Jack Heinemann — Raising the bar

Antibiotic Resistance… Is This the Next Doomsday?

The Doomsday clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has been set closer to midnight than ever before in its history! You may be familiar with most of the doomsdays: nuclear war, climate change, chemicals…they get lots of press. This talk is about one that is all around us, and inside us. You’ve probably heard about it but were unaware that it is one of your possible doomsdays too. It’s antibiotic resistance and it has been creeping up on you for about 70 years. Antibiotic resistance isn’t just a medical issue, nearly 2/3rds of the world’s food production is also at risk. Professor Heinemann will talk about what preventing this doomsday requires, and how each of us has more power than you realise. The cure requires an injection of new thinking.

Bio

Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the School of Biological Sciences Jack Heinemann worked at the US National Institutes of Health before joining UC. He gained his PhD from the University of Oregon and was on the UN Roster of Biosafety Experts until 2009. From 2009 to 2016, and in 2020, he was a member of Cartagena Protocol for Biosafety’s Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group. He was also an author for the International Panel for Climate change (6th report). In 1993, he won the ICAAC Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Microbiology, and the New Zealand Association of Scientists Research medal in 2002.