About Professor Graham Ayliffe
The award is named in memory of Professor Graham Ayliffe (1926–2017), a pioneering medical microbiologist. Professor Ayliffe studied medicine at Bristol University, earning his MD in 1963. In 1964, he joined the Hospital Infection Research Laboratory in Birmingham (now City Hospital).
Professor Ayliffe’s work has left a lasting legacy in IPC. He co-developed the 6-step hand hygiene technique, which is still used in many UK hospitals and was endorsed by the World Health Organisation in 2009. He also authored several influential books on practical infection prevention and was a strong supporter of the Infection Prevention Society (IPS) and its predecessor, the Infection Control Nurses Association (ICNA).
In 2016, the IPS Board established the Ayliffe Award as a lifetime achievement honour. Fittingly, Professor Ayliffe was the first recipient of this award.
