Bangladesh Society of Microbiologists

The history of Microbiology in Bangladesh is of half a century. The limited practice of clinical microbiology in the field of diagnosis has been going on for quite a while. But it was the University of Dhaka, which has pioneered the study of Microbiology as an academic subject for universities. In the 80’s, the department started offering only masters course and after almost 10 years, the honors course was introduced. In the University of Chittagong, the Microbiology department started towards the end of 20^th century, from the session 1996-1997. After that, it has only been a history of advancement and in almost all the spheres, has been setting examples to follow. As a new department, its journey was quite troublesome but it could not hamper its progress. A structured constitution for the current students and alumni microbiologists was only a need of time. Considering that need, on the 23^rd March, 2004, the Microbiology Association of Bangladesh (MAB) was formed with the students of microbiology at the University of Chittagong. Instead of being confined to a name based association, MAB has become an inseparable part of the CU microbiologists because of their active participation. MAB has set examples to follow by linking the current students with the working microbiologists, mutual sharing of experiences, creating opportunities for further research and higher studies. MAB has been successfully and regularly organizing several cultural programs including picnics. The participation of every batch by providing new ideas and work plans to expand and accelerate the works of MAB was noticeable. One of such initiative was the publication of posters regarding issues and views of contemporary microbiology. To fortify interconnectivity, a yahoo based group mail was also created. The MAB Facebook page has also become extremely popular to share opinions instantly and has brought all former and current students on a similar platform.In the course of time, the need to establish this association on a farm base was being felt. As a part of this attempt, a temporary committee of 13 members was formed on the 21^st February, 2013. This committee started its journey with some specific goals including the establishment of a structure for MAB, collecting members for the association, creating a database and forming a full committee to which the power will be handed over. To ensure the smooth operation of the association, there was no alternative to creating a strong constitutional structure. In the meantime, under the supervision of the acting committee, a structural outline has been drawn which would ensure the progress of MAB in future. At present, there are 220 members of MAB. The alumni and current students can take either general or life membership. The honourable teachers of the department and the esteemed microbiologists of Bangladesh are here as mentors. Detailed contact and career information of each member has been collected.  It has been a long felt need to create a standard website for the CU Department of Microbiology. That’s why MAB decided to offer a rich and international standard website to the department as a gift. For that, from February, 2013, it started to collect fund and necessary information. It is a very time consuming task to collect all the data and do the necessary modification to create an informative website.  With the help of MAB members, it has been done as fast as possible.  The website contains information of the honourable teachers of the department and their research abstracts including future research prospects.