Dear friends and colleagues,
I am most grateful and truly humbled by this honour.
When our President Linda Chui called me to tell me that I was the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Microbiologist Service Award I thought it was in jest. In my capacity as Registrar I am responsible for presenting the list of candidates to the Board of Directors and while somehow my name had been submitted by some colleagues, I did not expect any further acknowledgement given the scientific calibre and professional reputation of the other candidates.
I am the beneficiary of luck and of the intervention of remarkable people who have given me their support and confidence over many years. First and foremost, my luck was to marry almost forty years ago a most understanding, patient and clever wife. She left me do "my thing" happy that it will keep me away from hammers and screwdrivers, implements which are in constant opposition against my clumsy attempts to fix things around the house. The results of these experiments ended costing more than if I would have called the professional repair expert in the first place.
Next, I was lucky to be mentored and guided by an exceptional thesis director.
Don Kushner was the consummate Renaissance man: musician, artist, poet, writer of books for children and foremost scientist. During his Presidency of the CSM he prompted me in the late 1970s to offer my services to the fledgling organization which became the CCM. Ken Rozee, who preceded me on this podium a few years ago wrote our early history which is published on our web site.
When I rejoined the Board of the CCM in 2004, and later was appointed for the second time as Registrar, I was lucky to work for a dynamic and fully devoted Board of Directors chaired by Michelle Alfa. I couldn't have asked for more, when, on completion of her Presidency she accepted to carry on as Treasurer for a few more years. The teams of Board of Directors first under the Presidency of Gregg Tyrrell, followed by Martin Petric and now by Linda Chui fulfill the wishes of any Registrar for successive Dream Teams. Suffice to mention the steady growth of the CCM, its expanding recognition as THE professional organization of Canadian microbiologists, this year’s extraordinary influx of new members, over one hundred from Quebec, thanks to Stephane Bourget and more than twenty five from BC and Saskatchewan thanks to Martin Petric and Paul Levett. I want also to mention the critical contributions of the Chairpersons of our standing Committees, especially David Mahoney for the ARMCCM, Daryl Hoban for the FCCM, Jack Trevors for the Education and Professional Development Committee, Stephane Bourget for the Environmental Microbiology Committee.
It is definitely thanks to them and to the other members of the Board of Directors of the past five years that I am here today. I only have two words to convey to them and to you what I feel from my heart "THANK YOU" en Français “MERCI”.
Raoul R. Korngold Ph.D., R.M.(CCM)
Registrar
