ASM Microbe Conference: Bringing the Microbiology Community Together

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is undertaking a significant organizational restructuring designed to better align its scientific communities, improve member engagement, and strengthen collaboration across disciplines.

During a discussion at ASM Microbe 2026, ASM CEO Stefano Bertuzzi, PhD, MPH, explained that the restructuring will create more intimate, focused divisions that can better serve members while preserving opportunities for interdisciplinary work. The changes reflect the growing breadth of microbiology and the need for organizational structures that support both specialization and collaboration.

According to Bertuzzi, the society has expanded well beyond its traditional focus areas, encompassing environmental microbiology, virology, public health, clinical microbiology, and numerous other disciplines. As the field has evolved, leaders recognized the need for a framework that allows communities to develop their own identities while remaining connected to the broader organization.

“It's bigger than just breaking down the meeting. we have restructured the whole organization around three units which are the basic discovery which we call mechanism discovery because it's not basic at all, and then we have the applied environmental microbiology, which is exactly what it says, and then we have the ASM Health, which is the health component of microbiology,” said Bertuzzi.

The restructuring is intended to help members identify more closely with their scientific communities while creating opportunities for collaboration when challenges and research questions span multiple disciplines. Leaders emphasized that the changes are designed to support both focused scientific engagement and broader organizational connectivity.

Bertuzzi noted that the society's diverse membership benefits from a structure that balances independence with collaboration.

“If all interconnected, and so we want to make sure that each community has finds its own tribe, and they decide what works for them,” he said.

“We're trying to let people know that ASM is a set of close-knit communities. Microbiology is really broad, and if you're working in agriculture or the oceans microbiology, you probably don't know the people who are doing antimicrobial resistance in the hospital, but we want to make sure that people know that you have your own community here, no matter what your areas are.”

Bertuzzi indicated that the new structure will support the organization's continued growth while ensuring that members across its many scientific disciplines have a stronger voice and clearer pathways for engagement. One of the areas they are looking to put an emphasis on is their training and mentorship program aimed at helping younger microbiologists in their careers.

“In our training and mentorship program, they all include networking events with the mentors. That is a big principle that we try to live up to, for giving the networking opportunities to those who need them the most,” he said.