Professor Robin May

Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham

Professor Robin May, took up his role as the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in July 2020.

As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes. He is responsible for the integrity of the science and evidence that underpins FSA activities, as well as for communicating the FSA’s evidence-based approach to other government departments, external stakeholders and consumers.

Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.

Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms. In May 2022 he was appointed as the 39th Gresham Professor of Physic, a role in which he provides public lectures on medicine, health and related sciences.