Meet The Team

Below you can read a short biography of each member of the team who you will be learning with over the coming weeks.

Prof. Edward Tobias

Edward gained his medical degree, BSc and (molecular biology) PhD at Glasgow University. He greatly enjoys teaching genomics (on many courses and programmes, including the university’s multi-award-winning MSc in Medical Genetics and Genomics) and feels honoured to have been nominated by undergraduate students for ten teaching awards. He also enjoys seeing patients, as an (honorary NHS) consultant in clinical genetics, and undertaking genomic research (including collaborations with the Sanger, Crick and Murdoch Institutes in Cambridge, London and Melbourne). An author of textbooks and an active invited member of the Education Committee of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG), Edward enjoys creating digital genomics learning resources, including free smartphone genomics apps used worldwide, molecular VR software and the ESHG’s (internationally popular) eurogems.org website. To relax, he plays piano and saxophone.

Maria Jackson

Maria studied for her BSc Biological Sciences at the University of Leicester, and then completed a PhD, also at Leicester, in protein transport mechanisms in bacteria. She continued this work at the University of Liverpool before moving to the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research (Glasgow) in 1987 to investigate aspects of papillomavirus-associated cancer. In 1995 she moved to the University of Glasgow, where she developed further expertise in teaching, undertaking a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Higher Education. Her current teaching role focuses on delivery of postgraduate programmes in the area of medical genetics, with a particular interest in facilitating effective use of feedback by students.

Gerhard May

Gerhard obtained his undergraduate degree (diploma) in Biology at the University of Konstanz, in the South-West of Germany. After completing a PhD in bacterial genetics in Konstanz, he moved to Scotland as a post-doctoral fellow, working on site-specific recombinases at the University of Glasgow. He then switched to studying stress signalling and regulation of transcription in eukaryotic cells and took up a lectureship the University of Glasgow in 1999. Realising that his interests had focussed increasingly on learning and teaching, he moved to a teaching-centred role at the University of Dundee in 2005, and subsequently back to the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing at the University of Glasgow in 2016. His interests lie in feedback and increasing access, and traditional Scottish music.

Leah Marks

Leah studied for her undergraduate degree in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow before going on to complete a PhD in Developmental Medicine, with specific interest in the use of high altitude pregnancy as a potential model for conditions such as pre eclampsia. After a post doctoral position studying the molecular biology of the placenta under stress she took up a position lecturing in Medical Genetics in 2005. Since then her interest in teaching using technology has developed and she was the co-lead of the University of Glasgow’s first Futurelearn Course ‘Cancer in the 21st Century’, followed by co-leading several online courses with undergraduate medical students. Outwith academia, Leah is happiest walking her dog along the beautiful west coast of Scotland.

Now that we’ve introduced ourselves, we’d like to find out a bit about you! It would be great if you could use the comments thread below to introduce yourself to us and your fellow learners. You can like and reply to other learners comments as well.