowship examination and acted as a portfolio assessor and acted as a member of the Joint Working Group on Quality Assurance for ten years before his retirement in 2005. Since then he is working on building a new catalogue for the IBMS library’s Mercer Collection, reorganising the library and archiving its historic collections, which are now housed at the Wellcome Trust. He is currently chair of the History Committee and the Medical Sciences Historical Society.

IBMS President Ian Sturdgess commented, “These members have shown a passion for the field, skill and dedication to the Institute and to the profession. It is my pleasure to recognise their achievements today.”

The Institute is delighted to recognise the achievements of these members at this year’s AGM. For more information about these awards and the nomination process, see our awards section of the website.

 

Pictured above, left to right: John Hepworth, Dr David Petts, Betty Kyle, IBMS President Ian Sturdgess.