Edinburgh Infectious Diseases members among new Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) announced 43 individuals deemed excellent in their field were elected as RSE Fellows in 2026.

The RSE was founded in 1783 and leverages the combined knowledge of its 1,800-strong Fellowship to tackle the most pressing issues facing society, provide independent expert advice to policymakers and inspire the next generation of innovative thinkers.

Among this year’s cohort there is a particular breadth of talent in the area of public health and medical research, who will use their knowledge for the public good as part of Scotland’s National Academy. 

Amy's work addresses critical questions about host-parasite interactions, including how to improve host health and develop effective disease control strategies. 

Her research has played a key role in reshaping our approach to research on how parasites and pathogens impact the fitness and dynamics of their wild hosts.  Using a lab-to-wild rodent model, she has devised empirical and analytical methodologies to study these interactions as they naturally occur - embedded in their natural ecological complexity.

Her current work focuses on a few major themes:

1. The impact of nutrition and ecological variation on infection and immunity
2. Coinfection and the impact of within-host parasite interactions for host health and disease control
3. Optimising vaccination/treatment strategies for wild populations.

Jonathan Fallowfield is Personal Chair of Translational Liver Research and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist based in the Centre for Inflammation Research, in the Institute for Regeneration and Repair.

His work bridges the gap between medical research and patient care, finding practical solutions to clinical challenges, with research interests that span basic science and translational/clinical studies in hepatology.

In addition to Amy and Jonathan, a number of other Edinburgh colleagues were also elected to Fellowship this year:

Professor Ruth Andrew FRSE, Personal Chair of Pharmaceutical Endocrinology

Professor James P Boardman FRSE, Professor of Neonatal Medicine

Professor Matthew Chrisman FRSE, Professor of Ethics and Epistemology

Professor Christopher Dibben FRSE, Chair in Health Geography

Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson FRSE, Professor of Developmental Psychology

Professor Davide Marenduzzo FRSE, Professor of Computational Biophysics

Professor Mahesh Marina FRSE, Personal Chair of Networked Systems

Professor Mark Parsons FRSE, Director of EPCC and Dean of Research Computing

Professor Subramanian Ramamoorthy FRSE, Personal Chair of Robot Learning and Autonomy,

Professor Rebecca Reynolds FRSE, Professor of Metabolic Medicine

Professor Tara Spires-Jones FRSE, Professor of Neurodegeneration

Professor Melissa Terras FRSE, Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage

Professor Shannon Vallor FRSE, Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence

Amy Pedersen

School of Biological Sciences

Jonathan Fallowfield

Centre for Inflammation Research

Royal Society of Edinburgh