Members Newsletter April 2017 
​International Society for Microbial Ecology    1/4     

 

 

A belated happy new year to all ISME Members! We have quite a lot of news to share. By ISME President Colin Murrell

New Board Members

You have voted recently and we are delighted to welcome our two new ISME Board Members Yoichi Kamagata from Japan and Julia Vorholt from Switzerland, two outstanding microbial ecologists who bring with them a wealth of experience. We look forward to working with you in the coming years.

Thanks again to our outgoing Board members, Rudi Amann and Satoshi Okabe, for their years of sterling service on the International Board.

  

                                     


Demerger from the ISME Journal

Last year the ISME membership agreed to separate The ISME Journal from the association; thus keeping the association non-profit. A proposal was made by our notary, accountants and ISME Executives and the proposal was been approved by the ISME international board and chamber of commerce. In order to make the demerger official, ISME Members were asked to vote on this proposal. This voting was carried out on 23rd November 2016 via an electronic meeting (webinar) and the ISME Membership accepted the proposal for the demerger which has subsequently taken place.

We thank all members who took part in the webinar and a special thanks to Sarash de Wilde who steered us expertly through the whole procedure which resulted in a successful demerger.

 


Retirements from The ISME Journal and new appointments

We say farewell to retiring ISME Journal Co-Editor-in-Chief George Kowalchuk. George, together with Mark Bailey, was a Founding Editor of the Journal and over the last 10 years has skillfully steered The ISME Journal on its upward path in becoming the premier journal in its field with an outstanding reputation for publishing the latest exciting developments in microbial ecology.

Throughout his time serving The ISME Journal, George has worked tirelessly with great scientific rigour, enthusiasm and optimism, cheerfully dealing with everything thrown his way and I and all past and current members of the Editorial Boards of ISME thank you for the immense efforts you have made in making this a truly great journal. It has been a real pleasure working with you.

We also thank other retiring members from the ISME Editorial Board, Alexandra Worden and Antje Boetius for all of their hard work and support over the years. A warm welcome also to new additions to the ISME Editorial Board: Heide Schulz-Vogt, Jizhong Zhou, Josh Neufeld and Jennifer Martiny.


New funding opportunities

Travel Fund

We are aiming to increase engagement with ISME substantially in the coming years and we are pleased to announce a substantial increase in the Travel Fund that can bid for in order to secure financial assistance to attend ISME 17 in Leipzig in August 2018.  This is particularly targeted towards those who can least afford to attend ISME and to facilitate their access to ISME activities.

                                                          

Development Fund

We are also launching this year an ISME Development Fund. This is designed to help microbial ecologists, working with ISME Ambassadors and Young Ambassadors, if appropriate, to bid for funding for training workshops, PhD Summer Schools, developing activities with National/Regional Microbial Ecology Societies that will enable us to further engage and grow the Society.  We welcome your suggestions and ideas for engagement activities that will be of benefit to ISME members and will bring microbial ecologists together to advance the field. To assist us in gathering ideas, we will be sending out a survey to members in the near future to gauge your opinions on what ISME can do to help you and invite ideas for the ISME Development Fund.

Promotional Fund

In addition to this fund, we also have a new ISME Promotional Fund which enables you, through your Ambassadors and Junior Ambassadors to help promote ISME and its activities. Activities could include a Visiting Scientist Program to promote ISME, invitation of Keynote Speakers or ISME Ambassadors to national or regional microbial ecology societies, writing workshops with Chief/Senior Editors. Again, we invite you to send us your ideas. 

Colin Murrell
ISME President

Passing of the torch: Kazuya Watanabe installed as new Co-Editor-in-Chief. By ISME editor George Kowalchuk

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we welcome Kazuya Watanabe as the new co-editor-in-chief of The ISME Journal. Although there is a level of melancholy associated with passing the torch, this is more than compensated by the knowledge that Kazuya will, together with Ian Head, help steer the journal toward continued success in the coming years. As editor for ISMEJ, Kazuya clearly demonstrated broad knowledge and understanding, as well as an ability to identify and improve exciting stories in microbial ecology. His own research demonstrates that especially in applied settings, basic ecological understanding is required to explain, steer and predict microbial processes. All associated with the journal are extremely pleased and excited and to Kazuya as the new ISMEJ torchbearer.

