Over 1,200 visitors attended the event. This festival presents various scientific elements such as symposiums, microbial art exhibitions, community booths, and talk shows. The event was also part of the global celebration of IMD which is held annually every September 17, in commemoration of the discovery of microbes by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek with his first microscope.

The IMD exhibition featured booths from a variety of institutions and communities, ranging from local and international, all under the theme of microbes including from the entrepreneurial sector, the fermentation community, and the health sector in a diagnostic manner.

On this occasion, the Dean of the School of Life Sciences and Technology (SITH) ITB, Prof. Endah Sulistiyawati, S.Si., Ph.D., took the time to welcome cooperating partners and talk about collaboration opportunities.

On the other hand, the Head of the ITB Microbiology Study Program, Intan Taufik, S.Si., M.Si., Ph.D., expressed his pride and joy on the success of Indonesia’s first International Microorganism Day (IMD).

"I hope by coming to this event, the general public will know more about microorganisms beyond the harmful ones, (that) many are also beneficial," he stated.

Although Indonesia has potential in the field of microorganisms, it is still lacking development and optimization. In a small discussion between the Dean of SITH and one of the collaborating communities, it was mentioned that forums that can accommodate academics, industry, and the community are still very limited.

"Hopefully this event can serve as a forum for joint discussions about microorganisms because there are still many things that have not been optimized yet," he added.

This exhibition is expected to be a good starting point in building better relations between various parties, especially between academic parties, which is then hoped to be achieved through research, data collection, database creation, and innovation.

Meanwhile, IMD Project Manager of the ITB Microbiology Student Association, Della, revealed that this event was brought forth from a big dream to broaden the community on microbiology-related knowledge and open collaboration.

"Reflecting on several events that have been held abroad, we realized that we also have great potential for similar things. Nothing is impossible," she stated.

One of the highlights of this exhibition is the presence of a booth from Fermentasi Nusantara (Fermenusa), a community that focuses on the commercialization of local fermented products in Indonesia. "Our goal is to help farmers improve the quality of their production," they confirmed.

They hope that cooperation with academic institutions can accelerate the commercialization of fermented products in Indonesia in order to maintain biodiversity in the future.

This exhibition was also enlivened by artworks about microbes, such as agar art, paintings, origami, to hand-knitted works with microbial themes. In addition to that, various talk shows raised the use of microbes from various perspectives, ranging from food products, and diagnostic health, to entrepreneurship. This talk show session fostered the enthusiasm of participants to know more about microbes and their use in different sectors.

Reporter: Najma Shafiya (Postharvest Technology, 2020)
Translator: Kezia Hosana (Chemical Engineering, 2022)
Editor: Ayesha Lativa Mafaza (Postharvest Technology, 2021)