Celebrating the Society’s 75th anniversary

We would like to say a big thank you to all our members for making the Society what it is today: a vibrant and welcoming home for everyone, everywhere, who has an interest in microbiology. This year we are celebrating the 75^th anniversary of our founding with activities dedicated to demonstrating the impact of microbiologists past, present and future – bringing together and empowering communities that are helping to shape the future of microbiology.

Why Microbiology Matters

Alongside our special anniversary issues of Microbiology Today, we are launching new collections of digital content to celebrate our 75^th anniversary, under the heading ‘Why Microbiology Matters’. From the submissions received from throughout the microbiology community, we have created a series of digital content hubs, each examining an important theme in detail, including testimony from our members and microbiologists working in each area to share a wealth of rich and interactive content. We will continue to add new content to the hubs as it becomes available; therefore, our list of resources will expand and be available beyond our anniversary year, as a lasting resource for the microbiology community.

Visit microbiologysociety.org/WhyMicroMatters to see the topics released to date and follow #WhyMicroMatters on Twitter.

Celebrating the impact of microbiologists past, present and future

We recently announced our digital event, ‘Why Microbiologists Matter: a digital celebration of the journeys of our members’ taking place Monday 23 to Thursday 26 November 2020.

This one-week online event series is designed to explore the impact of microbiologists’ past, present and future. The week will include both the Fleming Prize Lecture 2020 and the Microbiology Society Outreach Prize Lecture as well as the Annual General Meeting. The events will span every career stage: from senior scientists to early career microbiologists and will host the final of the Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year Competition.

 The week also includes content from this year’s Fleming Showcase, which was originally scheduled to take place at our Annual Conference in April, to celebrate the Society’s 75^th anniversary. 

Microbiology Images

You can still get involved in our Microbiology Images Project, which highlights how microbiology answers big questions by giving us knowledge of very small things. We welcome images of your science, of nature, of people, from the laboratory, places and events that will inspire, inform and demonstrate how the study of microbes helps us to understand our world and our place within it.

Visit microbiologysociety.org/MicroImages for details on how to submit images and follow #MicroImages on Twitter to see the submissions we have received so far.

A Sustainable Future

We continue to work on our policy project, A Sustainable Future, demonstrating the value and raising the profile of microbiology in addressing the world’s biggest challenges.

Visit microbiologysociety.org/SDGs for more information about the project and follow #MicroGlobalChallenges on Twitter.

Microbiology Book Club

In March, to coincide with World Book Day 2020, we launched a new activity to celebrate microbiology in literature. This project is inspired by member Jo Verran, who runs the Bad Bugs Book Club.

Find out more about how you can be involved by visiting microbiologysociety.org/BookClub and follow #MicrobioBookClub on Twitter.

If you are interested in getting involved in any of the 75^th anniversary activities, please email [email protected].

Look out for further updates on our website, or via Twitter using the hashtag #MicrobioSoc75th