Laura Oliveira

Dr. Laura Oliveira, MSc, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Microbiology Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and since the beginning of her career, she has been involved in the study of the molecular epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence potential of gram-positive cocci, especially Streptococcus spp., isolated from humans and animals to improve the surveillance and diagnosis of infectious diseases and to inform control strategies and vaccine design. Dr Oliveira has been awarded with 10 national and international awards, the most important being the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) Fellowship for women postdoctoral researchers from low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) and the BactiVac Catalyst Training Award. She was a member of the first cohort of the Future Leaders Against AMR Programme, and in 2022 she was appointed to be part of the ASM Microbe Program Committee and was nominated an ISID Emerging Leader in International Infectious Diseases.

Muge Cevik

Dr. Muge Cevik is a clinical lecturer in infectious diseases and medical virology. Her research interests focus on HIV, tuberculosis, other tropical infections, and emerging infections including COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and working on the NHS front line of the response, Dr Cevik provided scientific advice to the Chief Medical Officer – Scotland and advisory groups on recent scientific developments on COVID-19. She has been co-opted to NERVTAG (New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group) as a member for COVID-19, advising and producing guidance documents for UK-SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies). She also advised and consulted the World Health Organization (WHO) on risk communication during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Cevik is also coordinating the recruitment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in South East Asia and South Africa working closely with the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) funded by the Wellcome Trust. Additionally, she is co-leading a household transmission study in Scotland as well as a prospective study to quantify the burden of COVID-19 in patients with tuberculosis in Kampala, Uganda, with support from GCRF-NIHR. She is part of the CORRE Network (COVID-19 International Rapid Evidence Reviews Group) working towards providing rapid reviews for governments and the WHO.

Alongside her academic work, Dr. Cevik developed a strong interest in science communication. She is passionate about the value of integrating science communication into our efforts to disseminate research, which has the potential to enhance knowledge exchange among scientists, physicians, and the broader public.