IBMS inaugurates new president
1st February marked the inauguration of IBMS President Alison Geddis MSc MBA CSci FIBMS, who took office on 1st January 2018. Alison becomes the 33rd IBMS president and is the second female president in the Institute’s history, the first from Northern Ireland.
Alison was formally welcomed at a ceremony held at the IBMS offices in central London with Past President Ian Sturdgess CSci FIBMS joining distinguished guests from the healthcare profession along with IBMS Council members and executives.
Before handing over the presidential Chain of Office, Ian gave a speech focusing on his term in office, his pride at being IBMS president and gave his endorsement to Alison.
He commented,
“It gives me great pleasure to hand over the Chain of Office, the Presidential Chain to Alison. I know that she will lead us with passion and professionalism. I look forward to working with her as Past President in the year to come.
I am confident that she will provide the leadership and direction that our members look to the President to provide for the profession and to deliver our 2020 Strategy.”
Alison joined the IBMS in 1982, and later became a Fellow and achieved Chartered Status. In a career spanning more than 30 years in biomedical science, she has devoted much of her time to the IBMS.
For the last 16 years Alison has been an IBMS Council member, which has seen her involvement with a number of committees including Membership, Education and Professional Standards, Science, Audit and the Operational Committee. She currently works as the Laboratory Services Manager for the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, and is a lecturer at Ulster University.
Upon receiving her chain of office, Alison said,
“This is such an honour and privilege for me, as a young biomedical scientist I never dreamed that I would one day stand here as president of this amazing profession.
I will work tirelessly to raise the profile of the profession and the contribution we make to patients, to encourage new members to join the Institute to keep us fresh and relevant and to ensure the educational needs requirements of Biomedical Scientists are met now and in the future.
I will do all that I can to raise the profile of science and to encourage young people to choose Biomedical Science as a career pathway.”
We would like to offer our warm congratulations to Alison on being inaugurated as our new president and look forward to working closely with her this year.