Research Guides: Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives (CHOMA): Poster Session: History of Microbiology

Poster Session: History of Microbiology

The Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives (CHOMA) sponsored the inaugural History of Microbiology Poster Session at the American Society for Microbiology 2014 General Meeting (asm2014). History Poster Sessions have been held at each successive annual meeting (meeting name changed to ASM Microbe in 2016) in the following years. Since 2018, all history of microbiology abstracts submitted for ASM Microbe are handled through the ASM Microbe abstract submission site.

CHOMA NO LONGER ACCEPTS ABSTRACTS FOR THIS SESSION.

Use this link to submit a history-related abstract for ASM Microbe: https://asm.org/Events/ASM-Microbe/Abstracts

Submission Category: Profession of Microbiology (POM) track

Deadline: Jan 25, 2023

Helpful Hints for creating an engaging poster on the History of Microbiology:

General Considerations:

History, like science, is neither a list nor a timeline. Instead, it is query-based analysis of a specific narrow event, discovery or technique.
History of science is much the same as laboratory research: it is testable and subject to revision and reanalysis.
A History of Microbiology poster should be critical and inform us how knowledge was created using scientists, locations, benefactors, microbes or methods as agents to narrate a question or argument.

Possible Topics/ Approaches for a History of Microbiology Poster

Address a specific problem or corrects a misconception.
Present new biographical information with a fresh, compelling analysis.
Present proprietary advances (technology, tools, pharmaceuticals) or fundamental scientific advances, and provide a balanced critique and analysis of how the advances impact government, industry, academia, or society by and large.

Do's

Be sure you have an explicit hypothesis or thesis statement
Include appropriate historical data and evidence.
Have an original analysis.
Focus on a single message.
Have a mix of text and images: An effective history of microbiology research poster will attract and keep an audience's attention by being intriguing and straightforward with a mix of text and images. Let the graphs and images tell the story, reduce the text as much as possible.
Ordered approach: keep the sequence or narrative well-ordered and obvious.

Don'ts

Avoid presenting a summary of known events, a rehashing of accumulated information (e. g., the number of influenza cases in 2010 vs. 1960), or a dogmatic approach to discovery-based outcomes.

Example of a History Poster:

MOVING GENES: TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS AND DISEASE RESISTANCE, 1930-1950

Notes

* Portions of the above text are from "Research Posters" from the University Writing Center at Texas A&M University (uwc.tamu.edu), with permission of Prof. Valerie Balester.

** These points emphasized by George Hess in his YouTube video and the associated web-site by Hess, Tosney, and Liegel (2014). This information can be accessed from the following links: