AFBI's first Fulbright Scholar attends 70th Anniversary Event in London
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Dr Adrian Allen, AFBI’s first Fulbright Scholar, participated in an event organised by the UK Government at 10 Downing Street, London to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the US-UK Fulbright Commission.
Since 1948, the Fulbright Commission has funded international exchange programmes promoting free exchange of people, ideas and expertise - recognising that these underpin the success of modern, liberal democracies and the promotion of harmony and progress.
Adrian was invited by the Rt Hon Member for Hampshire East, Mr Damian Hinds, who is also in the cabinet as Employment Secretary. The event, held in the pillared room of 10 Downing Street, was attended by a cross section of Fulbright alumni from the worlds of science, medicine, the arts and the humanities, as well as the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert Wood Johnson.
Dr Adrian Allen was a recipient of a prestigious Northern Ireland Public Sector Fulbright Scholarship in 2015, spending a research sabbatical working in the laboratory of Dr Jeffrey Foster at the University of New Hampshire to investigate the genome epidemiology and transmission dynamics of bovine brucellosis. During this Scholarship, Adrian undertook whole genome sequencing of B. abortus strains from Northern Ireland. This work has helped to define the wider global genetic variation of this important veterinary and zoonotic pathogen, and to provide high resolution molecular data of use in epidemiological tracing of infection.