General Sessions
Explore the full ASM Microbe 2026 program and add these must-attend sessions to your itinerary to experience the science, innovation and community driving the field forward.
Discover all the sessions ASM Microbe 2026 has to offer.
Opening General Session
Join us for the Opening General Session of ASM Microbe 2026, where we kick off with welcome remarks from ASM President Alexander McAdam, M.D., Ph.D., D(ABMM), and a society update from ASM CEO, Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., MPH. The program includes recognition of the 2026 ASM Awards and Prize recipients and the American Academy of Microbiology 2026 fellows, watch a virtual presentation from Lifetime Achievement Awardee, developer of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.
The session concludes with a featured scientific keynote highlighting cutting-edge microbiome research. Speakers representing each of the 3 co-located meetings at ASM Microbe—Applied & Environmental Microbiology, Health, and Mechanism Discovery—will present diverse perspectives on microbiome science. This multidisciplinary keynote brings together leaders across microbiology to showcase the latest discoveries and their implications for human, animal and environmental microbiomes.
Don’t miss this dynamic opening session for important ASM updates and a distinguished lineup of speakers at the forefront of microbiology.
Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., MPH
CEO
American Society for Microbiology
Alexander McAdam, M.D., Ph.D., D(ABMM)
ASM President 2025-2026
Chief, Department of Laboratory Medicine; Medical Director, Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.
ASM Lifetime Achievement Awardee, Developer of CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing and 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate
Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Lawrence David, Ph.D.
ASM Applied & Environmental Microbiology Meeting Keynote Speaker
Assistant Professor in Duke University’s Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Associate Director of the Duke Microbiome Center
Duke University
Joao Xavier, Ph.D.
ASM Applied & Environmental Microbiology Meeting Keynote Speaker
Assistant Professor in Duke University’s Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Associate Director of the Duke Microbiome Center
Duke University
Wendy Garrett, M.D., Ph.D.
ASM Mechanism Discovery Meeting Keynote Speaker
Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Chan School of Public Health
Harvard Medical School