People
The group has been based in the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol since February 2026. Bristol is a great place to live and work, and if you’re interested in joining us we’d love to hear from you.
PhD students
If you are interested in doing a PhD, please get in touch with Liam over email with a brief description of your background and research interests before applying formally. There are several schemes at Bristol but the earliest possible date to start would be September 2027.
Postdocs and fellowships
If you’re interested in coming to Bristol with an external fellowship, please get in touch so we can discuss possibilities.
Liam Shaw
Group leader
I’m an evolutionary biologist interested in bacteria, particularly the study of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). After a PhD at UCL, I spent several years at the University of Oxford. My first postdoc (2018-2020) was with Sarah Walker and Nicole Stoesser, after which I held a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-2025) working with Craig MacLean. During that period I also spent time as a visiting researcher with Tim Blower (Durham) and Richard Neher (Basel).
I moved to Bristol with an ERC Starting Grant in early 2026. I have interests across evolutionary microbiology – if you’re interested in collaboration, get in touch!
Alongside research, I also write about science for a general audience. See my personal website for more info.
Contact: liam.shaw@bristol.ac.uk
Matt Bird
Senior Research Associate
I’m a computational biologist with a broad interest in bacterial genomics, currently focused on AMR and wastewater metagenomics. After my MSc at the University of Bath, I worked as a Healthcare Scientist/Bioinformatician within the Gastrointestinal Bacterial Reference Unit (GBRU) for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
During this time I collaborated within Paolo Ribeca, Satheesh Nair, Anaïs Painset & David Greig on a variety of research ranging from AMR surveillance to national pipeline development.