As part of our Staff Profile series, we spoke to Nigel Wallis who has recently joined the department as Senior Laboratory Manager. Here, he tells us more about his career and what his interests are outside of work.
Introduce yourself – who are you and what do you do?
I am the new Senior Laboratory Manager in the Department of Infectious Disease. I have taken over the role from Sharron Stubbs, who many of the newsletter’s readers may know. I’m managing a team of laboratory managers within the Department, acting as the Departmental Safety Manager, and taking responsibility for space and provision of specialist facilities across the Department.
Tell us about your career so far – when did you join the college, and where were you working/studying before this?
My career so far: first degree in theoretical physics and astrophysics – perhaps not the most typical start for people in my profession – followed by a swerve into molecular modelling for the Biochemistry department at St Andrews. I realised I enjoyed the lab work I was offered, so spent four years in a research lab there, working on plant pathogens or chimeric adenoviruses. I then had a lengthy spell working in NHS and public health laboratories – starting at St Mary’s – initially at the lab bench before moving into more managerial roles, picking up a Master’s degree in Virology on the way. My most recent post was as a technical manager within the Virus Reference Department at UKHSA in Colindale, where I worked for several years as the organisation went through an alphabet soup’s worth of acronyms: firstly PHLS, then HPA and PHE, before its latest incarnation as the UKHSA.
What are your first impressions of the College and the Department?
I’ve been at Imperial since July, and my first impressions have been very positive. The staff are committed and engaged, extremely knowledgeable and are a pleasure to work with, both in the Department of Infectious Disease and more widely in the Faculty of Medicine and College. I’m looking forward to meeting more of the Department’s members – as I’m covering multiple campuses, there are still many people I haven’t yet met. I’m happy to have access to Imperial’s excellent library once more (recently renamed in honour of famous theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize laureate and Imperial staff member, Abdus Salam).
What aspect of your new role are you most excited about?
The most immediate issue I have to address is the Department’s move from the Medical School at St Mary’s to the South Kensington campus next summer. It’s a year away, but there is a great deal of work to do before then, both in building the laboratory and office spaces at South Kensington, and in clearing the Medical School, which will be a major undertaking.
When you are not working, what are your main passions and hobbies?
If I had to pick a Mastermind specialist subject, it would be NASA’s Apollo missions or odd German jazz labels, which curiously never seem to come up in pub quizzes. When I’m not working, I am usually found burrowing in a second hand bookshop or record shop, often searching for recordings that are probably best described as “not universally popular”.
And finally – if you were exiled to a desert island but allowed one luxury item, what would it be?
If I were exiled to a desert island and could be allowed one luxury item? A difficult question, but probably a piano and some sheet music. I can’t play at all, but at least no one would hear my beginner’s efforts, and hopefully I’d have improved by the time I’d built the escape glider out of palm leaves.