Professor Rachel McKendry is Professor of Biomedical Nanoscience and holds a joint position between the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Division of Medicine, University College London. She is Director of the £11M i-sense EPSRC IRC, a large interdisciplinary research collaboration in Early Warning Sensing Systems for Infectious Diseases. Her research lies at the cutting edge of nanotechnology, telecommunication, big data, infectious diseases and public health. Recent breakthroughs span from ultra-sensitive quantum nanodiamond diagnostics for virus detection (Miller et al Nature 587, 588 (2020)), nanomechanical sensors for antimicrobial resistance (Bennett et al ACS Sensors 5, 3132 (2020)), to deep learning models for rapid testing in partnership with the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa. Her team led a major strategic review of the global use of digital technologies for COVID-19 (Budd et al Nature Medicine 26, 1183 (2020)).

Professor McKendry has won several awards for her research including the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and the Institute of Physics Paterson Medal. She also co-chaired the Digital Medicine Theme of the Topol Review of the NHS, 'Preparing the Healthcare Workforce to Deliver the Digital Future’ and led the Rosalind Franklin Appathon.