Sharon M. Brookes PhD

Sharon is currently the Lead Scientist for Animal and Zoonotic Viral Diseases at APHA. Between 2007 and 2018 she led the APHA influenza virus groups and prior to that rabies and other lyssaviruses teams. This was proceeded by junior and senior post-doctoral research posts at the Institute for Animal Health – Pirbright and The Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology having completed her Ph.D. at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. Since 1991 she has been a long-standing member of the Society for General Microbiology (SGM) - now known as the Microbiology Society (MiSoc) - serving on their Virology Committee, an editor/senior editor of their Journal of Medical Microbiology since 2017 and more recently being elected as a trustee to Council (2021). She works closely with Defra colleagues on Food Farming and Biosecurity and others in the Civil Service (CS). Sharon has just completed the CS Talent Future Leadership Scheme - 2019/20 cohort, including the inaugural Disability, Empowers Leadership Talent CS-FLS-DELTA program. Proud to be part of the Government Science and Engineering Profession (2016 onwards), assisting with CS Science and Engineering fast-stream recruitment and assessments, other CS talent management initiatives, and mentoring others via Equality, Disability and Inclusion fora. Managing her own disability and caring responsibilities in the workplace. She also supports women in science at APHA and wider. Dr. Brookes is also a member of the APHA Academic Board, recruiting, supervising, and examining Ph.D. and other postgraduate students. She has 130 research publications https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9207-6659 on a range of veterinary and zoonotic viral pathogens: Coronaviruses, Bluetongue virus, endogenous retroviruses, African swine fever virus, foot, and mouth disease virus, rabies and other bat lyssaviruses, swine and avian influenza viruses.