After completing her BSc and a MA in Education, Margaret undertook her PhD studies in tropical mycology in the rainforests of the Amazon and Malaysia and continues to produce peer-reviewed scientific papers in mycology.
Margaret has taught at secondary, tertiary and university levels in the UK where she instigated and ran microbiology and mycology workshops, establishing beneficial links between schools and universities and furthered microbiology education through the Microbiology in Schools Advisory Committee (MiSAC). She has promoted microbiology teaching in schools internationally through lectures, workshops, schools’ competitions and symposia in Malaysia, Thailand, S. Korea, and China in conjunction with the British Council, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and universities. A long-standing member of MiSAC, with experience of producing microbiology resources for UK schools, Margaret collaborated with IPST Thailand from 2010-2018 on two teacher training programmes in microbiology, the production of STEM activities and microbiology modules for primary – upper secondary students. In 2018 she wrote a manual, Microbiology for Schools, detailing microbiology protocols and delivering a wide range of practical activities. Most successful were the schools’ competitions she ran in China and, in Thailand, where they were co-sponsored by IPST and the British Mycological Society.
From 2020-2023, Margaret worked with SEAMEO STEM-ED producing the programme, Vaccines: fighting disease informing students, post-pandemic, of the importance of vaccines and how they work. Online teacher training and workshops were followed by a student video competition which produced some remarkably innovative entries.
Margaret has been awarded the British Mycological Society’s Benefactors’ Medal for her work in promoting mycology internationally.