Antonio Ventosa has been named as the new President of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS), starting in January 2024 after being elected unanimously by the FEMS Council at their most recent meeting in Vienna on September 8.

Ventosa

His three-year term as FEMS President will take place from 2024 to 2026. The organisation thanked outgoing FEMS President, Hilary Lappin-Scott, for her extraordinary service during the last four years. 

A FEMS spokesperson said Antonio Ventosa has a glowing career in learned societies and microbiology research. He is Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sevilla (Spain). He investigates extremophilic microorganisms, mainly halophilic archaea and bacteria, their biodiversity, taxonomy, comparative genomics and metagenomics as well as biotechnological applications. 

Scientific societies

Antonio was elected as a fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM) in 2009. He is former president of the Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM) (2015-2022) and former President of the International Society of Extremophiles (ISE) (2015-2018). He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) and Vice President of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS).  

On his election, Antonio Ventosa, incoming FEMS President, made the following statement: ”It is a great honour and privilege for me to serve as the new FEMS President for the next three years, starting in January 2024. Currently, FEMS is more than the “voice of the European microbiologists”; it is a global institution that offers many possibilities to microbiologists all over the world, such as meetings, grants, publications, training courses, prizes, etc.

“I would like to emphasize that FEMS is a not-for-profit federation, and our revenues support microbiology, and we invest in microbiologists, especially young researchers. The next few years will be of great relevance. We must accomplish many important tasks, such as the transition of the FEMS journals to Open Access publication models and the impact that has on our income.  

”I will do my best for the future of FEMS, and I am grateful for the support of the Microbiology community, and the coordinated work of the Board of Directors, the Council, the Executive Director, and the FEMS staff.’’

Next stage

With his election confirmed, Elise Kuurstra, FEMS Executive Director, said: ”I very much look forward to working with our new incoming President, Antonio Ventosa, and wish him my congratulations on his unanimous election. As we move FEMS into the next stage of our growth and development, his considerable experience with learned societies will put us in an excellent position to deliver value and vision for our Member Societies and the microbiology community.

”We send him our most heartfelt welcome after his election as FEMS President. At that same meeting, Prof. Branka Vasiljevic (Serbia) and Prof. Paul Cos (Belgium) were re-elected for a second term as Secretary General and Director of Business and Policy, respectively. FEMS is proud to have such talented and dedicated microbiologists elected to our Board of Directors.

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