Meeting Briefing: Sino-Micro Gathering at ASM 2011

We had a great gathering at the 2011 General ASM meeting! The ASM meeting took place at the Ernest M. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, from Saturday, May 21 – Tuesday, May 24. On Sunday May 22, a total of 19 attendants including 17 Sino-Micro members and 2 guests from Taiwan Society for Microbiology gathered together in the Marriott hotel at the Convention Center, New Orleans.  

Thanks Yiwei for arranging the meeting place and inviting the Taiwan colleagues. A special THANK to Dr. Wu from Kingmed Center for Clinical Laboratory, China, who sponsored wine for the meeting. 

Here is a brief summary of the meeting:

Attendants: Guangchun Bai, Jianli Dai, Yiping Han, Xin Li, Felicia Qi, Keer Sun, Yiwei Tang, Xiufeng (Henry) Wan, Hua Wang, Tom Wen, Qingming Wu, Shangwei Wu, Frank Yang, Xuejie Yu, Mingtao Zeng, Qijing Zhang, Jizhong Joe Zhou, Po Ren Hsueh (from National Taiwan University), Jiunn-Jong Wu (from National Cheng-Kung University). Here is one photo for the Sino-Micro gathering during 2011 ASM general meeting.

1, The meeting started with each member introducing themselves to others.  Sino-Micro indeed provides a platform for our members to get connected!

2, Instead of champagne, we used wine to congratulate those members who achieved tenure (Oliver He, Frank Yang) and made significant contribution (Xuejie Yu published in NEJM with the finding of a new bunyavirus in ticks in China) for the past year. 

3, Frank Yang gave a short briefing on the past year activity of Sino-Micro.

4, Suggested by Wenyuan, the members discussed on how to coordinate future activities of Sino-Micro. Joe (Jizhong) Zhou (Chairman of the board) led the discussion. Joe suggested to recruit members in diverse area of microbiology, to explore possibility of interaction with microbiology division in the Societies of Ecology or Soil Sciences in China, to interact with the international office of ASM and the Ambassador of ASM in China.  Xuejie Yu will explore the possible interaction with China CDC.

5, Potential meetings for Sino-Micro members to go to this year are discussed. These include Taiwan Society for Microbiology annual meeting co-organized by Yiwei Tang (Dec 2011, Taipei), and the meeting of Microbial Ecology in Chinese Society of Ecology co-organized by Joe Jizhong Zhou on December 28-30, 2011 in Nanjing. More information will be provided when it approaches.

6, It was suggested that a photo picture along with the Chinese name be added for each member in the Sino-Micro members website.