Branch History

The Washington branch of the ASM was formed by a group of bacteriologists, mostly governmental, on 17 January 1917.  It shares with the Connecticut Valley Branch the honor of being the oldest among local Branches of the Society. J. J. Kinyoun was the first elected president.  Ten members of this branch have been elected national presidents.  They are: Erwin F. Smith (1906), J. J. Kinyoun (1909), Lore A. Rogers (1922), A.Parker Hitchers (1924), Alice C. Evans (1928), James M. Sherman (1937), Charles C. Them (1940), R.D. Housewright (1966), Rita R. Colwell (1984) and Allison O'Brein (2008).

The first scientific paper presented before the branch was given at its second meeting (15 March 1917) by Erwin F. Smith entitled “Newer studies on crown gall bacteria with special reference to tumor formation”.  A plan was begun whereby members of a given institution or bureau would be responsible for the scientific program at a given meeting.  Thus, the fourth meeting (14 December 1917) was the responsibility of the Microbiology Laboratory of the Bureau of Chemistry, the fifth (15 February 1918) the Hygienic Laboratory, and the sixth (5 April 1918) the Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry.

Currently, the Washington Branch meets twice a year.  The concentration of government laboratories, universities, industry, and private institutes has resulted in the creation of various consortia and fostered the development of current microbiological themes such as biotechnology, microbial pathogenesis, immunology, vaccine development, and environmental policy implementation in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Prepared by Robert L. Gherna for the 1986 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC. Modified by Suf Alkhaldi at 2006.