From the President

We are restructuring our publications activity and Leighton Chipperfield, the Head of Publishing, describes some of the changes in publishing in this issue. Open Access (OA) publishing has been widely discussed following the Finch report, but the importance of publication income to learned societies in supporting training and conference activities may not be fully understood by many proponents of OA. The SGM Policy Committee recently contributed to the Society of Biology submission to the House of Lords inquiry into OA publishing.

The new Council Committees have begun to meet and to implement the Strategic Plan 2012–17. We are beginning to look at many of the activities that the Society undertakes. There is opportunity for all Ordinary Members of the Society to involve themselves more directly in the work of the SGM through standing for election as members of Council or of Divisional Committees. Details are available in News.

The major structural change for the Society will be relocation of its offices to London. We have found that our current location reduces our opportunities to engage with opinion-formers and with other learned societies. Council has agreed to move over the course of 2013 to Charles Darwin House, where we will share facilities with the Society of Biology, the Biochemical Society, the Society for Experimental Biology and the British Ecological Society. The restructured publications department will be the first to move, beginning in February, with other staff following over the course of the year. The argument for the Society to be located outside London to reduce costs is no longer valid, and London provides a bigger pool of the specialist staff that a modern learned society needs.

I encourage all members to promote microbiology, not only in the scientific community, but with politicians and other opinion-formers. European Antibiotic Awareness Day was on 18 November 2012 and one letter to a local MP, pointing out the issues around the small number of usable antibiotics and the relative lack of investment in discovering new antimicrobials, led to action. The MP tabled a question with the Department of Health on steps being taken to minimise further resistance and asked the Business, Innovation and Skills Department about investment in new antimicrobials.

With the help of members, the SGM can respond rapidly to issues of microbiological concern. The recent concerns over ash dieback led to us quickly producing a briefing note with the help of Dr Robin Sen of Manchester Metropolitan University. Such briefing notes are valued by politicians, civil servants and others who have to respond quickly to concerns. All members of the Houses of Commons and Lords and elected members of the devolved administrations receive copies of all briefing notes and are invited to receive Microbiology Today.

This issue of Microbiology Today celebrates the award of the SGM Prize Medal to Professor Harald zur Hausen. It is a mine of useful information about the relationship between viruses and cancer, and will be circulated to health professionals, as well as to SGM members and politicians. The SGM Prize Medal is the premier award of the Society and I am pleased to congratulate Professor zur Hausen and our other prize winners, details of whom can be found in News.

NIGEL L. BROWN, President
Email [email protected]