On the 11^th and 12^th June, The University of Manchester hosted a visit from more than 40 Church Leaders from around the UK as part of the Equipping Christian leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS) scheme.  ECLAS works to equip senior Christian leaders with the tools, context, and skills they need to engage confidently with science.

Themed around Extinction and Evolution various activities took place throughout the two days, including talks, lab tours, a scavenger hunt in the Manchester Museum, and panel discussions reflecting on extinctions. The cross-faculty lab visits were hosted by one of Becker’s Deputy Eco-immunology Branch Leads, Professor Susanne Shultz, with Cathy Walton, Charis Enns, Kathryn Else and Chris Knight . Helping out at the event were their associated PhD students and PDRAs (Alice Burton, Andrew Halls, Ella Davies, Jess Irving, Macaulay Turner and Millie Wright, Raveen Tank, Magdalena Kurteu, Rebecca Palmer, Louise Flanagan and Ziyun Zhang) and members of the Microbial Evolution Research Manchester research group (Rok Krašovec and Danna Gifford), who all discussed their science with the delegates. The discussions were lively, thought-provoking and open.

Feedback from the visiting group commented on their highlights, which included “beautifully presented science at just the right level – and with (their) passion and humility shining through.” “For our church leaders, the engagement with you and the team was the highlight.”

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