| Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology | |
| Type: | PO |
| Founded Date: | December 29, 1949 |
| Founder: | Walter Ezekiel, Charles Thom, and Charles L. Porter |
| Location: | Fairfax, Virginia |
| Origins: | Advertised meeting at AAAS conference in New York City |
| Key People: | Noel Fong, PresidentNigel Mouncey, President-ElectSteve Decker, Past-PresidentChristine Lowe, Executive Director |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Focus: | Microbiology, especially applications in industrial products, biotechnology, materials, and processes |
| Method: | Conferences, Publications |
The Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB) is a nonprofit, international association dedicated to the advancement of microbiological sciences, especially as they apply to industrial products, biotechnology, materials, and processes. SIMB promotes the exchange of scientific information through its meetings and publications, and serves as liaison among the specialized fields of microbiology. SIMB was established in 1949 as the Society for Industrial Microbiology (SIM) by Walter Ezekiel, Charles Thom, and Charles L. Porter.[1]
The SIMB is governed by a Constitution and Bylaws. The membership of SIMB elects a Board of Directors that consists of a President, President-Elect, Past-President, Secretary, Treasurer and four Directors.[2]
SIMB has two publications, the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology and SIMB News.[3]
The first Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals was held in 1978 and hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN). It was the first technical meeting focusing exclusively on the biotechnologically-‐mediated conversion of renewable feedstocks, especially lignocellulosic plant biomass, to fuels and chemicals. This annual meeting soon became large enough to be co-‐hosted by the predecessor of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, CO) and the Symposium's location alternated yearly between Tennessee and Colorado. In 2008, SIMB began handling the logistics of the meeting and locations were expanded to include other states, with the Symposium being held in alternate years in the eastern or western United States.
Although there has been a steady decline in natural product discovery efforts in the pharmaceutical industry over the last three decades, natural product chemical scaffolds have continued to yield important human antimicrobial agents, immunomodulators, and antitumor agents, as well as plant crop protectants. Natural product discovery is currently undergoing a renaissance based to a large extent on the observations from microbial genome sequencing projects indicating that only a fraction of the potential microbial secondary metabolites from actinomycetes, other eubacteria, and fungi have been discovered so far, and that most secondary metabolite pathways are not expressed under normal laboratory growth conditions. However, the new discipline of “genome mining” has been exploring ways to activate the expression of these “cryptic pathways.”
1949–51 Charles Thom (2 terms)
1951–52 Benjamin Duggar
1952–53 Kenneth B. Raper
1953–54 James Horsfall
1954–56 Boyd Woodruff (2 terms)
1956–57 J.M. McGuire
1957–58 C.W. Hesseltine
1958–59 Charles Porter
1959–60 Charles C. Yeager
1960–61 Arthur M. Kaplan
1961–62 Frederick Kavanagh
1962–63 Eugene L. Dulaney
1963–64 Brinton Miller
1964–65 Gaylen Bradley
1965–66 John N. Porter
1966–67 Saul Rich
1967–68 Leland A. Underkofler
1968–69 Robert W. Squires
1969–70 Morris R. Rogers
1970–71 John H. Litchfield
1971–72 Donal C. Wehner
1972–73 Michael A. Pisano
1973–74 Richard P. Elander
1974–75 William W. Leathen
1975–76 W. Max Stark
1976–77 Edward O. Stapley
1977–78 Robert L. Huddleston
1978–79 Allen I. Laskin
1979–80 Paul A. Lemke
1980–81 Raymond T. Testa
1981–82 Bernard J. Abbott
1982–83 Donald G. Ahearn
1983–84 C. Herb Ward
1984–85 Claude H. Nash
1985–86 George A. Somkuti
1986–87 Robert F. Acker
1987–88 Robert T. Belly
1988–89 C. George Hollis
1989–90 Paula Myers–Keith
1990–91 Arnold L. Demain
1991–92 Robert D. Schwartz
1992–93 Joseph J. Cooney
1993–94 Jennie C. Hunter–Cevera
1994–95 Edward J. Arcuri
1995–96 Steve Orndorff
1996–97 Harold Rossmoore
1997–98 Linda Lasure
1998–99 LaVerne Boeck
1999–00 Vincent Gullo
2000–01 Kristien Mortelmans
2001–02 Joan W. Bennett
2002–03 Ann C. Horan
2003–04 Douglas Jaeger
2004–05 Richard Baltz
2005–06 Jeffrey Schwartz
2006–07 Paul Cino
2007–08 Carol D. Litchfield
2008–09 George Pierce
2009–10 Susan T. Bagley
2010–11 Badal Saha
2011–12 Neal Connors
2012–13 Thomas Jeffries
2013–14 Leonard Katz
2014–15 E. Timothy Davies
2015–16 Scott Baker
2016–17 George Garrity
2017–18 Debbie Yaver
2018–19 Steve Van Dien
2019–20 Janet Westpheling
2020-21 Steve Decker
SIMB's awards include the following:[9]