About
The importance of microscopy and imaging data analysis is growing rapidly as new hardware and techniques enable researchers to produce ever more complex datasets. There is now a clear need for a trained and better-organised community of image analysts who will support this growth, as evidenced in a series of surveys in recent years (for example Miura 2021, Waithe 2021, Jamali et al. 2021).
In the bioimaging sector, recent initiatives like the European COST funded NEUBIAS network (2016-2020) have achieved great strides in establishing the need for better organisation and training of data analysts in imaging. Inspired by this community, the RMS Image Analysis Focused Interest Group (IAFIG) was formed in 2018, led by Dominic Waithe, to support and continue these efforts, both in the UK and internationally. The Data Analysis in Imaging (DAIM) section of the RMS followed on from the IAFIG, officially becoming a full scientific section of the RMS in 2021. As part of this transition, the DAIM committee has broadened its scope to include physical sciences to ensure that all areas of the RMS remit are represented, hoping to network and share ideas across the different fields.
The RMS is committed to being a welcoming, inclusive Society and encourages diversity across all activities and in the membership of our committees and groups.
If you are interested in joining any of the committees in the future, please visit our Join a Committee page.
Data Analysis in Imaging related events
RMS Section Awards
Launched in 2014, the Section Awards (formerly known as the Medal Series) recognise those who have made significant contributions to the field of microscopy. The RMS Section Awards celebrate outstanding scientific achievements across all areas of microscopy and flow cytometry with each RMS Science Section able to select a winner for their own award.
Find out more
Committee
Alice Pyne
Alice Pyne is a Lecturer in Polymers/Soft Matter & MRC/UKRI Innovation Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Alice has over a decade of experience in scanning probe microscopy, spanning high-speed and high-resolution imaging, probe development and cantilever sensing. Alice’s current research aims to understand how variations in DNA structure can affect fundamental biological processes such as replication and transcription. She uses high-resolution AFM to observe variability in structure and conformation in individual DNA molecules and to understand how these variations influence interactions with oligonucleotides and proteins, with a long-term view to improved development of therapeutics.
Martin Jones
Martin is currently Deputy Head of Microscopy Prototyping in the Electron Microscopy Science Technology Platform at the Francis Crick Institute. His work focuses on developing new software and hardware tools for dealing with the deluge of data coming from modern microscopes. His background is in experimental quantum optics from the University of Sussex. After postdoctoral research and teaching fellowships in physics, he moved to the Vascular Biology Lab led by Holger Gerhardt at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute to work on microscope development and image analysis. From there he moved to the LRI’s Electron Microscopy core facility, led by Lucy Collinson, which subsequently moved to its current home at the Francis Crick Institute. Martin now works closely with the Crick’s Scientific Computing Science Technology Platform to work on methods for analysing large complex imaging datasets and has a strong interest in training.
Rocco D'Antuono
Rocco D'Antuono studied Physics in the Laboratory for Advanced BioSpectroscopy (LABS, Milan, Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Chirico.
After his studies, in 2011 he joined the FIRC Institute for Molecular Oncology (IFOM, Milan, Italy) as image analyst and microscopist specialised in live-cell imaging, TIRF, and confocal microscopy. In 2014 he moved to the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, Bellinzona, Switzerland), running the microscopy and intravital facility; there he had the opportunity to work also with flow cytometry and help in the setup of the mass spec service.
In January 2018 he joined the Crick Advanced Light Microscopy facility (CALM, London, UK) as senior microscopist, supporting microscopy projects with the use of advanced fluorescence techniques and image analysis.
He promotes the training in bioimage analysis through the activity of NEUBIAS Academy.
Pau Carrillo Barbera
Pau Carrillo Barberà is a Bioimage Analysis Specialist at the Image Analysis Nexus (IAN) core facility, King's College London, where he has been supporting researchers across the imaging community at King's since May 2026.
He completed his PhD in Biomedicine at the University of Valencia, focusing on neural stem cell biology, before moving to the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona as an Imaging Specialist, and subsequently to the MRC Institute of Genetics and Cancer (University of Edinburgh) as a postdoctoral researcher, contributing to the development of open-source deep learning tools for myelin analysis. He then returned to the University of Valencia as a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, providing bioimage analysis support to multiple research groups in neural stem cell biology and developmental neuroscience.
His work at the Image Analysis Nexus focuses on supporting researchers with their image analysis projects, backed by extensive experience in bioimage analysis training and pipeline development, as well as contributions to open-source tools.
Laura Clark
Since 2022, Laura is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of York, where she is developing 4D-STEM imaging of beam-sensitive materials (https://www.york.ac.uk/physics-engineering-technology/people/lauraclark/).
Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Leeds working in the LEMAS facility within the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, to develop 4D-STEM imaging of beam-sensitive materials.
She received her BSc and MSc in Physics from the University of York, before completing her PhD in the EMAT lab of the University of Antwerp. During her PhD she developed methods to generate and quantitatively analyse electron vortex beams in transmission electron microscopes. Subsequently she held postdoctoral positions at Monash University and the University of Glasgow, where she developed differential phase contrast STEM imaging methods, before holding an ESTEEM3 postdoctoral position at the University of Oxford, and then a subsequent Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at the University of Leeds, developing 4D-STEM data analysis methods.
As the representative from the IOP’s electron microscopy and analysis group (EMAG) on the RMS-ECR committee, she aims to improve integration between the two communities.
Stephen Cross
Stephen is a bioimage analyst at the University of Bristol’s Wolfson Bioimaging Facility. Light microscopy has been the common theme throughout his academic career; prior to obtaining his current position, Stephen completed a PhD focused on the construction of a novel fluorescence-based magnetic tweezers microscope (York) and a postdoc position combining patch clamping techniques with fluorescence microscopy (Bristol). These led Stephen to his current position, where he develops custom analysis workflows across a multitude of imaging modalities and research fields for internal and external collaborators. It’s this exposure to a wide range of bioimaging problems that motivated his main research interest into development of open-source modularised image analysis tools for Fiji, which allow the rapid construction of pipelines without the need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ on a daily basis. Stephen also co-runs a series of image analysis workshops in topics such as ImageJ/Fiji and MATLAB.
Siân Culley
Siân is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at King’s College London, working on developing new image analysis methods driven by real biological questions. Previously she was a postdoctoral research in Ricardo Henriques’ lab at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, UCL, working on analytical methods for improving super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Prior to joining Ricardo’s group, she did a PhD in Optical Microscopy and an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences, both at UCL. In addition to research, Siân is also passionate about creating open source teaching material, outreach work, and driving towards better diversity and representation in the microscopy community.
Todd Fallesen
Todd is a principal bioimage analyst in the light microscopy team at The Francis Crick Institute. Following a BS in physics at St Lawrence University, he did a PhD in Physics at Wake Forest University, specializing in magnetic trapping of motor proteins. He joined Thomas Surrey at CRUK in London as a postdoc using optical trapping to study motor proteins, before joining the light microscopy team at the Crick. He has done work at Imperial College London where he specialized in light sheet microscopy of plant roots. He also spent a semester teaching undergraduate Astrobiology at New York University (London Campus). He’s a Chartered Scientist through the Institute of Physics, and frequently teaches courses in Image Analysis at the Crick.
Stefania Marcotti
Stefania works as the Bioimage Analysis Trainer in the Image Analysis Team at the Francis Crick Institue. After a BSc and an MSc in biomechanical engineering in Milan, she obtained a PhD at the University of Sheffield focused on the mechanical characterisation of bone cells with atomic force microscopy and finite element modelling. Thanks to the possibility of combining both experimental and computational approaches in all of her projects, she developed an interest in data and image quantitative analysis. In 2018 she joined Brian Stramer's group at King's College London (KCL) for her postdoc where she developed and automated analysis pipelines for biological applications. From 2023 to 2025, she has also offered image analysis support to the Nikon Imaging Centre and Microscopy Innovation Centre users at KCL.
Leila Muresan
Leila Muresan is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience of University of Cambridge. She develops original methods and pipelines for the analysis of microscopy images and focuses on solutions for lightsheet microscopy data analysis as well as algorithms for single molecule localisation microscopy. Based at Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre, she contributes with her expertise to exploit the cutting edge microscopy techniques available in the centre. Starting with 2018 she is an EPSRC Research Software Engineer Fellow.
Thomas Slater
Tom is a Lecturer in Electron Microscopy in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University. His research primarily focuses on electron microscopy of nanoparticle catalysts, particularly understanding their three-dimensional structure and monitoring their evolution in reaction conditions. He has developed python packages for analysing nanoparticles from electron microscopy images and for elemental analysis using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.
He obtained an MPhys (2011) and PhD (2015) from the University of Manchester, where his PhD was supervised by Sarah Haigh. He subsequently worked as a postdoc in the group of Phil Withers at Manchester, linking X-ray tomography to 3D electron microscopy by developing correlative workflows. From 2018 – 2022, he was an Electron Microscopy Scientist at the ePSIC facility at Diamond Light Source, before taking up his current position at Cardiff University.
Dana Perry
Dana is a Microscopy Specialist at the Natural History Museum. She received her BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science from the University of Surrey, then obtained a PhD from the same university in 2023, in collaboration with The Pirbright Institute. This PhD project involved a range of microscopy techniques, including FRAP and STED, to study intracellular structures induced by HSV-1 infection. She has since moved into a core facility role at the Natural History Museum, running the Light Microscopy Facility, which includes supporting a variety of curation- and research-based projects involving basic light and confocal microscopy.
AGM
The 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Data Analysis in Imaging Section of the Royal Microscopical Society will take place on Wednesday 30 September 2026 at 14:15 during the Microscopy: Advances, Innovation, Impact 2026 Meeting.
All the Society’s AGMs are free to attend for both members and non-members.