![\"Image](\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/doid-staff\/files\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-10-25-at-12.13.21-e1698232456685-293x300.png\")
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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\u2019s readers may know. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n
My career so far: first degree in theoretical physics and astrophysics \u2013 perhaps not the most typical start for people in my profession \u2013 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\u2019s – initially at the lab bench before moving into more managerial roles, picking up a Master\u2019s 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\u2019s worth of acronyms: firstly PHLS, then HPA and PHE, before its latest incarnation as the UKHSA.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve 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\u2019m looking forward to meeting more of the Department\u2019s members \u2013 as I\u2019m covering multiple campuses, there are still many people I haven\u2019t yet met. I\u2019m happy to have access to Imperial\u2019s excellent library once more (recently renamed in honour of famous theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize laureate and Imperial staff member, Abdus Salam).<\/p>\n
The most immediate issue I have to address is the Department\u2019s move from the Medical School at St Mary\u2019s to the South Kensington campus next summer. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
If I had to pick a Mastermind specialist subject, it would be NASA\u2019s Apollo missions or odd German jazz labels, which curiously never seem to come up in pub quizzes. When I\u2019m 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 \u201cnot universally popular\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t play at all, but at least no one would hear my beginner\u2019s efforts, and hopefully I\u2019d have improved by the time I\u2019d built the escape glider out of palm leaves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1382,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[278172],"tags":[276561],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-staff-profile","tag-working-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n