Washington, DC—May 28, 2008—The 2008 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Founders Distinguished Service Award is being presented to Anne M. Vidaver, Professor of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This award recognizes an ASM member for outstanding contributions and commitment to the ASM as a volunteer at the national level.
For 30 years, Dr. Vidaver has been an outstanding leader and a persistent and effective advocate for research and policy issues related to microbiology, especially agricultural and environmental microbiology. Dr. Vidaver, who is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, is a two-time ASM Foundation Lecturer and a past Advisory Board member of the Center for the History of Microbiology. Her ASM service also includes the Committee on the Status of Women in Microbiology, the Procter & Gamble Award Selection Committee, and the Public and Scientific Affairs Board Committee on Agricultural, Food and Industrial Microbiology, which she chaired from 1994-2003. In addition, she has organized and moderated several ASM symposia and participated in several AAM colloquia. Dr. Vidaver has accomplished all of this in addition to an outstanding national service record. From 2000-2002, she served as Chief Scientist for the USDA, where she chaired the Interagency Working Group for the Microbe Project, which enabled a collaborative effort on genomic sequencing of microbes that is now funded at over $20 million each year.
Dr. Vidaver received her received her B.A. in Biology from Russell Sage College, Troy, New York, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Bacteriology from Indiana University.
The ASM Founders Distinguished Service Award will be presented during the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), June 1 – June 5, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 43,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental well-being.