Society for General Microbiology

The Society for General Microbiology (SGM) is a scientific organisation based in the United Kingdom but with members in more than 60 countries. With approximately 5000 members, it is the largest microbiological society in Europe. Interests of its members include basic and applied aspects of viruses, bacteria, rickettsiae, mycoplasma, fungi, algae and protozoa, and all other aspects of microbiology. Its headquarters are near Reading, Berkshire. The society's executive secretary is Dr Ron Fraser.

History
The society was founded on 16 February 1945; its first president was Sir Alexander Fleming. The SGM's first academic meeting was in July of that year, and its first journal, the Journal of General Microbiology (later renamed Microbiology) came out in 1947. A symposium series followed in 1949, and a sister journal, the Journal of General Virology, in 1967. The society purchased its own headquarters in Reading in 1971, after sharing accommodation with the Biochemical Society in London, moving to its present location just outside Reading in 1991.

The SGM's stable of journals later increased to four, with the acquisitions of the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology (later renamed International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology) from the American Society for Microbiology (1998) and the Journal of Medical Microbiology from the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2001–4).

Activities
The SGM currently organises two academic meetings a year. It publishes a magazine, Microbiology Today (formerly SGM Quarterly), and four academic journals in virology and microbiology:
 * International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
 * Journal of General Virology
 * Journal of Medical Microbiology
 * Microbiology