FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Travel Award for Early Career Researchers
The FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Award supports Early Career Researchers to attend FEMS MICRO or ASM Microbe, depending on the year. The award allows the reciprocal exchange of one member from each organisation to present their research at the other organisation’s main conference. It has been designed to benefit early career researchers from both organisations by giving them the opportunity to present their work overseas and experience the best of microbiology in the partner country.
ASM will select the member attending FEMS MICRO Ljubljana 2026. The successful candidate is awarded up to €4,000 and includes complimentary registration. If the cost of travel is under €4,000, the remaining funds may be used to cover other expenses related to meeting attendance.
Applications
Applications for FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Award to attend FEMS MICRO Ljubljana 2027 will open 2 September alongside abstract submissions.
Eligibility
To qualify for consideration, the applicant must be or provide:
- A current member of a FEMS Full Member Society.
- A microbiologist active in research and current Ph.D. (or equivalent) student or recipient of Ph.D. within the past 5 years. (Note: periods of maternity/paternity leave, special leave or illness do not count toward this definition).
- Scientific abstract not previously published or presented at another conference.
- Curriculum vitae (CV), including scientific focus area.
- Include the name of the FEMS Member Society and membership number in the CV.
- Two letters of nominations on institution letterhead written by the department chair and principal investigator or immediate director.
- Applicant statement providing a brief overview (limit 500 words) of qualifications and how the travel award supports scientific research.
Past Winners of the Mäkelä-Cassell Awards
- 2025 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Anita Tarasenko, Flinders University | Adelaide, Australia
- 2024 – ASM-FEMS Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Laura Catón, University of Cambridge. UK
- 2023 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Paul Solis-Reyes, Western University, London, Canada
- 2022 – ASM-FEMS Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Laura Glendinning, PhD, Core Scientist (Research Fellow) in Genetics and Genomics at the University of Edinburgh
- 2021 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Suparna Mitra, University Academic Fellow at the Leeds Institute of Medical Research
- 2020 – ASM-FEMS Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Azul Zurzoli, PhD Research Student at the University of Dundee
- 2019 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Valerie de Anda, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, USA
- 2018 – ASM-FEMS Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Mohd Zulkifli Salleh, Graduate Teaching Assistant at University of Manchester, UK
- 2017 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Kana Morinaga
- 2016 – ASM-FEMS Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Ajijur Rahman
- 2015 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Ember Morrissey
- 2014 – ASM-FEMS Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Francesca Turroni
- 2013 – FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Awardee | Clayton Caswell
Open access is key to supporting the FEMS mission of disseminating high quality research as widely as possible: when high quality, peer reviewed sound science is open access, anyone, anywhere in the world with an internet connection, can read it. All but one of the not-for-profit FEMS journals are fully open access (OA), with one journal, FEMS Microbiology Letters, offering free-to-publish and OA options.
