Professor Sharon Peacock is an outstanding academic clinical microbiologist who combines scientific training with knowledge of clinical medicine to address questions of public health importance. Her research focus is the translation of high throughput whole genome sequencing technologies into diagnostic and public health microbiology, for which she has rapidly gained global eminence. This is a significant area of innovation, and the output from her group and collaborators places the UK at the forefront of this technological revolution. The focus for much of her recent scientific portfolio has been MRSA, but lessons and skills learnt are rapidly being applied to other pathogens of national and global importance, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacilli.