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Siouxsie Wiles (born Susanna Wiles) is a British microbiologist and science communicator. Her specialist areas are infectious diseases and bioluminescence. She is based in New Zealand.
She is the head of University of Auckland's Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab.
The book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which focuses on Ebola, was what made Wiles focus her education on medical microbiology.
Wiles studied at the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1997 with a BSc(Hons) in medical microbiology. While an undergraduate, she received a Nuffield Scholarship and worked in the university's School of Biological Sciences. Wiles received her PhD from Edinburgh Napier University, conducting research at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (previously known as the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology), which is located in Oxford.
During her PhD Wiles first used bioluminescence to create biosensors to monitor the health of environmentally beneficial microbes.
In 2013 she won the Prime Minister's Prize for Science Media Communication which includes prize money of .
Wiles started the company Brightenz that sells kits with which one can create bioluminescent art at home.
In 2018 Wiles became science ambassador for House of Science, a not-for-profit venture for raising science literacy in local communities. She was also reelected as general Councillor of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2018. Two years later she was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.
Wiles is also working on finding new antibiotics by screening 10,000 New Zealand fungi for possible medical use.
The bioluminescence is used to speed up the process of developing new antibiotics utilising the light emitted from the bacteria, because only living bacteria emit light. About her work Wiles says "My career has been built on making nasty bacteria bioluminescent and using them for all sorts of things, including finding new medicines". New Zealand has some of the highest rates of infectious diseases among developed countries. Globally 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant diseases.
She commissioned, co-wrote, and appeared with her daughter in the TVNZ online children's science show Siouxsie & Eve Investigate.
From 2010 until 2016 Wiles was co-host of the Completely Unnecessary Skeptical Podcast which focused on skepticism in New Zealand.
She has also used art and film to communicate scientific ideas: in 2011 she collaborated with Australian graphic artist Luke Harris to produce a series of animated films featuring bioluminescent creatures and their uses in science. The animations on NASA's use of fireflies for the search of extraterrestrial life was selected for inclusion in the 6th Imagine Science Film Festival in New York in 2013, and the Goethe Institute's 2014 Science Film Festival. Wiles collaborated with artist Rebecca Klee on an installation at the Auckland Art in the Dark Festival in 2013, which featured Hawaiian bobtail squid and Aliivibrio fischeri. Wiles thinks that relevant science education should start in primary school, for increasing science literacy and interest in the field more generally.
Her 2015 science communication projects include the Biolumination II exhibition.
Wiles is active in the skeptical movement having received the Skeptic of the Year Award from the NZ Skeptics in 2016 and attended several NZ Skeptic Conferences. She has also spoken out against anti-vaxxers and other public health related issues.
In 2018, Wiles was named as a finalist for New Zealander of the Year Awards for her work on antibiotic-resistant superbugs and infectious diseases. She won the award in 2021 for her leadership in the public communication of New Zealand's COVID-19 response.
In 2020 Wiles was the subject of a documentary short entitled "Siouxsie and the Virus".
In mid-September 2021, Wiles criticised the New Zealand Government's decision to abandon its COVID-19 elimination strategy, asserting that this would put the unvaccinated and vulnerable at risk. During the launch of the COVID-19 Protection Framework (traffic light system) in December 2021, Wiles urged Aucklanders to put aside their summer holiday plans in order to contain the spread of the Delta variant within the community.
In mid September 2022, Wiles criticised the Government's decision to drop the "traffic light system" as a "big, long term expensive, mistake." She argued that the COVID-19 Protection Framework was needed to protect the country from newer COVID-19 strains, infection waves, and the problem of "Long COVID" among vulnerable patients. Wiles also argued that facemasks and RAT tests were still needed to curb the spread of COVID-19 within the community.
In March 2022 the New Zealand Media Council upheld a complaint that a column by Wiles published by Stuff on 20 December 2021 about the Listener Seven had breached press standards. The Media Council took particular issue with Wiles' claim that the seven professors had intimidated junior colleagues with lawyers' letters was inaccurate and should not have been made.
In August 2021, the university had advised them to reduce their public commentary and social media interaction, which Hendy and Wiles regarded as insufficient. The Employment Relations Authority also expedited their complaint, allowing it to proceed to the Employment Court, and ordered the University of Auckland to pay their legal fees.
On 6 November 2023 a hearing started in court with an expected duration of three weeks. That day, footage of harassment against Wiles was shown in court. Such clips included conspiracy theorists Billy Te Kahika and Vinny Eastwood describing her as "Satanic" to their followers. During cross-examination on 7 October, the University of Auckland's lawyer Philip Skelton disputed Wiles' claim that the University had silenced her by arguing that she had taken part in numerous media interviews. On 7 November, a person sought to speak to Wiles at the University of Auckland. On 9 November, security staff removed a man who approached Wiles' legal team at the Employment Court, claiming he wanted to give evidence to her team. In response to these incidents, University lawyers raised concerns that media coverage of the court case could create a health and safety issue.
At the end of the case, on 23 November 2023, Judge Holden reserved her decision. On 8 July 2024, the Employment Court ruled in Wiles' favour and found that the University had breached its health and safety obligations, contractural obligations, its duty of "good faith" and upheld Wiles' personal grievance claim. The Court also ruled that the University did not breach her academic freedom. The University was ordered to pay Wiles' NZ$20,000 in damages. On 4 June 2025, Radio New Zealand reported that the Employment Court had ordered the University of Auckland to pay Wiles $205,059.94 in legal costs for breaching their contractual obligations to protect Wiles from harassment.
She is a fan of Lego and likes to play with it while being a critic of what she describes as gender bias in the Lego minifigures. She has dyed her hair since she was a teenager, and is known as the "pink-haired science lady". In a 2013 blog post, Wiles says that the name "Siouxsie" comes from singer Siouxsie Sioux, lead singer of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees.
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