Allegheny Branch ASM:
A Brief History

The Branch began in April of 1934 as the Central Pennsylvania Section of the Society of American Bacteriologists. It was primarily organized by a group at Penn State University with Dr. J.A. Sperry serving as first president. Meetings were held twice a year during the years 1934-1941. During this period, two joint meetings were held with the Central New York Branch. The branch was inactive during the "War Years". Starting in 1946, a concerted effort was made to establish a branch encompassing State College, Pittsburgh, and Morgantown, West Virginia. The first meeting of the new branch was held April 1, 1948. There were 75 people in attendance and it lasted well past midnight! The name, Allegheny Branch of the Society of American Bacteriologists (ABSAB), was proposed and accepted. The officers were as follows: Michael A. Farrell, President, Jonas E. Salk, President-elect, John C. Garey, Secretary Treasurer, and Mary Aiken, Councilor. .

In 1961, the name was changed to Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology. The first newsletter was published in 1966 and the ABASM logo was introduced in March of 1970. After the national bylaws were changed in 1977, the branch switched to a single annual meeting in spring. A border dispute which erupted with the Eastern Branch in the latter part of the 1970's was resolved with the redrawing of the eastern boundary of the branch and changing of the bylaws in 1980. Starting in 1996 ABASM became an official sponsor of the Tristate Microbiology Teachers Conference. In 1996 and 1997 this meeting was held at Duquesne University. The spring of 1998 there was an education symposium at the joint meeting in Ohio.

Since 1983, seven joint meetings have been held with the Ohio Branch (1983, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1994, spring 1998). The 1985 and spring 1998 meetings were also held jointly with Kentucky-Tennessee.

Jonas E. Salk is probably still to this day the Branch's most well known and famous member.

Revision: September 21, 1998,

Steven R. Strain, Slippery Rock University, steven.strain@sru.edu

The contents of this page are the responsibility of the Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology, and do not necessarily reflect the views of either the American Society for Microbiology or Slippery Rock University.