BISMiS - BISMiS Live

BISMiS Live is our monthly seminar series, held online and scheduled for the third Saturday of each month, starting March 2021. The aim of the series is to reach out to microbiology students and early career scientists with an interest in microbial ecology and systematics. These interactive sessions with expert scientists from across the globe will foster interest in microbial systematics and the diversity and ecology of microbes in our world.

Registration: Click Here to register for all sessions at once.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the Live Stream and concluded sessions.

Archived Sessions

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Inaugural Session - February 21, 2026

Speaker: Prof. William Whitman, Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia

Title of the Talk: Prokaryotic Nomenclature in 2050

Biosketch: William ‘Barny’ Whitman received his PhD in microbiology from The University of Texas in Austin in the laboratory of F. Robert Tabita. His training was completed at the University of Illinois in Urbana in the laboratory of Ralph S. Wolfe. When he started his own laboratory at the University of Georgia in 1982, he initially focused on developing genetic systems in the methanogenic archaeon Methanococcus as well the pathway of autotrophic CO2 assimilation. Since then, his research has focused on the physiology, systematics and ecology of environmentally important microorganisms. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the University of Georgia where systematics has been a central part of his work. His laboratory developed one of the most popular methods for determination of the mol % G+C [Mesbah et al. 1989. Int J Sys Bacteriol 39:159-167] and helped describe more than twenty new species. From 1986-2001, he was Secretary of the International Committee on Systematics of Bacteria (ICSB) Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Methanogenic Bacteria and coauthored its first Minimal Standards [Boone and Whitman. 1988. Int J Syst Bacteriol. 38: 212-219]. From 1995-2001, he was an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology, and in 2000 received the Bergey’s Award from the Bergey’s Manual Trust. In 2006, he joined the Bergey’s Manual Trust and became the Supervising Editor of the Manual, a post in which he still serves. His work as an editor of Bergey’s Manual on the Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria has strongly informed his opinions on prokaryotic systematics. From 2014-2020, he served as Treasurer and member of the Executive Board of the ICSP. Since 2022, he served on the Executive Board of the Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes Described from Sequence Data (SeqCode) Committee. He has also been the Treasurer of Bergey’s International Society for Microbial Systematics (BISMiS) since its founding, which is strange being that he is not very political.

Registration Link: Click Here