mSphere Highlights Black In Microbiology Week

The inaugural Black In Microbiology Week (#BlackInMicro) is 28 September 2020 through 4 October 2020. Its mission is to “showcase the presence and accomplishments of Black microbiologists from around the globe, connect Black microbiologists with one another and foster a sense of community among them, and provide a forum for the discussion of racial disparities in microbiology and its subfields.” Participation in this event will happen primarily over Twitter through the hashtag #BlackInMicro and over Zoom through registration on the website https://blackinmicrobiology.org/. An additional mission of Black In Microbiology Week is to amplify black scientists. Today, mSphere does this by presenting two mSphere of Influence commentaries from Black In Microbiology co-lead organizers Ariangela J. Kozik (“mSphere of Influence: frameshift—a vision for human microbiome research” [mSphere 5:e00944-20, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00944-20]) and Kishana Taylor (“mSphere of Influence: that’s racist—COVID-19, biological determinism, and the limits of hypotheses” [mSphere 5:e00945-20, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00945-20]).