Looking back at the first ISMET virtual meeting

We are looking back to our first VIRTUAL ISMET conference, which took place October 7th-9th. Despite all current restrictions in getting together, the ISMET community enjoyed an inspiring exchange of new research outcomes and ideas during this meeting of around 300 scientists with great talks and poster presentations.

We thank our organizers Catarina Paquete, Fernanda Jimenéz-Otero and Lucinda Doyle for taking on this challenge and managing a conference with around 18 time zones.

For the next year, we nevertheless hope to continue our in-person meetings at our regional conferences.

ISMET awards 2020

The ISMET community warmly congratulates Dario Shaw for obtaining the 2020 ISMET Discovery Award for his work on an electro-annamox process (Nature Communications 2020) and Xi Chen for receiving the 2020 ISMET Innovation Award for her work on spontaneous hydrogen evolution in BES (Energy and Environmental Science 2020).

Dario is a PhD student in the group of Pascal Saikaly at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and Xi Chen is Postdoc in Jason Ren’s lab at Princeton University.

Dario Shaw et al. (2020). “Extracellular electron transfer-dependent anaerobic oxidation of ammonium by anammox bacteria”, Nat. Commun. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16016-y

Xi Chen et al. (2019). “Electrical decoupling of microbial electrochemical reactions enables spontaneous H2 evolution” Energy Env. Science;  https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/ee/c9ee02571e#!divAbstract

Congratulations to both! Well done!

1st ISMET Virtual meeting: update

The 1st ISMET Virtual meeting will gather researchers and industry affiliates to present and discuss the latest advances in the Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology field.

This three-day meeting will have three keynote talks with outstanding researchers from the field, and several short presentations that covers different topics, including fundamental research on extracellular electron transfer processes, design of bioelectrochemical systems and electrode materials, as well as mode of operating of these systems. It will also accounts for two poster sessions where the ISMET community will have the opportunity to present the latest discoveries of the Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology field. The Innovation and Discovery award from the ISMET will also be announced.

Join us in the 1st Virtual Meeting from the ISMET community. This meeting will be free for ISMET members.

Nomination for the ISMET Awards 2020 open

Nomination for the ISMET Awards is open until August 30th 2020 

  • Best Scientific Discovery Award
  • Innovation Award for Breakthrough Technological Advancement

Nominations for both ISMET Awards are to be sent before August 30th 2020 to the ISMET Awards committee at the following address: ismet.awards@gmail.com by the Supervisor of the publication or work being nominated.
Papers or technical innovations eligible for the awards must be published between July 1st 2019 and July 30th 2020. See the awards section for detailed information.

The award nomination should contain the following:

  • Full name and affiliation of the nominee.
  • Full name and affiliation of the nominator.
  • Statement that nominee was graduate student or postdoctoral researcher or industry affiliate at the time of publication.
  • Statement that the nominee and nominator are members of ISMET in good standing.
  • For Discovery Award: An attachment with the publication for which the nominee is being nominated.
  • For Innovation Award: Paper or relevant documentation describing the breakthrough technological innovation.

First virtual ISMET meeting

We invite you to participate in the 1st Virtual ISMET Meeting. It will take place from 7th to 9th October 2020, and will reunite scientists from all the word to discuss the recent discoveries on microbial electrochemical technologies.

In this three-day meeting, there will be short presentations covering different topics of this field, including fundamental research on extracellular electron transfer processes, design of bioelectrochemical systems and electrode materials, as well as mode of operating of these systems, and two poster sessions.

The award winners of the innovation and discovery ISMET awards will be announced, and the new ISMET board members from the three ISMET regions will also be presented.

Given the current situation due to the COVID-19, and to guarantee that the ISMET community stays in touch with the community, we invite you to participate in this Virtual Meeting. No registration fee is required, but the payment of the ISMET membership is mandatory.

In order to track the number of participants, and to certificate your ISMET membership you have to register in this event.

Thank you,

​The organizing commitee,

Catarina, Fernanda and Lucinda

Urgent Notice: Postponement of the 5th Asia-Pacific and 5th European International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology Conference to 2021

In response to the pandemic of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and in accordance with the relevant national regulations for the control of 2019-nCoV, the Board of Directors of the International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology in agreement with the local organizers of the 2020 Regional ISMET meetings has decided the following:

1. The 5th AP-ISMET conference hosted by the Harbin Institute of Technology (China) will be postponed to May 2021 and the 5th EU-ISMET hosted by the University of Girona (Spain) will be postponed to spring/ summer 2021 with the exact dates being determined. The exact dates to be determined and the topics and activities will remain unchanged.

