SGM/SSM/SSM: Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Mikrobiologie
In 2019 the four points we would like to highlight are:
1. The annual meeting of the SSM took place in Zürich on September 3rd and 4th. On occasion of the meeting, the society announced several honors and awards. Linda Thöny-Meyer, a past president of the SSM and the first winner of the SSM encouragement award, was elected honorary member. Throughout her career, Linda Thöny-Meyer combined fundamental and applied microbiological research. Linda Thöny-Meyer made seminal contributions to the field of bacterial physiology and bioenergetics, in particular on the topic of biosynthesis and biogenesis of bacterial cytochromes. During the gala dinner, Prof. Gabriela Pfyffer von Altishofen, the first female president of the SSM, was also celebrated. Prof. Pfyffer was elected honorary member in 2018, but unfortunately could not join the SSM meeting in 2018 in Lausanne. Gabriela Pfyffer von Altishofen was a very active SSM president, well known by all clinical microbiologists thanks to her work and expertise on mycobacteria.
2. The active participation of the SSM committee members to the project on antibiotic resistance StAR led by the confederation.
3. The participation of the medical microbiology section in the discussions concerning the revision of the cost of microbiological analyses in Switzerland.
4. The active role of the society on Lay Communication.
None to report.
The annual meeting of the SSM took place in Zürich on September 3rd and 4th, and was organized by Prof. Hubert Hilbi as the meeting chair. The 2-day meeting comprised 5 keynote lectures, 25 parallel sessions, 50 invited speakers and 50 speakers picked from the submitted abstracts. Furthermore, 150 posters covering all 6 sections of the society were presented. A total of almost 500 participants attended the meeting, more than 200 of which enjoyed the conference dinner at the ancient Zunfthaus zur Saffran.
The seventh edition of the Swiss Microbial Ecology meetings, SME 2019, took place from 30 January to 1 February 2019 at the Aquatis Conference Center in Lausanne. The meeting was enabled by generous contributions of EPFL, ISME, SCNAT, SGM-SSM, and SNSF. The total number of attendants of SME 2019 was 102, including 9 invited speakers. A good gender balance (47% female) among participants was obtained and a good participation of PhD students (50%). Among the Swiss participants we had representatives of all language regions (D: 40; F: 47; I: 7) and 13 research institutions with in total 30 research groups. The motto of SME 2019 was "the incredible diversity of microbial ecology research", which was well represented in the scientific program. The program consisted of 9 invited keynote lectures and 29 contributed talks organized into 6 sessions. A total of 40 posters were presented in two poster sessions. The meeting provided a great overview at the vibrant microbial ecology research carried out in Switzerland, and a great opportunity to meet leading national and international scientists in a very personal setting. The scientific discussions were intense and social exchange at joint coffee breaks, meals, and drinks allowed to make new contacts and launch new collaborative research.
The SSM is affiliated to the European Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). ESCMID wants to encourage participation of young members to the society and a young member should be elected in each affiliated society. Florian Tagini (Fribourg) is the current young member elected to represent SSM, whereas G. Greub remains in his role as the main senior member representing SSM at ESCMID. The ECCMID meeting initially planned in Paris in April 2020 has been cancelled due to Coronavirus outbreak. Next ECCMID will take place in Vienna.
A series of short 1h TELCO are organized starting 31th March from 6 to 7 pm between the different representatives of the national societies affiliated to the ESCMID in order to share information between national societies. G. Greub represented SSM during the first TELCO. This first TELCO was very general and its aim was mainly to have an overview of the current situation in the different countries participating (n=15). Discussions regarding microbiology were mainly focused on RT-PCR diagnostic tests and serological tests.
The SSM is also affiliated to the SULM (union of laboratory medicine). A member of the SSM committee is a member of the Editorial board of the Journal of the SULM (Pipettes). In addition, SSM helds a joint meeting with SULM approx. every 6 years; the last meeting took place in Bern in 2016.
SSM is a member of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) and Prof. C. Holliger participated in the Council meeting in Milan, Italy that took place 6-7 September 2019.
This year the SSM was able to support its junior members with seven travel grants. These travel grants allowed our members to present their work overseas or at European conferences. Moveover, one the grantees was able to use the grant to come from the USA to participate in TransCon2019, an international conference organized in Switzerland.
This year's encouragement award went to Nicholas Taylor for his impressive work on the structure and function of the bacteriophage T4 baseplate.
Moreover, during the annual SSM meeting, the society sponsored prizes for best oral presentations in each one of the sections covered by the society. These were awarded to Jose-Manuel Ortiz de la Rosa (Clinical Microbiology), Selina Niggli (Environmental Microbiology), Ophélie Rutschmann (Prokaryotic Biology), Fiorella Rüchti (Mycology) and Annika Hunziker (Virology). In addition, the industrial partner: BioMérieux, sponsored three poster awards, which were given to Mingzhen Fan (1st), Fabio Palmieri (2nd) and Margo van Berkum (3rd).
In 2019 during the general assembly, the SSM elected its first early career representative. Mr. Florian Tagini is since January an integral member of the SSM committee.
Active participation of SSM committee members (G. Greub, P. Junier, J. Schrenzel) to the national strategy on Antibiotic Resistance (StAR project, https://www.star.admin.ch/star/en/home.html). Prof. J. Schrenzel is directly involved in the core-team of the project
None to report.
None to report.
In 2016 the SSM created a Lay communication section. Its mission is to engage with the broad public by opening discussion forums, inform policy-makers and leading national initiatives for science communication in microbiology. The SSM relies on the direct communication between microbiology researchers and society to foster amazement and interest for the microbial world.
During the last SSM congress in Zurich (2019), a special section of poster presentations was dedicated exclusively to portray the work of our members in Lay Communication initiatives. In addition, an open desk was chaired by members of the committee throughout the conference to encourage direct discussion with the participants and to promote the importance of Lay Communication.