Bergey's Manual Trust

We welcome four new members to the Bergey’s Trust Board of Trustees: Maria Chuvochina (secretary), David R. Arahal, Stephanus N. Venter, and Iain Sutcliffe. Maria is a principal taxonomy curator of the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) at the Univers the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) at the University of Queensland. David is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Valencia and studies a variety of culturable microorganisms and is active in the introduction of comparative genomics as a routine method for classifying microorganisms. Stephanus is a Professor at the University of Pretoria where he studies bacterial evolution, systematics, and diversity. Iain is a Professor at Northumbria University and was Chair of the International Committee for Systematics of Prokaryotes (2017-2023); he is primarily focusing on understanding cell envelope diversity and its role in bacterial evolution. Learn more about the Board of Trustees. The Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) provides a phylogenetically consistent and rank normalized taxonomy for Bacteria and Archaea. The Taxonomy Tree viewer on GTDB website now includes a filter to show linking to the corresponding chapters in Bergey’s Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria which can be accessed using your institution’s subscription. Bergey's Manual Trust was established in 1936 to sustain the publication of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology and supplementary reference works. The Trust also recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to bacterial taxonomy by presentation of the Bergey Award and Bergey Medal, jointly supported by funds from the Trust and from Springer, the publishers of the Manual. The first edition of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology was initiated by action of the Society of American Bacteriologists (now called the American Society for Microbiology) by appointment of an Editorial Board consisting of David H. Bergey (Chairman, pictured below), Francis C. Harrison, Robert S. Breed, Bernard W. Hammer and Frank M. Huntoon. This Board, under the auspices of the Society of American Bacteriologists, brought the first edition of the Manual into print in 1923. The Board, with some changes in membership and Dr Bergey as Chairman, published a second edition of the Manual in 1925 and a third edition in 1930. In 1934, during preparation of the fourth edition, Dr Bergey requested that the Society of American Bacteriologists make available the royalties paid to the Treasurer of the Society from the sale of the earlier editions to defray the expense of preparing the fourth edition. The Society made such provision, but the use of the Society's fiscal machinery proved cumbersome, both to the Society and the Editorial Board. Subsequently, it was agreed by the Society and Dr Bergey that the Society would transfer to Dr Bergey all of its rights, title and interest in the Manual and that Dr Bergey would, in turn, create an educational trust to which all rights would be transferred. The purpose of the society is to promote excellent research in microbial systematics as well as enhance global communication among taxonomists who study the Bacteria and Archaea. The society also serves internationally as an advocate for research efforts on microbial systematics and diversity. The Trust recognizes that the vast diversity of microbial life is the last remaining major reservoir of unknown biological diversity on Earth. A principal goal of the society is to comprehend this vast but largely unstudied diversity with its untapped genetic, enzymic and industrial potential. A basic aim of the society is to foster efforts to isolate novel microorganisms in pure culture and to describe, name and classify them.