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Mary Poston Award
Mary Poston Award
The Mary Poston Award was established to recognize the best paper given by a student at meetings of the NC Branch of the ASM. Mary Poston was a longtime employee of Duke University who contributed much to the NC Branch and she was held in high esteem both by her colleagues and by medical students. She contributed much to the NC Branch, including service as Branch Secretary-Treasurer from 1950 until her death in 1961. Many letters of appreciation have been written over the years by student recipients of the Mary Poston Award, commenting on the confidence the award gave them and on the importance of the competition for the award as part of their graduate training.
Thoyd Melton Award
Thoyd Melton Award
The Thoyd Melton Award was established to recognize an outstanding oral presentation by a graduate student. At the time of his premature death on Nov. 22, 2000, Thoyd Melton was Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of graduate studies at N.C. A&T State University. Prior to this position, Dr. Melton was a member of NC State University's Department of Microbiology and an Associate Dean of the Graduate School. Dr. Melton was very active in research and particularly in graduate education. In 1999, he received the William A. Hinton Research Training Award from ASM. This award honors an individual who has made significant contributions toward fostering the research training of underrepresented minorities in microbiology.
Those of us who knew Thoyd have no trouble remembering him. Thoyd loved scientific problems and was renowned for his questioning of seminar speakers. His questions, while never barbed, were incisive and driven by a conviction that outstanding problems and inconsistencies in the project being described could be solved--right then and there. He could also deduce (and want to discuss) exciting implications of a project. With Thoyd in the audience, a student presenter would always come away with some new ideas.
It is in this spirit that the NC ASM branch offers the Thoyd Melton Award for an outstanding graduate student presentation.
PAUL PHIBBS Award
PAUL PHIBBS Award
This award, first given in 2007, is awarded for the best presentation (posters or talks) by an undergraduate student at NC ASM Branch meetings. The award is named in honor of Dr. Paul Phibbs who was an early advocate of undergraduate student research presentations and posters at the annual Branch meetings. He was actively engaged in graduate education and research training at Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia (1970-85), and at East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine (1986-2007), where he was Professor and Chair of Microbiology & Immunology. Dr. Phibbs was continuously involved with the ASM in numerous academic and leadership roles throughout his career. Since retiring to the Asheville area in 2007, he continues to be a strong advocate of undergraduate research mentoring and of student membership and participation in the ASM.
jim brown Award
jim brown Award
This award, first given in 2020, is awarded for the best poster presentations at NC ASM Branch meetings. Dr. Jim Brown started as a faculty member in Department of Microbiology at North Carolina State University in 1994 and retired in 2021. He was a longtime member and advocate for NC ASM holding multiple leadership roles during his time at NCSU.
PAST MEETINGS
2024 Meeting
University of North Carolina Wilmington - Wilmington, NC
October 12, 2024
2023 Meeting
Duke University - Durham, NC
November 4, 2023
2022 Meeting
Appalachian State University - Boone, NC
November 5, 2022
2021 Meeting
East Carolina University - Virtual
October 30, 2021
2020 Meeting
University of North Carolina Pembroke - Virtual
October 24, 2020
2019 Meeting
North Carolina A&T State University - Greensboro, NC
October 19, 2019
2018 Meeting
North Carolina Arboretum - Asheville, NC
October 27, 2018
2017 Meeting
NC State University - Raleigh, NC
October 21, 2017
2016 Meeting
University of North Carolina Wilmington - Wilmington, NC
October 1, 2016
THE HISTORY OF NC ASM
The North Carolina Branch was formally organized in 1947 as the North Carolina Bacteriologists by thirteen persons. Dr. Donald S. Martin (Duke U.) was elected President, Mr. C.C. Demaree of Asheville, Vice-president and Dr. MacDonald Fulton (Bowman Gray), Secretary Treasurer. Finding that status as a Branch of the Society of American Bacteriologists (SAB) required 25 members, and that there were 33 SAB members in North Carolina, a petition for Branch status along with several supporting letters was sent to SAB. The petition was put to a mail vote of the SAB Council on 31 December 1947. The SAB Newsletter of January 1948 announced the North Carolina group had become the 27th Branch of SAB. By February 1948, the new NC Branch had twenty-six members who were also members of SAB, making the branch eligible to elect a Councilor. Dr. Marvin L. Speck (NC State U.) was elected the first Councilor from NC. The original constitution of the North Carolina Branch was ratified by the members on 27 October 1947 and, with only slight modification, governed the Branch until 1975. Changes were made in 1975 to change the original name of the group from the North Carolina Bacteriologists to the North Carolina Branch of the American Society for Microbiology. A committee chaired by Dr. Robert S. Fulghum was appointed in 1979 to rewrite the Constitution and add By-Laws. In 1981, a completely revised Constitution and By-Laws was adopted. Further revisions were adopted in 1986 and in 1993.
The NC Branch was governed by its officers: President, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer and Councilor under the old Constitution. The new Constitution features an Executive Committee made up of the officers. Following custom, the Vice-President was renamed President-Elect and the outgoing President became the Immediate Past President. This new office added additional continuity and expertise to the Executive Committee. When such appointments are made, the Educational Representative and the Newsletter Editor are considered adjunct members of the Executive Committee. All business and all decisions of the Executive Committee are brought before the members of NC-ASM at the Business meeting held with the scientific meeting, and are ratified by vote of the membership.
Mary Poston, the third Secretary-Treasurer who served from 1950 to 1961, died in office. Miss Poston was a longtime employee of Duke University who contributed much to the NC Branch. She was held in high esteem both by colleagues and medical students. The Mary Poston Award was established in her memory. The award was established to recognize the best paper given by a student at NC Branch meetings. Letters of appreciation have been written by past students who had received this award telling of the confidence the award gave them and the importance of the competition from the award in their graduate training.
The North Carolina Branch members enjoyed a professional camaraderie exceeded by none. The Branch meetings were always of superior quality and were often attended by 100 to 200 members during the "Golden Years" (1970's through about 1988). Many microbiological subdisciplines were represented and many of the meetings required multiple sessions. In addition to meetings in North Carolina, many joint meetings were held with other branches adjacent to North Carolina. The meetings rivaled the national ASM meetings in depth and breadth of scientific presentations, if not in the size of the meetings. It is not possible here to mention all of the outstanding members of the NC Branch and their contributions to the NC Branch of ASM and to ASM. Their activities ranged from exemplary service on committees to the winning of the Nobel Prize.
Author: Robert S. Fulghum, Professor Emeritus, ECU School of Medicine, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology
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