Public Education Initiatives
Through its Communications Committee, the ASM operates a number of public outreach initiatives designed to educate the general public about the importance of microbiology to their daily lives and behaviors that can help improve public health.
The ASM's website is aimed at teaching about microbiology in general. It includes information about microorganisms, microbiologists, current events and news, and links to resources.
Currently ASM produces MicrobeWorld Video and Meet the Scientist. MicrobeWorld Video is a video podcast that highlights the latest in microbiology, life science and biotechnology news. Covering diverse topics ranging from scientific conferences, events, museums and science comedians, MicrobeWorld Video launched in April 2007.
Launched in 2008, Meet the Scientist is a biweekly podcast highlighting one scientist; what they are working on, their interests, why they became involved in science, and where they see their discipline headed. Initially, the program was hosted by Merry Buckley, a long time science writer with a PhD in Environmental Microbiology. On September 11, 2009, Merry Buckley passed the role of host to noted science writer, Carl Zimmer.
From 1997 - 2008, ASM produced the daily MicrobeWorld Radio show. MicrobeWorld produced 260 unique shows each year highlighting the process of discovery, historical changes in research, and a variety of scientific careers in industry, academia, and government. Radio features included interview segments with leading scientists in the field and were reviewed by a panel of scientists with expertise in a variety of research fields to ensure content accuracy.
In November, 2006, Moselio Schaechter, a microbiologist and former president of the ASM, expanded the ASM's public outreach program by creating an educational blog, Small Things Considered. Early in 2007, he was joined by science writer and editor, Merry Youle. The blog has earned a reputation for accessible, high quality posts about research and current issues in microbiology.citation required
Since 1996, the ASM has conducted its Operation Clean Hands campaign to educate the public on the importance of handwashing to individual and public health. To help promote the campaign, every few years the Society conducts an independent survey of handwashing behaviors in public restrooms. The last survey, conducted in August 2005, found that while 91 percent of adults say they always wash their hands after going to the bathroom, only 83 percent were actually observed doing so.
The ASM Public Communications Award, sponsored by ASM, recognizes outstanding achievement in increasing public awareness, knowledge and understanding of microbiology. Print, broadcast and online journalists are nominated for individual items and series they produce during the calendar year. Applicants may nominate themselves. Nominees are judged by a committee of their peers. The award consists of a $2,500 cash prize, a commemorative plaque, and travel expenses to attend the ASM General Meeting for presentation of the award.
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“The public is one thing, Jack, and the people another.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)