Vertical Transmission

Our Society continues to deliver an exciting program of events to all members, for example monthly national invited research talks in ASM Hour, SIG and State Branch meetings, specialised meetings, and our recent Annual Scientific Conference in Brisbane. The Brisbane conference was a great success and showcased some of the best microbiology in Australia, with more than 560 delegates in attendance. We also had a record 34 trade exhibitors supporting our conference. The science was exceptional as always, with an outstanding mix of international and national invited speakers, as well as high-quality talks and poster presentations from our student and early career researcher (ECR) community.

The conference kicked off with an Industry session, where we started with a talk from our ASM Industry Engagement award winner Dr Erin Brazel from The University of Adelaide, and then continued with an engaging and inspiring panel discussion chaired by Assoc. Prof. Lea-Ann Kirkham that covered topics linked to a career path in industry. A highlight of the meeting for me is always the opportunity to acknowledge our high-achieving members through our ASM awards. This year was no exception, with an amazing 30 awards given out to student, ECR and Senior ASM members. I encourage all of you to check out The ASM homepage and peruse the awards that we offer (see https://www.theasm.org.au/member-awards) – I’m sure there is an award that many of you could aim to apply for. One award at the top of my mind is the newly named Cheryl Power Early Career Microbiology Educator Award, which was won by Dr Sophie Paquet-Fifield from The University of Melbourne. Although Sophie was not there to receive her award, it was presented by Cheryl Power herself, and I’m thrilled that we have been able to acknowledge the achievements of Cheryl in teaching and student and ECR mentorship by naming the award in her honour. Our student and early career day was a highlight and showcased our Nancy Millis Student Award speakers. We also had fantastic and interactive poster sessions that inspired great discussion and networking. Our CliniCon meeting again ran in parallel with the national conference, and this provided new interaction opportunities for our members as well as our Trade exhibitors. EduCon and SIG meetings also followed the conference. The Annual Scientific Conference Local Organising and Scientific Program Committees, respectively chaired by Ulrike Kappler and Tim Wells, did a fantastic job and deserve our thanks and congratulations for running a stimulating and engaging meeting that displayed some of the best cutting-edge research being performed in Australian microbiology. Thanks also to our VP Communications Dr Sam Manna and our Communication Ambassadors for their great job at promoting the meeting through our social media forums. Our next Annual Scientific Meeting will be in Adelaide from 14 to 17 July 2025. An exciting program is already taking shape and you can follow this on The ASM webpage (see https://www.theasmmeeting.org.au/).

I recently attended a Parliamentary Friends of Micro-biology event in Canberra with other ASM representatives Dena Lyras, Peter Traynor and Victoria Wansink. This is an initiative driven largely by Peter Traynor, together with co-Chairs Steve Georganas (Member for Adelaide) and The Hon. Warren Entsch MP (Federal Member for Leichardt), with a goal to increase the visibility of microbiology in Australia and present The ASM as an unbiased expert group able to give advice in microbiology. Our ASM team met with Federal Parliamentary Members and advisors, and we are in the process of following up on the connections we made. This is the second time we have run the event, and I hope we can continue to build these networks to create new opportunities for all of our members.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to our upcoming Annual General meeting. This will be held on Zoom on Thursday 19 September at 13:00 hours AEST. A calendar invitation and link to the meeting can be downloaded from our webpage (see https://www.theasm.org.au/conferences-and-events/2024/9/19/asm-annual-general-meeting). I hope to see you all online!