from the president

this edition of microbiology today comes at an important time for the society. next month’s annual general meeting will consider a series of announcements and decisions. we will learn who has been successful in the elections to council, committees and divisions, and we will find out who the next president will be.

the major decision for members to make is on the recommendation from council that the society changes its name. as i mentioned in my introduction to microbiology today in february, the word ‘general’ has a very different connotation now compared with 70 years ago when the society was formed.

peter cotgreave gives some of the detail behind the proposal to change the society’s name in the 'from the chief executive' page. while we may be comfortable with the existing name, it does not mean much externally, and we need increasingly to think of our external audiences. along with the changing name comes a changing strategy to meet a changing world, but our core values and mission have not changed. we are merely delivering these differently.

in addition to the annual general meeting on 17 september, it is also the opportunity to hear the presentations of the finalists in the sir howard dalton young microbiologist of the year competition. i am sure that, as in previous years, the standard of science and its presentation will be very high.

at the same event, one of our distinguished honorary members, professor dame anne glover, will give our special lecture. anne founded a company based on her research at the university of aberdeen, and was chief scientific adviser for scotland before becoming chief scientific adviser to the president of the european commission. she was awarded a dbe in the 2015 birthday honours list. she has been heavily engaged in policy work for several years, and her talk should be instructive and fascinating.

as many of you know, i am keen that the society engages on major policy issues and the work of the policy committee has made this happen. several of the issues that are important internationally – antimicrobial resistance, bioenergy, waste remediation, infectious disease, food security – have a strong microbiology component. it is imperative that our voices are heard on such issues and our expertise brought to bear.

as well as communicating with policy-makers and external audiences, we also need to inform each other. our excellent annual conference four months ago saw the launch of the latest journal in the society’s portfolio. microbial genomics fills a gap in journal provision internationally, and i wish it every success. of course, success can be helped by members publishing in this or one of our other journals. these are our main income stream and allow us to do the many things we have identified in our strategy. our conferences would be sorry or expensive affairs without the support of the journals. i am grateful for the vision of our publishing committee and staff in developing our activities in the changing environment of scientific publishing.

this year is the international year of light and this edition of microbiology today focuses on microbial interactions with light – both in responding to light and in generating light. how many people know that micro-organisms are the main contributors to utilising the sun’s energy through photosynthesis, or that they generate the beautiful phosphorescence seen on some tropical beaches? as microbiologists, we should be telling people about such things as well as telling them about micro-organisms and disease. of course, the history of microbiology has also been the history of light microscopy, from leeuwenhoek’s observations of ‘animalcules’ to the sophisticated optical techniques of today. light has played an important role in microbiology from the discipline’s inception and i hope that you find this edition of microbiology today illuminating!

nigel brown

president
[email protected]