Doctoral Engineer awarded £80,000 to prevent hospital superbugs

Fergus Watson, a Postgraduate Researcher in Microbiology, is to receive an Industrial Fellowship worth £80,000 to fund his research that could eradicate hospital superbugs.

Working in partnership with Bioquell UK, Fergus is aiming to eliminate biofilms, which are thought to be one of the main causes of hospital superbugs and multi-drug resistant infections.

Fergus is one of ten of the UK’s most promising young doctoral engineers to receive the Fellowship in 2016.

Awarded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, the fellowships honour recent graduates with the means to develop innovative technology with commercial potential, ideally leading to a patent, while completing a PhD or EngD.

Fergus said: “The Fellowship has given me this fantastic opportunity to advance my academic career alongside my professional career. I have always wanted to continue my studies into a PhD research project and this industrial fellowship has allowed me to pursue this.

I am keen to combine the wealth of knowledge and resource from the University of Southampton and the wealth of industrial experience from Bioquell to excel in this area of research; and I am enjoying being back in the student environment.”

More information on the Industrial Fellowship can be found here.