News

Young Microbiologist of the Year honoured

Joe Kirk, a PhD student from the University of Sheffield, is the Microbiology Society’s Young Microbiologist of the Year 2015. The Society’s Annual General Meeting heard all eight finalists present their talks; Joe‘s was entitled ‘Scratching the Surface; Targeting the Crystal Shell of Clostridium difficile’.

Second place went to Samantha Chui Sang Lee from the National University Ireland, with Christopher Miller from the University of Kent taking third place.

You can read more about the Young Microbiologist of the Year finalists in the news story on the website.

Parliamentary briefings

2015 is the International Year of Soils; to mark this, the Society will publish a Parliamentary briefing on UK soil health in December. With a growing population and the threat of climate change impacting our agricultural industry, sustainable crop production is vital. Utilising the microbes present in soil to selectively enhance the health and growth of crop plants will reduce the need for fertilisers and biocides, which damage the diversity of our soil microbiome.

Our Policy intern, Rebecca Philp from The Pirbright Institute, has summarised the issues. In addition, in June 2015, the Society published a Parliamentary briefing on emerging zoonotic diseases. Both briefings can be downloaded on our website.

Parliamentary events foster relations between science and policy

The Society’s Policy team recently attended Science and Stormont in Belfast, and Science and the Parliament in Edinburgh. The respective themes of the events, which included networking opportunities and talks, were ‘Energy and the Environment’ and ‘Science and the Scottish Election’. The events are organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry in cooperation with other science organisations, including the Microbiology Society.

Members interested in attending next year’s events in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland can contact the Society’s Policy Officer, Paul Richards ([email protected]).

2015 Society Outreach Prize

Dr Adam Roberts from the UCL Eastman Dental Institute has been awarded the Society’s 2015 Outreach Prize. Adam founded the ‘Swab and Send’ citizen science project aimed at increasing awareness of antimicrobial resistance with the public and is involved with the Society’s own Small World Initiative. He gave a talk entitled ‘Engagement by Participation’ at the Society’s AGM, where he shared his experiences and latest results.

Conferences

Two new Focused Meetings will be taking place in 2016:

Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis of Avian Viruses, 27–29 September

Molecular Biology of Archaea 5, 1–3 August

Our Annual Conference 2016 will be held 21–24 March at the ACC, Liverpool.

Visit the Conferences article [LINK HERE] for more details.

Deaths

It is with sadness that we note the deaths of the following members:

PROFESSOR GEORGE TENNANT MACFARLANE,

Centre for Oncology & Molecular Science, University of Dundee, who joined the Society in 1983.

DR FORBES ROBERT WARDROP,

Biotechnology Research Institute, who joined in 1995.

DR ELIZABETH MARGARET ELLIS,

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, who joined in 1988.

Please contact [email protected] if you wish to notify the Society of the death of a member whose details can be included in this section.

Upcoming grant deadlines

Date	Grant	Notes
30 November 2015	Hayes–Burnet and Heatley–Payne Awards	To support postdoctoral researcher members wishing to establish/strengthen collaborations in Australia or the USA
1 December 2015	Travel Grants	For conferences from 1 January 2016 onwards*
10 December 2015	Harry Smith Vacation Studentships	For undergraduate summer research projects in 2016
29 January 2016	Society Conference Grants	To support eligible members to attend the Annual Conference 2016, Liverpool
	Undergraduate Student Conference Grants
	Inclusion Grants
1 March 2016	Travel Grants	For conferences from 1 April 2016 (including the Annual Conference 2016 for Full Members)
15 March 2016	Microbiology in Schools Fund	For visits and events from 1 December onwards

ROLLING APPLICATION

Local Microbiology Event Sponsorship

Eligible members can apply for funds to support microbiology-related events, e.g. sponsored talks.

*Please note, you do not need to have received confirmation of abstract acceptance to apply for these grants as conditional offers will be made. In this case, evidence of acceptance is required to claim your grant.

Biosciences Athena SWAN workshop

The Microbiology Society, in partnership with the Biochemical Society, British Ecological Society, Royal Society of Biology and Society for Experimental Biology, is running a workshop for university and research institute bioscience departments on best practice and the challenges in applying for an Athena SWAN award on 11 December 2015 at Charles Darwin House.

The event will be chaired by Professor Hilary Lappin-Scott. Participants will hear from current Athena SWAN award holders, panel members and the Athena SWAN team and will take part in interactive activities aimed at producing high quality applications to the Athena SWAN process.

Small World Initiative at Number 10 Downing Street and citizen science pop-up events

The Society visited Number 10 Downing Street to dig in the garden there, as part of the Small World Initiative project’s search for antibiotic-producing bacteria. This follows the Society receiving letters of support for the project from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Science Minister Jo Johnson and the Department of Health. The sample has been sent for analysis at the University of East Anglia, joining over 300 samples collected during the summer by members of the public who visited the Society’s citizen science events at High Lodge, Thetford Forest and Alice Holt Forest, Surrey. The public, and the Prime Minister, will be able to follow and contribute to the analysis of their samples online. Find out more on pages 176–177.

Contributions and feedback

The Society welcomes contributions and feedback from members. Please contact [email protected] with ideas.

BENJAMIN THOMPSON

Head of Communications
[email protected]