Elaine Bignell, Co-Director of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter, is an international leader in the field of fungal diseases, who is delivering transformative insights into the challenging, understudied, area of mould infections. Her efforts to build and sustain critical capacity in medical mycology research globally have evolved a vast and international transdisciplinary network of practitioners in more than 77 countries. She is currently the most prominent scientific leader in Europe driving forwards the discovery of novel antifungal drugs and therapies, positioning her to greatly influence the scope and direction of medical mycology research and product development in the coming years.