Date & Location
19-23 May, 2011
Beijing Friendship Hotel

Important Deadlines

• Deadline for Submission of Abstracts has extended to: March 10th, 2011
• Deadline for Early Bird Registration has extended to: March 30th, 2011
• Abstract Acceptance Notification: March 20th, 2011

Welcome!

To the first meeting of BISMiS which will be held in the Beijing Friendship Hotel from May 19th – 23rd, 2011.  The purpose of BISMiS is to promote the importance of teaching and research in microbial systematics and to foster communication between microbial systematists across the world.  These objectives include the pressing need to promote an understanding of the vast, largely unstudied, microbial diversity which has untapped genetic and industrial potential.  Indeed, a basic aim of the society is to enhance efforts to isolate microorganisms in pure culture and to describe, classify, name and identify them and, where appropriate, to use them for exploitable biotechnology.  The meeting in Beijing is designed to help realise these aims.

The conference – Microbial Systematics: Concepts, Practices and Recent Advances – will be held over four days.  The Opening Ceremony on Thursday, May 19th will include a welcoming address from Professor Li Huang (Director General, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing) and a keynote lecture by K. Barry Sharpless, Nobel Prize Laureat (The Scripps Research Institute, USA).  Thereafter, the conference will be divided into four minisymposia: 1, Microbial Systematics and Diversity; 2, Archaeal Systematics and Diversity; 3, Technological Advances in Systematics; and 4, Microbial Systematics and its Impact on Biotechnology.  There will be Young Scientists (under 35 years old) Fora, to highlight the work of younger scientists amongst whom will be tomorrow’s stars and leaders in microbial systematics drawn from across the world.  In addition, there will be Poster Sessions and a Trade Fair.

Around 300 participants from academia, industry and research institutes are expected to attend to exchange ideas, establish or further develop research networks, promote global friendships and to explore the importance of microbial systematics, not least from the biotechnological perspective.  There will be a reduced registration fee for BISMiS members.  Details of the scientific and social programmes will be available shortly on the conference website (www.BISMiS.org).