Two FABI staff members, Profs Fanus Venter and Emma Steenkamp, and PhD student Annie Chan, attended the 6th Congress of European Microbiologists from 7  to 11 of June in Maastricht, the Netherlands. More than 900 microbiologist from 75 different countries participated and topics ranged from genomic and molecular microbiology to applied microbiology.

Prof Venter was an invited speaker and participated in the session “The species concept in the genomic era”.  Annie Chan, a student from the CTHB group in FABI, presented a poster on the evolutionary history of the nitrogen fixation (nif) loci of rhizobial Burkholderia species associated with indigenous South African legumes. Apart from the opportunity to present their research, the congress also provided a wonderful opportunity for building and fostering networks with colleagues which could lead to future collaboration and the enhancement of research in FABI.