August 2013
A F F I L I AT E S L E T T E R The official newsletter for FEMS Affiliates
Highlights 5th FEMS Congress Also in this issue: Grants Corner FEMS Research Fellowships Grants Publications Page Animals & Microbes Society Page Portuguese Society for Microbiology Deadlines Microbiology TidBits
Leipzig (Germany), the city of the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach, hosted the 5th FEMS Congress during five warm days in the third week of July. Despite the hot weather and the holidays, more than 2,000 participants were present to fill up the lecture halls for symposia, plenary lectures, special events and workshops. On Sunday, Nobel Prize laureate Dr Harald zur Hausen gave the opening lecture on “Infectious causes of human cancers” followed a presentation by Dr Kristala Prather Jones on “Exploiting the synthetic capacity of microbes for the production of novel value-added biochemicals”. Monday was closed by Dr Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser, European Commission, with a session on “Policy – Should it be based on fact or fiction?”, in which she also referred to the European Declaration for Microbiology initiated by FEMS, among others.
Statue of Bach in front of the St. Thomas Church, which is known as the place where Bach worked as a Kapellmeister, and as his burial location.
Busy poster sessions were held throughout the whole day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. More than 1,900 posters attracted the participants’ attention. Continue on page 2.
Lots of activities took place in the main hall of the congress center. On the right: Jeff Cole, Chief Editor of FEMS Microbiology Letters, informs a participant during one of the “Meet the Editor” sessions at the Wiley-Blackwell stand.
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