2022 September 09: The ICSP is sad to report the passing from this life of Professor Kazuo Komagata – see: Short biography of Professor Komagata (download document)
Prof. Komagata was 93 years old. Prof. Komagata was Professor at the Institute of Applied Microbiology (IAM), the University of Tokyo since 1968. In 1981, Prof. Komagata was appointed Director of the Japan Collection of Microorganisms (JCM), RIKEN, Saitama, Japan, and at the Culture Collection of the IAM, the University of Tokyo. He served on the ICSB from 1974 – 1994. Prof. Komagata was a member of the Subcommittee on Corynebacterium and coryneform bacteria of the ICSB (1974 – 1994). He was a Commissioner for the Judicial Commission of the ICSB (1982 – 1994) and was Vice-Chairman of the ICSB (1986 – 1994). After retirement, he was elected a Life Member of the ICSB/ICSP in 1994. Prof. Komagata was recipient of a number of awards, including the 1999 Van Niel International Prize of the IUMS and the Bergey Medal from the Bergey’s Manual Trust in 2005. Prof. Komagata will be remembered by his colleagues and students as a great microbial taxonomist.
See also: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.005791
Information from Mitsuo Sakamoto and Ken-ichiro Suzuki, JCM, RIKEN, Ibaraki, JP and Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, JP
2022 August 26: The ICSP sadly notes the passing of Professor Monique Gillis, in Ghent, Belgium.
Prof. Gillis was Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology of Ghent University until her retirement in 2003. Prof. Gillis received her Ph.D. in 1973, working in the Laboratory of Microbiology in Ghent (LMG) with Prof. Jozef De Ley and was at the forefront of the early pioneering work on using nucleic acid-based methods for analysing the phylogenetic relationships of bacteria. Prof. Gillis’ research focused on diverse taxa of bacteria, working with numerous international collaborators. She served on the ICSB/ICSP and was a member of the Subcommittee on the taxonomy of Agrobacterium and Rhizobium until 2004. She was an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology (and later, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology). Prof. Gillis was recipient of a number of awards, including the 1976 Winkler Prins Prize for Biophysics and Biochemistry (Brussels, BE) and the Bergey Medal from the Bergey’s Manual Trust in 2003. Prof. Gillis will be fondly remembered for her friendly discussions and for her willingness to help her colleagues and collaborators. She is respected as a renowned microbial taxonomist who influenced her many co-workers and students. She will be missed.
See also: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.005645
Information from Anne Willems, Paul De Vos, Jean Swings, Karel Kersters and Peter Vandamme, LMG, Ghent University, Ghent, BE
2022 May 21: A Special Dialogue of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html), Moderated by Prof. Brian Hedlund. Team 1 – Prof. Ahraron Oren (Hebrew Univ of Jerusalem, Israel) and Team 2 – Prof. Karen Lloyd (Univ. of Tennessee, USA), will discuss, “Implications of including the rank of phyla in the rules of ICNP”.
See registration link: (to be added)
2022 April 16: A Special Dialogue of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html), Moderated by Prof. Iain Sutcliffe. Team 1 – Prof. Fanus Venter (Univ. of Pretoria, South Africa) and Prof. William (Barney) Whitman (Univ. of Georgia, USA) and Team 2 – Prof. Henrik Christensen (Univ. of Kopenhagen, Denmark) and Prof. Jörg Overmann (DSMZ, Germany), will discuss, “SeqCode: an alternative code for naming the uncultivated”.
See registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mj7ADLqOQ9Cj66DRshH3Tw
2022 March 19: ICSP Representative for BISMiS, Professor William (Barney) Whitman from the University of Georgia, USA, will present the 12th talk of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html), entitled, “Why we need the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes described from Sequence Data or the SeqCode”.
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS4ybk8Cv1k
2022 February 18: The ICSP is sad to report the passing from this life of Professor Robert George Everitt Murray – see the Robert G.E. Murray In Memoriam.
