Awards

Society Award Winners

Charles Thom Award: David H. Sherman, Life Science Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Charles Porter Award: Jeffrey L. Schwartz, JLS Micro Consulting, LLC, West Orange, NJ

SIM Fellows:
Deepak Bhatnagar, USDA-ARS-SRRC, New Orleans, LA

Attila Szentirmai, Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

J.H. David Wu, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Jerry (Xiaoming) Yang, Process and Product Development, Amgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA

Waksman Outstanding Educator Award: Roy H. Doi, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Davis, CA

Young Investigator Award: Lianglai Gu, Life Science Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Best Student Oral Presentation Award: Morgan Wyatt, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada: "Nonribosomal peptides products by Staphylococcus aureus"

Best Student Poster Presentation Awards: Biocatalysis Ulrike Schreiner, Applied Biocatalysis Research Centre, Graz, Austria: "Improved nitrilase activity at low pH"

Environmental: Piyaporn Waranusantigul, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand: "Characterization of lead-tolerant rhizobacteria from Buddleia asiatica collected from the Bo Ngam lead mine in Thailand"

Fermentation/Cell Culture: Stephanie L. Groves, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI: "Adaptation of Pichia stipitis CS 6054 to dilute acid pretreated aspen hydrolysate for improved ethanol yields"

Metabolic Engineering: Laura J. Leal-Reyes, Instituto de Biotechnologia UNAM, Cuernavaca, Mexico: "L-lactate production using metabolically engineered Escherichia coli"

Natural Products: Jesse B. Davis, Brown University, Providence, RI: "Efficient chemical syntheses of inducers of antibiotic production in Streptomyces bacteria"

Industry Award

SIM’s Industry Award for Discovery, Innovation and Development in Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology will be presented for the first time at the annual meeting in Toronto to sanofi pasteur Canada.

Read a brief company history (PDF), which highlights sanofi pasteur Canada’s achievements and illustrates why they have been chosen as the 2009 award recipient.

Best Student Presentation Awards

Best Student Poster Presentations

One award will be presented in each of the 5 core areas. Students will be judged during the poster sessions. A certificate and $500 will be presented to each student during the Annual Banquet on Tuesday, July 28.

The core areas are: Biocatalysis, Environmental, Fermentation/Cell Culture, Metabolic Engineering, and Natural Products

Best Student Oral Presentation

5-6 students will be chosen to present their abstract in the Student Oral Presentation session. One winner will be chosen and judging will occur during the session. The winner will receive a certificate and $500 during the Annual Banquet on Tuesday, July 28. All students in the session will receive limited travel funds.

Featured Speakers

Amgen Keynote Speaker

Dr. Claire Fraser-Liggett, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Banquet Speaker

Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera, RTI International
"Sixty years later microbiology is still at the core"

Alma Dietz Actinomycete Lecturer

Dr. Paul Jensen, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
"Linking species concepts to natural product discovery in the post-genomic era"

Charles Thom Award Lecturer

Dr. David H. Sherman, Life Science Institute, University of Michigan
"Chemical diversity and enzymatic versatility in natural product biosynthesis"