Diego A. Moreno

Moreno, Diego A.

Hemeroteca Cientifica Catalana

EDITORIAL The 13th InternationalBiodeterioration andBiodegradation Symposium The 2005 September issue of International Microbiology is amonograph comprising major contributions to the 13th Inter-national Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Symposium(IBBS-13, Madrid, 4–9 September 2005). Since 1968, whenthe first International Biodeterioration Symposium was held inSouthampton, UK, to the IBBS-12, held in Prague, CzechRepublic, in 2002, which was brilliantly organized by KaterinaDemnerova, several thousand researchers have presented con-tributions covering a wide variety of topics to the Symposia.The aim of the IBBS is to provide a framework thatallows researchers to meet and discuss trends and achieve-ments in biodeterioration and biodegradation. At the firstsymposia, contributions focused mostly on industrial studiesof biodeterioration and biodegradation of different materials.In the most recent symposia, greater attention has beendevoted to bioremediation of the environment, as well as tothe biodeterioration of artworks and objects of historical andcultural importance. The techniques and approaches for thesekinds of studies have evolved, as evidenced by the fact that,currently, most of the studies include molecular microbiolog-ical tools developed in the early 1990s.When  James T. Walker, past president of the Interna-tional Biodeterioration & Biodegradation Society (IBBS),asked me, in July 2003, to organize IBBS-13, I was fullyaware of the tremendous responsibility, effort, and dedicationthat such a task would require. At the same time, I was proudto accept the position, as it was the first time the Symposiumwould be held in Spain. In 2005, the year Spain is celebrat-ing the 400th anniversary of the book Don Quixote. Anotherman from La Mancha—I am indeed from La Mancha (Le-daña, Cuenca)—was called upon to fight the windmills andbrave the unparalleled adventures that are inevitably encoun-tered in administering an international conference of this scope.In contrast to Don Quixote, however, I was not alone. Instead,I was able to count on the help of both the Biodeterioration andBiodegradation Specialized Group of the Spanish Society forMicrobiology (SEM), of which I am co-founder and currentvice-president, and the Biodeterioration Group that I lead at theTechnical University of Madrid. Don Quixote believed that thebalsam of Fierabrás (Don Quixote´s cure-all potion) was theremedy that would allow him to win any kind of battle or com-bat. For the organization of the IBBS-13, I have also had myown balsam of Fierabrás, in the form of Carlos Ranninger andFernando Laborda. Ranninger has extensive experience inorganizing national and international conferences, and Labordais the former president of the IBBS.Diego A. MorenoDepartment of Materials Scienceand Engineering, IndustrialEngineers High TechnicalSchool, Technical Universityof Madrid, SpainINTERNATIONAL MICROBIOLOGY (2005) 8:153-154 www.im.microbios.orgAddress for correspondence:Departamento de Ingeniería y Ciencia de los MaterialesEscuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros IndustrialesUniversidad Politécnica de MadridJosé Gutiérrez Abascal, 228006 Madrid, SpainTel. +34-913363164. Fax +34-913363007  E-mail: moreno@materials.upm.es154 INT. MICROBIOL. Vol. 8, 2005As this editorial is being written, the number of pre-registra-tions for IBBS-13 is about 304, from 52 countries from aroundthe world. This confirms the trend of the IBBS-12 in Prague,attended by 310 people from 43 countries. Until IBBS-12, thenumber of participants was between 150 and 200, from about 20countries. The increase in the number of countries represented inthe IBBS (Table 1) confirms the growing worldwide recognitionof the importance of the studies on biodeterioration and bio-degradation.The IBBS-13 is dedicated to Harold W. Rossmoore,founder of the International Biodeterioration & Biodegrada-tion Society and also its president. In 1997, he was namedHonorary Member of the Spanish Society for Microbiology,upon the request of the SEM Biodeterioration and Biode-gradation Specialized Group. For this reason, this issuebegins with Harold’s obituary, written by his friend, Fer-nando Laborda.Since the IBBS-13 is being held in Spain, it seemedappropriate to include a large number of Spanish speakers ofinternational prestige. If we added up all the years of researchcarried out by all the invited speakers and their publishedwork, we would have more than 250 years of experience andmore than 500 publications in SCI journals related to biode-terioration and biodegradation, which is a considerable featin itself. This monograph presents some of the current topicsin this young subfield of microbiology.MORENOTable 1. IBBS triennial meetingsNo. City, Country Date Chairperson/s1 Southampton, UK 9-14 Sept-1968 Howard O.W. Eggins2 Lunteren, Holland 13-18 Aug-1971 Henk J. Hueck3 Kingston, Rhode Island, USA 17-23 Aug-1975 J. Miles Sharples, Arthur M. Kaplan4 Berlin, Germany Sept-1978 Tom A. Oxley, G. Becker, Dennis Allsopp5 Aberdeen, UK Sept-1981 James M. Shewan6 Washington D.C., USA 5-10 Aug-1984 Gerald C. Llewellyn, Charles E. O'Rear7 Cambridge, UK 6-11 Sept-1987 D.R. Houghton, R.N. Smith, Howard O.W. Eggins8 Windsor, Ontario, Canada 26-31 Aug-1990 F.J. Passman9 Leeds, UK 5-10 Sept-1993 Robert G.J. Edyvean10 Hamburg, Germany 15-18 Sept-1996 Wolfgang Sand11 Arlington, Virginia, USA 1-6 Aug-1999 Harold D. Rossmoore12 Prague, Czech Republic 14-18 July-2002 Katerina Demnerová13 Madrid, Spain 4-9 Sept-2005 Diego A. Moreno

The 13th International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Symposium

http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/IM/article/download/9520/9516

The 13th International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Symposium

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Hemeroteca Cientifica Catalana