Prof. Murray was 103 years old. He was a member of the ICSB since 1962 and Chairman from 1982-1990; he was elected honorary member of ICSB in 1990. He was a on the Bergey’s Manual Board of Trustees (1964-1990). He was an Editor on the 8th (1974) Ed. of Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology and the 1st Ed. (1984) of Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. He was son of E.G.D. Murray, who was an Editor on the 4th (1934), 5th (1939), 6th (1948), and 7th (1957) Eds. of Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. Prof. Murray was instrumental in the founding of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists and was an active Editor for several journals. Prof. Murray was a foundation in microbiology and particularly in microbial taxonomy and will be sorely missed.
See also: https://www.csm-scm.org/cms/ckfinder/userfiles/files/R_G_E_%20Murray.pdf
2022 January 15: IJSEM Editor-in-Chief, Professor Martha E. Trujillo from the University of Salamanca, Spain, will present the 10th talk of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html), entitled, “Taxonomic Descriptions and Reviews: In Need of a new Working Frame”.
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wltLwt2dd2s
2021 December 18: ICSP Judicial Commission member and Vice-Chair, Professor Ramón Rosselló-Móra from the Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Spain, will present the 9th talk of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html), entitled, “Lessons Learned from the LTP that Reinforces the Robustness of the 16S as Phylogenetic Marker for Biodiversity Studies”.
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRZRXCsvS1o
2021 July 17: ICSP Representative for the Israel Society for Microbiology (ISM) and Executive Secretary of the Executive Board of the ICSP, Professor Aharon Oren from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, will present a talk on “Naming New Taxa of Prokaryotes in the 21st Century”, another presentation of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html).
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=254Uh9YZ514
2021 June 29: The recently released Journal Impact Factor List 2021 – JCR, Web of Science lists the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) with an IF of 2.747.
This is an increase from last year’s IF of 2.415.
Journal Citation Report (JCR) was published earlier as Science Citation Index; now it is published by Clarivate Analytics, a Web of Science Group (https://impactfactorforjournal.com/jcr-2021/)
Congratulations to Prof. Martha Trujillo (Editor-in-Chief), Dr. Hilary Logan (Journal Development Editor), the IJSEM Editorial Board and the entire Microbiology Society publishing team!
2021 June 19: ICSP Representative for the Chinese Society for Microbiology (CSM), Professor Wen-Jun Li, from the Sun Yat-sen University, P.R. China, will present the 4th talk for the BISMiS Live Seminar Series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html ), entitled, “Mining the Microbial Dark Matter: Challenges and Opportunities”.
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzRys_rXcaA
2021 April 17: ICSP Representative for the Microbiology Society (MS) of the UK and Chairman of the Executive Board of the ICSP, Professor Iain Sutcliffe from Northumbria University, UK, will present, “Microbial Taxonomy: Where are we now and where are we going?”, the second presentation of the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html)
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xy9gJRRL7E
2021 March 20: ICSP Representative for the Australian Society for Microbiology (ASM), Professor Phil Hugenholtz, from the University of Queensland, Australia, will present the inaugural talk for the BISMiS Live seminar series (www.bismis.net/index6702.html), “The Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) – Lessons Learned”
See video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR-IUXLEA4o
2020: Announcement of the award of the 2020 C.B. van Niel International Prize (doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.004466)
The van Niel International Prize for Studies in Bacterial Systematics 2020 has been awarded to Dr Tanja Woyke from The DOE Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, USA.
The van Niel International Prize, established in 1986 by Professor V.B.D. Skerman of the University of Queensland, to honour the contribution of scholarship in the field of microbiology by Professor Cornelis Bernardus van Niel.
2020: The ICSP is pleased to announce the appointment of the following Life Members:
Professor Jean Euzéby (Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, Toulouse, France) in recognition of his outstanding service in establishing and maintaining (1997-2013) the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature and other contributions (see https://lpsn.dsmz.de/archive/-cv.html).
Professor Karl-Heinz Schleifer (TUM Emeritus of Excellence, Technische Universität München, Germany) in recognition of his research and scholarly contributions to prokaryotic systematics (see https://www.emeriti-of-excellence.tum.de/en/a-z/karl-heinz-schleifer/).
Data of members are stored by the ICSP with regard to EU GDPR regulations. Requests to redact or remove information should be sent to the ICSP Website Manager, Edward Moore: