Early Career Microbiologists' Forum Update

New Undergraduate Representative and preparing for Edinburgh

The first ECM Executive Committee took office last month and your representatives have already been hard at work! We are excited to welcome Amiee Allen from the University of Kent to the Committee as our first Undergraduate Representative. Amiee will be key in reaching a wider audience of potential ECM Forum members, and plans to liaise with different universities in order to communicate any upcoming Microbiology Society opportunities. This way, we hope to provide undergraduates with the skills and encouragement needed to pursue microbiology-based careers.

We are also gearing up for our first Annual Conference as the Forum’s Executive Committee and have been implementing ideas on how to ensure that ECM Forum members can get the most out of their time in Edinburgh. Your Conferences Representative, Amy Richards, has been involved in refreshing the poster sessions at the Annual Conference. These initiatives include flash posters and a range of prizes that will improve the experience for both audience and presenter. There will also be the opportunity to help out with various tasks at the event so please do get involved when the time comes. The networking event on the Sunday is also a fantastic opportunity to mingle with new people in a semi-structured way; speaking as an unsociable introvert I can attest to how beneficial this session can be!

As a final note, we are here to represent your views and opinions so please do get in touch with us if you have any suggestions or ideas. We are keen to publicise the work of Forum members on Twitter, so whether that is a new paper, an outreach activity or something similar, tag @RebeccaJHall13 and @MicrobioSoc in your tweets and we will try to get them promoted.

We hope to see you all in April!

Rebecca Hall

Communications Representative, ECM Forum Executive Committee