Why Microbiologists Matter – a view from twitter

Posted on December 7, 2020   by Alex Kubiakowska-Welch

On 23–26 November 2020, the Microbiology Society hosted Why Microbiologists Matter: a digital celebration of the journeys of our members’, a one-week digital event series designed to explore the impact of microbiologists’ past, present and future. We’ve turned to Twitter to take a look back at the day and the event highlights.

WMM-blog.jpg
Avizeet Halder

Ahead of the event, much momentum was building up across the microbiology community. 


Our first talk was from 2020 Outreach Prize winners Sreyashi Basu and Sanjib Bhatka.


We were delighted to welcome microbiologist from across our community for the event. Especially those who could potentially become budding future scientists!
 


We continued the morning with an outreach training session with Dr Jamie Gallagher.
 


Following a short lunch break, we kicked off the Fleming Showcase with a short film introduced by David Sutchet, son of Jack Suchet who worked in the laboratory alongside Sir Alexander Fleming.
 


We also shared multiple videos of former Fleming Prize winners, who shared their experiences of what winning the prize meant to them.
 


We then heard the five-minute thesis talks from our early career researchers.
 
Most of us kickstarted day two of the event with a lovely cup of tea.
 
Soon to be followed by some fascinating talks from leading scientists across the world.
 
Followed by our early career researchers presenting their research.
 
We concluded day two with a talk from the 2020 Fleming Prize Winner, Professor Edze Westra.
 
The third day of Why Microbiologists Matter showcased the research of finalists from the Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year 2020 competition.
 
And we were thrilled to announce the winner – Aisling Towell from Trinity College Dublin.
 
Day three concluded with a panel discussion with past Fleming Prize winners.
 
Thank you to all who attended and participated in Why Microbiologists Matter.