       

   George Kowalchuk
   The ISME Journal

ISMEJ: more updates

This month we welcome 5 new Senior Editors and simultaneously say goodbye to 2!

First of all, a big thank you to Alexandra Worden and Antje Boetius for doing an amazing editing job in the last few years. You made the journal better!

Secondly, we would like to give a warm welcome to the following new Senior Editors: Jennifer Martiny, Satoshi Okabe, Heide Schulz-Vogt, Jizhong Zhou and Josh Neufeld. 
 

 

 

New Media for ISME. By Sarash de Wilde

The ISME site is currently undergoing a big make over. We expect to go live with the new and improved website this spring.
 
At the same time we will also present an ISME app, with the huge advantage of not having to download a new ISME conference app every two years but one single app where you can find all ISME related topics, including the journal, membership and our conferences. Everyone can download and use the app but some parts will be restricted for members only (similar to the website).
 
We are also happy to announce that our publisher Springer Nature is undergoing a makeover too. They expect to go live with the new ISME Journal website at the end of this year. 


Membership

All 2016 1-year memberships have expired on 31 January 2017. To purchase your 2017 membership, please visit our membership pages. 

Extra benefit: please note that the keynote talks of ISME16 are now live and the link is visible (members only) at our  ISME Talks! section.

 

ISME ambassadors update. By Nicole Webster & Cecilia Alonso                

ISME is supported by an active and vibrant community of International Ambassadors. The primary role of the Ambassadors is to promote ISME activities, grow ISME membership and work with national and regional microbiology societies to promote microbial ecology.  To facilitate this, Ambassadors may take advantage of new funds available which include the ISME Development Fund and the ISME Promotional Fund, as also explained above. Again, we urge you to send us your ideas, or contact your local Ambassador to discuss the opportunities. 

For their ongoing service in the promotion of ISME and microbial ecology, ISME would like to sincerely thank our outgoing International Ambassadors:  Martin Hahn (Austria), Christina Lyra (Finland), Philippe Normand (France), Nagappa Ramaiah (India), Nazalan Najimudin (Malaysia), Marcel Gutierrez-Correa (Peru), Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya (Russia),  Hai-Bao Zhang (Singapore), Thomas Cloete (South Africa), Karsten Pedersen (Sweden), Prakitsin Sihanonth (Thailand), Slava Epstein (USA) and Stephen Giovannoni (USA).  We also welcome our incoming Ambassador’s: Dagmar Woebken (Austria), Charles Van der Henst (Belgium), David Prangishvili (France), Rup Lal (India), Stefan Bertilsson (Sweden) and Mya Breitbart (USA) as well as our Young Ambassadors: Hanna Farnelid (Sweden), Guillaume Borrel (France) and Lauren Messer (Australia).  

        For any additional information please contact the program Director Nicole Webster (n.webster@aims.gov.au),
or co-Director Cecilia Alonso (calonso@cure.edu.uy).

Jobs in Microbial Ecology

In the last few weeks many new adverts
have been placed on our website. 
Please check out the Jobs page here
 


 

Events in Microbial Ecology

April 19-21 International Conference on Holobionts Paris, France
April 21 Topical Day on ionizing radiation: how do bacteria cope and what can we learn? Mol, Belgium
June 14-16 NIMBioS Investigative Workshop: Pan-microbial Trait Ecology Tennessee, Knoxville
June 25-29 6th International Symposium on Biosorption and Biodegradation/Bioremediation Prague, Czech Republic
June 27-July 15 7th Summer Course on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering Singapore
July 09-13 FEMS 2017 Valencia, Spain
July 16-21 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Gordon Research Conference South Hadley, USA
August 01-03 2017 Multi-omics for Microbiomes – EMSL Integration Conference Pasco, WA, United States
August 28-September 01 International Workshop on Marine Geomicrobiology Sandbjerg Manor, Denmark
September 03-08 SAME15 Zagreb, Croatia
September 24-29 The International Society of Environmental Biogeochemistry’s 23rd Symposium (ISEB23) Palm Cove, QL, Australia