The American Society for Virology (ASV) is an American

scientific society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership may ...

serving the community of researchers in

virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

. The organization was founded in 1981 and was the first scientific society in the world dedicated exclusively to virology.

Founding and history

Historically, virology has been considered a subdiscipline of

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

. The motivation for founding a society specifically for virologists dates to the mid-1960s and originated in the community's dissatisfaction with its representation in existing microbiology societies, most notably the International Association of Microbiological Societies and the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It ...

. The society was formally founded following a meeting organized by

Bernard Roizman Bernard Roizman (born April 17, 1929) is an American scientist born in Romania. He is the Joseph Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Virology in the Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of ...

of 40 prominent virology researchers at

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...

in Chicago on June 9, 1981. Its first official annual meeting, organized by Milt Zaitlin, took place at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in August 1982—its membership had reached almost 1,000 scientists. The founding president of the ASV was Wolfgang Joklik—who served from 1981 to 1983. Other notable founding members who signed letters sent to members of the virology community soliciting opinions about the possible future society in advance of the O'Hare meeting were

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technolo ...

Purnell Choppin Purnell Whittington Choppin (July 4, 1929 – July 3, 2021) was an American virologist. He served on the faculty of Rockefeller University for nearly thirty years, becoming the Leon Hess Professor of Virology. He moved to the Howard Hughes Med ...

, Harold Ginsberg, Thomas Merigan,

, Peter K. Vogt,

Bob Wagner Robert C. Wagner (born May 16, 1947) is a former American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii from 1988 to 1995 and led the Rainbow Warriors to their first top 20 finish in 1992. Wagner graduated from W ...

Julius Youngner Julius S. Youngner (24 October 1920 – 27 April 2017) was an American Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Medicine and Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at University of Pittsburgh responsible for advances necessary ...

, and

Norton Zinder Norton David Zinder (November 7, 1928 – February 3, 2012) was an American biologist famous for his discovery of genetic transduction. Zinder was born in New York City, received his A.B. from Columbia University in 1947, Ph.D. from the Univers ...

. Ginsberg, Wagner, Choppin, and Youngner all served subsequent terms as president.

Activities

The ASV continues to host an annual scientific meeting every summer on a selected university campus in the United States or Canada. The society also hosts career and educational information—including an online jobs directory—and received a grant from the Alfred Sloan Foundation to support a website documenting the history of virology. The website is maintained by former ASV president Sondra Schlesinger. Since April 2021, the society's president has been Dr. Colin Parrish of

Organization

As of 2015, the ASV contained councils for seven subdisciplines: plant virology,

animal virology Veterinary virology is the study of viruses in non-human animals. It is an important branch of veterinary medicine. Rhabdoviruses Rhabdoviruses are a diverse family of single stranded, negative sense RNA viruses that infect a wide range of hos ...

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

medical virology Medical microbiology, the large subset of microbiology that is applied to medicine, is a branch of medical science concerned with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. In addition, this field of science studies various ...

veterinary virology Veterinary virology is the study of viruses in non-human animals. It is an important branch of veterinary medicine. Rhabdoviruses Rhabdoviruses are a diverse family of single stranded, negative sense RNA viruses that infect a wide range of hos ...

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

virology, and

prokaryotic A prokaryote () is a Unicellular organism, single-celled organism that lacks a cell nucleus, nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word ''prokaryote'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:πρό#Ancient Greek, πρό (, 'before') a ...

virology. The ASV is led by elected officers. The elected officers are a President, President-Elect, and Secretary-Treasurer—all of whom are elected by ASV members. The President-Elect is elected each year and serves one year in that role before serving as President in the following year. The Secretary-Treasurer is elected once every five years and serves one year as Secretary-Treasurer-Elect (unless succeeding themselves) and a five-year term as Secretary-Treasurer thereafter.

Presidents of the ASV

References

External links

*
Viruses from Structure to Biology
a website documenting the history of virology maintained by Sondra Schlesinger on behalf of the ASV. {{authority control Biology societies Scientific societies based in the United States Scientific organizations established in 1981 Virology organizations Medical associations based in the United States