Sarah Pitt

I graduated with a BSc in Microbiology from Bristol University in 1987 and started work as a trainee Medical Laboratory Scientific Office in the Diagnostic Virology Department of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London. I qualified for the professional register in 1988 ( that register is now the Health and Care Professions Council, HCPC). I passed the Institute of Biomedical Science Fellowship examination in 1990.

I then spent 2 ½ years working in a hospital rural Zimbabwe running the diagnostic laboratory and training laboratory staff and nursing students in basic laboratory techniques. On returning to London, I did some locum work and then secured a post as an MLSO2 *** at the Royal London Hospital. I left in 1995 to study for full time for an MSc in Parasitology and Medical Entomology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Subsequently, I did locum work in Manchester and Kent and spent three months on with an emergency relief programme in Tajikistan. I returned to the UK, Liverpool John Moores University and began work on my PhD at towards the end of 1997. Alongside the research, I gained experience in lecturing and running practical classes and after passing the PhD I worked as a sessional, part-time lecturer, before moving to Sussex to take up the role as placement facilitator and lecturer for the newly created Applied Biomedical Sciences BSc in 2004. This was originally a joint appointment between the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and Brighton University. I gradually took on more microbiology teaching and more responsibility within the university and in 2011, I transferred to a full-time Senior Lecturer post. I have been a Principal Lecturer since 2013.

My current role includes teaching and research at the university and supporting laboratory training for biomedical scientists - through overseeing professional placements in hospital laboratories for BSc Biomedical Science students and supporting their training officers in the laboratories. My current areas of research are infection control, role of point of care testing in microbiology services and development of novel antimicrobial agents from mollusc mucus. I am an active member of my professional body, the Institute of Biomedical Science. I am a regular member of panels for accreditation of degree programmes. I have been a member of the Virology Scientific Advisory Panel since 2003 and was Deputy Chief Examiner from 2004 to 14; I became Chief Examiner in January 2015.