Microbiology in Latin America and the ALAM.

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, will host the 19th Latin American Congress of Microbiology [htpp://www.microbiologiaecuador.com] on October 15–18, 2008. The meeting has been organized by the Ecuadorian Society for Microbiology on behalf of the Latin American Association for Microbiology (Asociación Latinoamericana de Microbiología, ALAM). Ecuador succeeds Chile, which in October 2006 held the ALAM Congress, chaired by Prof. Michael Seeger, president of the Chilean Society for Microbiology [5]. The meeting was held in the city of Pucón and attracted over 600 researchers from Latin America, Europe, Japan, USA, and Canada. Prof. María Fernanda Espinoza, current president of the Ecuadorian Society for Microbiology, will chair the 2008 edition. More than 20 prestigious researchers from Canada, USA, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Spain, UK, and Belgium have been invited to actively participate in this event. They will discuss the latest advances in clinical, veterinary, food, industrial, and water treatment as they relate to microbiology. The program includes a pre-congress course, keynote speeches, round-table discussions, plenary sessions, exhibitions covering various topics, and symposia hosted by each of the ALAM member countries. The history of science and microbiology in Latin America follows a path that has been strengthened throughout time by three main elements: scientific societies, scientific journals, and cooperation and interaction between colleagues from around the world. These three elements constitute a mechanism for promoting science in general; however, political and economic “circumstances,” which usually coincide, have had deleterious effects on progress in Latin American science and on its results. In the first of a series of editorials that the journals of the Spanish Society for Microbiology, Microbiología SEM (1985–1998) and International Microbiology (1998–present), devoted to science in Latin America between 1996 and 1998 (Table 1), M. Schaechter y C. Orrego [7] observed that Latin American progress in the microbiological sciences and in technology had reached important peaks throughout time, yet on a background of little consistency. There is a long tradition of research involving good scientists who achieved remarkable results, despite a nearly constant lack of resources. This is no doubt the reason why, at the same time, the general trend has been discouraging. Fortunately, this trend is slowly but progressively changing; while there is still a long way to go, promises made in the past are gradually becoming reality [4]. A country’s scientific coordination needs institutional recognition and promotion, which in many countries has entailed a long process. In Latin America, the progressive introduction of the National Councils of Science, Development and Technology [8] along the 1960s was a measure that favored the increasing of investment in science and the development of research institutes and centers, some of INTERNATIONAL MICROBIOLOGY (2008) 11:xx-xx DOI: 10.2436/20.1501.01.xx ISSN: 1139-6709 www.im.microbios.org