SRF Emerging Investigator
Awarded to an SRF Emerging Investigator displaying originality, independence, and conceptual breakthroughs. Members are eligible to be nominated for this award by colleagues. Recipients present their lecture at the annual Fertility meeting and at the annual SSR conference in the USA, with all travel, accommodation and conference registration paid for by both societies.
SRF Emerging Investigator Award 2026
Dr Christopher Thomas, Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM)
Dr. Christopher Thomas is a reproductive biologist and research group leader at the Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM), France.
He completed his PhD in the group of Dr. Suzanne Madgwick at the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, University of Newcastle, UK. His research focused on oocytes, the cells that give rise to eggs in the ovary. His findings helped redefine our understanding of cell cycle regulation during oocyte meiosis and revealed how oocytes repurpose key pathways to adapt to this highly specialised cell division.
In 2018, Dr. Thomas joined the laboratory of Dr. Melina Schuh at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, Germany, as a postdoctoral researcher. Moving from single-cell studies to a tissue-scale perspective, he set out to live-image mammalian ovulation. Together with colleagues, he developed a new model system that enabled the entire process of ovulation to be visualised in mouse ovarian follicles at cellular resolution for the first time, revealing key mechanisms underlying this essential reproductive event.
In 2024, Dr. Thomas established his independent research group at IBDM, Marseille. His team addresses fundamental questions in reproductive biology by engineering imaging-based strategies to visualise and manipulate ovarian processes under the microscope. By combining advanced quantitative microscopy, ovarian follicle culture and mechanical perturbations, they investigate the multi-scale mechanisms that enable the ovary to produce a fertilisable egg.
Nominations for the SRF Emerging Investigator Award for 2026 are now closed