2. For the participants of the AP-ISMET and the EU-ISMET who have completed registration and payment, all the conference activities registered for participation will be valid at the time of the conference and will continue to be implemented; possible reimbursement measures will be determined.

For updates of 1. and 2. please refer to the respective websites: https://www.apismet2020.com and https://www.euismet2020.eu/

3. The 5th NA-ISMET scheduled November 18-20 in Los Angeles, USA, will take place as planned, until further notice (follow on twitter: @na_ismet).

4. The 8th international meeting of the ISMET will be postponed to 21st to 23rd of September 2022.

5. ISMET will organize the 1st virtual international ISMET to take place in September 2020, further details will follow soon … so stay tuned.

On behalf of the Board of Directors
Annemiek ter Heijne (President) and Falk Harnisch (President-elect)
in agreement with the local organizing committees. 

Urgent Notice on the Postponement of the 5th Asia-Pacific International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology Conference

The 5th Asia-Pacific International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology Conference (5th AP-ISMET) hosted by the Harbin Institute of Technology, School of Environment was originally scheduled to be held on March 6-9, 2020, at Harbin Victories Hotel, Harbin, China. Preparations were completed and 300 participants were expected.

In accordance with the relevant national and provincial regulations for the control of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic, the Harbin Institute of Technology has adopted a prevention policy stipulating that “All forums, formations, lectures, performances, competitions, admissions examinations, and other large collective activities will be cancelled” until further notice. According to this regulation, Harbin Institute of Technology, School of Environment has requested the postponement of the 5th AP-ISMET. The conference organizing committee will make the following notifications in order:

1. In its initial assessment, the organizing committee has decided to postpone the 5th AP-ISMET conference to a date to be determined in the middle of August 2020. The meeting topics and activities will remain unchanged.

2. For the participants who have completed registration and payment, all the conference activities registered for participation will be valid at the time of the conference and will continue to be implemented.

3. For delegates who have already paid their fees and are unable to attend the conference in August, the organizing committee will refund the registration fees after the August conference.

4. The 5th AP-ISMET special issue in Science of the Total Environment will continue to be implemented as originally planned.

5. Because of the postponement of the conference, abstracts submission deadline will be extended to May 30, 2020, and conference registration deadline will be extended to June 30, 2020.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by the postponement of the 5th AP-ISMET conference. We express our heartfelt thanks for your understanding and look forward to the end of the epidemic.

Organizing Committee of The 5th AP-ISMET Conference

January 27th, 2020

ISMET terminology survey

The International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (ISMET) conducted a survey of the preferred terms used by researchers in the field of microbial electrochemistry and electromicrobiology. The survey considered terminology in four areas that included The Field, The Process, The Technology, and The Microorganisms. The survey was distributed to over 300 researchers that are actively involved in ISMET and receive the ISMET newsletter, are ISMET members, or have been to an ISMET meeting in the last year. 231 responses were recorded for each question, demonstrating a >75% response rate for the survey. A summary of the results were presented at the ISMET7 meeting in Okinawa and are now available here!

5th Asia-Pacific conference: abstract submission extended

The 5th Asia-Pacific conference of the International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology will take place in Harbin, China, on March 6-8, 2020.

Abstract submission has been extended to Nov 30, 2019.

The 5th AP-ISMET will have a special issue on STOTEN (Science of the Total Environment, IF2019=5.589).

For more information, please visit http://www.apismet2020.com

Nomination for the ISMET Awards 2019 open

Nomination for the ISMET Awards is open until July 30th 2019 (there will be no extension of the deadline)

  • Best Scientific Paper Award
  • Innovation Award for Best Technological advancement

Nominations for both ISMET Awards are to be sent before July 30th 2019 to the ISMET Awards committee at the following address: ismet.awards@gmail.com by the Supervisor of the publication or work being nominated.
Papers or technical innovations eligible for the awards must be published between July 1st 2018 and June 30th 2019. See the awards section for detailed information.
The award nomination should contain the following:

  • Full name and affiliation of the nominee.
  • Full name and affiliation of the nominator.
  • Statement that nominee was a postgraduate student or postdoctoral researcher or industry affiliate at the time of publication.
  • Statement that the nominee and nominator are members of ISMET in good standing.
  • For Discovery Award: An attachment with the publication for which the nominee is being nominated.
  • For Innovation Award: Paper or relevant documentation describing the breakthrough technological innovation

Additional information is available at the awards section.