Chapter One - The need for a learned society: building a community

Abstract

The location was Melbourne. The year was 1958. An ANZAAS Congress was underway. A small group of microbiologists got together and held a meeting. The topic for discussion was microbiology. But it was not the science of microbiology that was being debated. Rather, it was the need for a society dedicated to microbiology and to microbiologists – the need for an organisation that would bring those working in the discipline together and further the cause of this essential and boundary-crossing science.