 December 7, 2018
CSM December 2018 President Letter
It is my great pleasure to serve as your CSM President this year. My term began following the traditional passing of the hat ceremony from Andrew Lang (Memorial University) at the CSM Annual Conference held from June 18-21, 2018 at the University of Manitoba. Andrew did a fantastic job in his year as president, and we are all benefiting from his expertise as he continues on in the role of Past President.
Many thanks also go out to the 2018 conference organizers, Ann Karen Brassinga, Ayush Kumar and Ivan Oresnik, who put together a phenomenal program that effectively highlighted much of the outstanding science going on in labs across Canada, and in CSM member labs around the world. This year's conference marked the implementation of a new CSM initiative (in response to feedback from CSM members through an online survey and in person at the 2017 Annual General Meeting), in the form of travel awards to 20 students, to help defray the cost of their travel and accommodations. It also marked the second annual awarding of the Knowles Prize for post-doctoral fellows. We are delighted to announce that the future of the Knowles award has been secured for at least 16 years, courtesy of a generous donation from the organizing committee of the 2017 CSM conference, which was then matched by the CSM Executive members. We look forward to continuing to support and recognize the excellent work of trainees at all levels!
With the conclusion of the Manitoba conference, we are now looking forward to next year's conference at the Université de Sherbrooke (June 10-13, 2019), being organized by Pascale Beauregard, Louis-Charles Fortier and Vincent Burrus. Please mark your calendars! For more information, please check out the following link (https://www.csm-scm.org/english/conf_upcoming_details.asp?PageID=52), or follow us on Twitter - @CSM2019.
As of October, the CSM member numbers are amongst the highest that our Society has ever seen (655 total members: 304 Regular members, 262 Students, 67 Postdoctoral Fellows, 19 Emeriti and 3 Honorary members). We are delighted to have the continued support of principal investigators, and are equally pleased to see such strong numbers for the student and post-doctoral fellows. We hope to continue working with these early-stage scientist to ensure a vibrant Society with a strong future, and are grateful for the wisdom and creative ideas of our all members to continually improve the CSM.
We encourage you to take advantage of all the member benefits: https://www.csm-scm.org/english/mem_join.asp including highlighting your research on the Meet the Microbiologist page, posting job advertisements, enjoying reduced registration fees at our Annual CSM Conference, and accessing our numerous member-only awards and student funding opportunities We are also active on social media, and regularly post microbiology-related job opportunities and career information. In the future, we would be delighted to help amplify the successes of any CSM members (major awards, publications, etc.)!
The success of the CSM stems from the active engagement by members from across the country. To continue growing and improving what we do to support microbiology in Canada and internationally, we have a range of opportunities open to anyone interested in getting involved in the society. We are currently accepting nominations for:
• Vice-President (term: 1 year as 2nd Vice President; 1 year as 1st Vice President; 1 year as President; 1 year as Past-President)
• Section Vice-Chairs for each of:
Applied and Environmental Microbiology;
Molecular Genetics and Cellular Microbiology;
Infection and Immunity
(term: 2 years as Vice-Chair, followed by 2 years as Chair)
• student and post-doctoral representatives from all institutions
Nomination forms for the Vice-President and Section Vice-Chair positions can be accessed through this link (https://www.csm-scm.org/english/about_exec_nomform.asp), and will be accepted until January 11th, 2019. Any students or post-doctoral fellows who are interested in representing their institution are encouraged to get in touch through email (info@csm-scm.org).
I expect this will be an exciting year! I look forward to working with many of you and meeting you in Sherbrooke next June.
Sincerely,
Marie Elliot, Ph.D.
Professor
McMaster University
Contact
Wafaa Antonious
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