Janet Hemingway facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Janet Hemingway
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Professor Janet Hemingway
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| Born | 13 June 1957 |
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| Institutions | Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine |
| Thesis | Genetics and biochemistry of insecticide resistance in Anophelines (1981) |
Janet Hemingway (born 13 June 1957) is a British infectious diseases specialist. She is the former director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and founding director of the Infection Innovation Consortium and Professor of Tropical Medicine at LSTM. She is currently the president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Hemingway served as director of LSTM between 2001 and 2019, and during this time, it was awarded Higher Education Institution Status & Degree Awarding powers. For her 2012 contributions to the prevention of tropical disease vectors, she received the Commander of the British Empire (CBE). She assumed the role of founding director of iiCON in 2020.
Hemingway also works on advocacy and resource mobilization (and was previously chief executive officer) at the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is the international director of the Joint Centre for Infectious Diseases Research, Jizan, Saudi Arabia.
Early life and education
Hemingway was born in a small mining town in West Yorkshire in 1957 to parents who owned a corner shop. She obtained a first-class honors degree in zoology and genetics from the University of Sheffield, where she set up the university's first mosquito insectary as part of her thesis project. She was invited to pursue a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and obtained her doctorate after two years of studying the biochemistry and genetics of insecticide resistance in Anopheles mosquitoes.
Research and career
Hemingway has worked on the biochemistry and molecular biology of specific enzyme systems associated with xenobiotic resistance, most notably the malaria-transmitting mosquito, for over 30 years.
Hemingway is distinguished as the international authority on insecticide resistance in insect vectors of disease.[citation needed]
She was the first to report the co-amplification of multiple genes on a single amplicon and demonstrate their impact on disease transmission. Her studies on resistance management have changed the use of insecticide in disease control programs. Her promotion of evidence-based monitoring and evaluation strategies for insecticide resistance has informed international policy on vector control strategies for onchocerciasis, malaria, and other vector-borne diseases.
Awards and honours
- Northern Leadership awards, 2023
- The first woman to be awarded the Manson Medal in 2019.
- Awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the control of tropical disease vectors in the Queen's 2012 Birthday Honours.
- Elected a Fellow of The Royal Society (FRS) in 2011
- Elected a Fellow to the American Academy of Microbiology in 2011
- Elected a Foreign Associate to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2010
- Conferred Honorary Doctor of Science by University of Sheffield in 2009
- Inaugurated as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2008
- Inaugurated as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2006.
In 2019, the annual Hemingway Award (a joint award between RSTMH and LSTM) was created to recognize Hemingway’s achievements at LSTM.
