Investing in the Microbiology Community: The Importance of Involvement in Microbiology Society Activities
The Microbiology Society is a not-for-profit publisher committed to investing in the microbiology community. Publishing in our journals supports the Society’s series of conferences and meetings that take place each year, designed to develop and strengthen networks within our community. In this article, longstanding and active member, Sheila Patrick shares the importance of getting involved with Society activities.
T he Microbiology Society always has been, and have been a Society member for over 40 years, and through membership of various committees have been involved in planning the content of conferences, most recently as Chair of the Federation of Infection Societies Conference and Chair of the Prokaryotic Division. Annual Conference provides a fantastic opportunity to widen research horizons with cross-discipline interaction; I have more than once gained insights relevant to my own research by listening to presentations outside my research focus. This has even led to unexpected research collaboration. continues to be, a society that welcomes, mentors and supports microbiologists throughout their careers. I Annual Conference is also a great opportunity to inform and update teaching content, particularly at Honours level and above. The Society has a thriving and vibrant early career community which has, with considerable success, been given a voice. Many doctoral students have delivered their first conference presentation in the subject forums at Annual Conference to a friendly and encouraging audience or presented their first poster at the convivial evening poster sessions, along with their beverage of choice. The Focused Meetings programme provides a different platform for learning and the exchange of ideas; with fewer delegates the opportunities for interactions amongst delegates and invited speakers increase. Focused Meetings enable more specialised groups to meet for in-depth discussions. My personal interest relates to the Society for Anaerobic Microbiology (SAM), which I Chair along with Trefor Morris, who is the Scientific Lead at the UK Anaerobe Reference Unit, based at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. SAM started in 1986, but by the 2000s, increased costs curtailed SAM’s ability to run independent conferences. With the welcome support of the Microbiology Society, we occasionally had joint one-day meetings within Microbiology Society conferences. Through the Focused Meeting initiative, we were able to re-instigate biennial stand-alone meetings of Anaerobe 2019 and 2021 (virtual). Registration for Anaerobe 2023 is now open! An important aspect of the Anaerobe Focused meetings is the interaction between the basic science and the more applied medical and health-related communities; this promotes the exchange of ideas and leads to improved research outcomes for both. Focused Meetings also provide opportunities to discuss and debate current issues; I am currently involved in planning ‘What’s in a name? Fit-for-purpose bacterial nomenclature’ to address the impact
of the recent rapidity of bacterial taxonomic changes on applied areas of microbiology such as clinical, agricultural, food and industrial microbiology. These are challenging and also exciting times for microbiology. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about fundamental changes in the speed of translation of scientific discovery to practical application. The dogma that the wheels of science translation have to turn slowly has perhaps been overturned. While there is an absolute need for checks and balances, the global COVID-19 response to vaccine development and rapid identification has shown that it is possible to move fast, safely and successfully. Why a pandemic was required for this gear change will no doubt exercise historians and social scientists for years to come. The activities of the Microbiology Society over its more than 75 years in disseminating knowledge undoubtedly helped to underpin the response to the pandemic, with many Microbiology Society members also deployed into numerous COVID-19 roles. If an accelerated transition from basic science to innovation and practical benefit could occur for COVID-19, then why not for other microbiology-related issues? Focused Meetings provide an excellent means of fostering basic/ applied research community dialogue; providing impetus for the push from basic science to innovation and practical benefit. The Microbiology Society has consistently adapted to change with considerable success during its long history, not least in relation to the recent changes in the publishing landscape with the ground-breaking Open Research Platform. I have no doubt that given the strong support of the Society’s many volunteers and the hard work of the Society staff it will continue its leadership in maintaining the research knowledge base and subject development within the global microbiology community.
Sheila Patrick Emeritus Professor School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast
s.patrick@qub.ac.uk @fragilismatters
35 Microbiology Today May 2023 | microbiologysociety.org
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