From the President

This is my last President’s article after three happy years in the chair of the Microbiology Society. I would like to congratulate Judy Armitage on her election as our next President and I know that her passion for the discipline and tremendous managerial experience will serve the Society very well.

The manifesto that she gave to Council, describing the things that are of special interest to her, align very well with our five-year plan, and so I am sure that our strategic objectives will be strongly reinforced and underpinned under her leadership.

A word about this issue of Microbiology Today on HIV and AIDS. When I was a postdoc in the USA in the early 1980s, I recall writing home to tell my family and colleagues that a new disease, cause unknown, was going to emerge as one of the biggest health concerns of the age. Although HIV and AIDS has unfolded as one of the global tragedies of the last 30–40 years, it is also one in which the importance of the work of virologists and other microbiology-associated researchers has revolutionised the prospects for those who were and are infected with this virus. It is therefore important to recognise the value of investments made in basic and translational microbiological research and in a community of scientists that has an admirable track record in responding to major global challenges and threats.

It has been a wonderful and rewarding experience being President of one of the largest and most influential societies in the biosciences. The relationship between our Chief Executive, Peter Cotgreave, and all of our Charles Darwin House staff and Council has been collegiate and friendly, but also business-like, efficient, energetic and focused. I think the Society has been able to harness and support the talents of its community in delivering great conferences, efficiently managing a portfolio of excellent journals and creating a strong and clear voice in our policy work. I have been delighted to see the Early Career Microbiologists’ Forum shoot out of the blocks and quickly become an integral and vital part of our structure. I’ve heard some thrilling science related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and disease, microbiomes and biodiversity, pollution and bioremediation, cell biology and bioengineering, and many other fields besides. I have had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of extraordinary and talented people who have discovered amazing things and made enormous contributions to the field.

There have been only a few problems to solve – but each one was addressed quickly and resolved, I believe, to the best possible outcome. The sum of these observations and experiences reinforces my own career-long conviction that the extraordinary world of microbes deserves its place at the head of the scientific table, because it impacts so directly (positively and negatively) on the lives of all of us, but also because it delivers resources, solutions and hope for the future. It really has been one of the greatest privileges to share these three years with colleagues who have worked and served the Society so well, and I would like to end by thanking them, and all of our members, who have contributed to the activities of this society.

Neil Gow

President
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