ESGEM History
ESGEM was started in March 1995 by Marc Struelens and Marc became the first Chair, which was at that time called Organizer. The approval of ESGEM was in Vienna the same month.
Overview on Chairs:
- 1995 Marc Struelens
- 1997 Lenie Dijkshoorn
- 2001 Lenie Dijkshoorn (reelected)
- 2003 Alex van Belkum
- 2005 Panayotis Tassios
- 2007 Sara Haeggman
- 2011 Alex Friedrich
- 2014 Hajo Grundmann
- 2018 Guido Werner
- 2023 Natacha Couto
Beside these brave Chairpersons, other well known scientists have participated and actively influenced in the ESGEM executive committee work.
Organization of the International Meeting on Microbial Epidemiological Markers (IMMEM) has been an important task of the ESGEM executive committee. The first conference organized by ESGEM members was in 1987 in Brussels, Belgium, at this time still called "International Meeting on Bacterial Epidemiological Markers" (IMBEM).
1987 – IMBEM-1, Brussels, Belgium
1990 – IMBEM-2, Rhodes, Greece
1994 – IMBEM-3, Cambridge, United Kingdom
1997 – IMBEM-4, Elsinore, Denmark
2000 – IMBEM-5, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands
2003 – IMMEM-6, Les Diablerets, Switzerland
2007 – IMMEM-7, Victoria, Canada
2008 – IMMEM-8, Zakopane, Poland
2010 – IMMEM-9, Wernigerode, Germany
2013 – IMMEM-10, Paris, France
2016 – IMMEM-11, Estoril, Portugal
2019 – IMMEM-12, Dubrovnik, Croatia
2022 – IMMEM-13, Bath, United Kingdom
2025 – IMMEM-14, Porto, Portugal
ESGEM supports also the organization and planning of Technical and Educational Workshops.