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.
Governance 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.
Publications SIMB has two publications, the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology and SIMB News.
Scientific Meetings
SIMB Annual Meeting Source:
Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels and Chemicals (SBFC) Source: 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.
Recent Advances in Fermentation Technology (RAFT) Source:
Industrial Microbiology Meets Microbiome (IMMM) Source:
Natural Products Source: 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.”
Past Presidents 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 2021-2022 Noel Fong 2022-2023 Michael Resch 2024-2024 Nigel Mouncey 2024-2025 Ramon Gonzalez 2025-2026 Rob Donofrio
Awards SIMB's awards include the following:
SIMB Industry Award Charles Thom Award Charles Porter Award Waksman Outstanding Teaching Award Fellowship Status Young Investigator Award Carol D. Litchfield Best Student Oral Presentation Award Carol D. Litchfield Best Student Poster Presentation Award Diversity Travel Awards
References
External links Official website Society for Industrial Microbiology records, 1949-2001 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County