Annual Conference 2024: Welcome from the President

08 April 2024

I am delighted to welcome everyone to Annual Conference 2024, which returns this year to Edinburgh. I am looking forward to the fantastic opportunity offered by Conference to talk to as many members as possible across the week.

The EICC is our home from home in this hospitable city and the Microbiology Society is rightly proud of its reputation at the heart of a friendly, nurturing and approachable community. We are delighted to welcome anyone interested in microbes, their effects and their uses to the wealth of science on offer this week.

Annual Conference is an inclusive environment for members, you can read more about how we plan to meet the needs of all of our delegates in this news story.

As a membership charity and not-for-profit publisher we support and invest in the microbiology community for the benefit of everyone. We cannot do so without the revenue generated by publishing. Four early career members are attending this Conference for the first time – thanks to just one article published in one of our journals. Every time you publish with the Society, you are directly supporting your peers – ensuring that the Society continues to provide events, grants and professional development for microbiologists at all career stages.

Across everything we do, our aim is to amplify the voices of all of our members, irrespective of location or career stage. You can be part of this by volunteering to get involved at the Society, through submitting to our journals portfolio, joining us on a Committee, Panel or Council, sharing your work via our popular channels or contributing to one of our many projects and programmes. It’s easy to find out more, just talk to a member of the Society staff or ask one of our Champions or anyone on Council, Committees or Panels. We are all happy to share our experience of being an active part of this vibrant and vital community.

I look forward to talking to you this week.

Professor Del Besra FRS, President