Professor Potts is the current Head of the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney and prior to this was Chair of Molecular Biophysics in the Department of Biology and Head of Department at the University of York in the United Kingdom. Professor Potts' research centres on understanding the structure and function of proteins on the surface of Gram-positive bacteria that are involved in host colonisation and biofilm formation. Her work has been published in the premier journals including PNAS and Nature Communications.