Awards Winners

The Peter Hannan Award for outstanding research achievements in the field of applied veterinary clinical mycoplasmology has been awarded to Joachim Spergser from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.

Veterinarian and microbiologist Dr. Joachim Spergser graduated from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in 1997. Following two years in mixed veterinary practice and research activities at the Institute of Bacteriology, Mycology and Hygiene, he returned to the university for doctoral studies on caprine mycoplasmas under the supervision of Professor Renate Rosengarten. After completing his doctoral degree in 2001, he was appointed Head of the Mycoplasma Diagnostic Laboratory and Leader of the Mycoplasma Research Group. In 2014, he obtained his habilitation in Microbiology with a thesis on genital mycoplasmas, and since 2019 he has served as Senior Lecturer in Microbiology. For more than 27 years, Dr. Spergser’s research has focused on the infection biology, diagnosis, epidemiology and control of mycoplasmas in veterinary medicine. His work spans both fundamental and applied Mycoplasmology, including studies on the pathogenesis and antigenic variation of Mycoplasma agalactiae, as well as investigations into clinically relevant mycoplasmas affecting livestock, poultry, companion animals and wildlife.

He has also contributed to research on human-associated mycoplasmas, including Ureaplasma parvum in preterm infants. In recent years, his research has increasingly focused on mycoplasma diversity in animal hosts, leading to the identification of more than 140 potentially novel Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma species.
Dr. Spergser is an active member of the IOM and serves on the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Subcommittee for the Taxonomy of Mollicutes. He was also a co-founding diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology. His scientific contributions to Mycoplasmology include more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, invited book chapters, and numerous presentations at international scientific conferences.

 

 

The Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel Award for outstanding research achievements in the field of mycoplasmology has been awarded to John Glass from the J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, USA.

John Glass is a synthetic biologist at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in La Jolla, California, and a pioneer in the field of synthetic genomics. He played a central role in developing the technologies required to design and construct living synthetic cells based on Mycoplasma mycoides. In 2010, the JCVI team announced the creation of JCVI-syn1.0, the world’s first living synthetic cell, demonstrating that a cell could be controlled by a chemically synthesized genome and marking a historic milestone in biology.
In 2016, Glass and colleagues reported construction of JCVI-syn3.0, the first minimal bacterial cell, establishing a powerful platform for investigating the fundamental principles of cellular life. His laboratory has since used the minimal cell to define the core biological functions required for life and to explore how cellular systems emerge from a minimal genetic framework. He currently leads an international consortium of more than 90 laboratories using the JCVI minimal cell to investigate the foundational principles governing living cells.
Glass began his career in mycoplasmology in 1992 in the laboratory of Gail Cassell at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He joined JCVI in 2003 and,  earned both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

 

The Derrick Edward Award for outstanding research achievements in the field of mycoplasmology by a young investigator has been awarded to Nadeeka Wawegama from the The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Nadeeka Wawegama earned her Bachelor of Veterinary Science from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 2009 and completed a PhD in Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Melbourne in 2013 under the supervision of Professor Glenn Browning and Dr Philip Markham. After her doctorate, she spent several years as a Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Animal Health, University of Melbourne, initially focusing on highly pathogenic avian influenza before returning to mycoplasma research. Since 2024 she has held the position of Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health at the Melbourne Veterinary School. Dr Wawegama’s mycoplasma research encompasses basic studies that lead to translational outcomes. Her studies on immunogenic proteins have led the development of a diagnostic assay for Mycoplasma bovis, followed by several epidemiological investigations that have improved the understanding of M. bovis transmission and control within the Australian cattle industry and internationally. Her current research examines host responses to mycoplasma infection and vaccination, with a particular focus on poultry and ruminants; vaccine design and evaluation and establishes robust in vitro and in vivo infection models that recapitulate natural mycoplasma infection to study pathogenesis and to assess vaccine candidates. 
Dr Wawegama has been a member of the International Research Programme on Comparative Mycoplasma (IRPCM) Ruminant and Avian Mycoplasma Groups since her doctoral studies. She has served as the team leader of the IRPCM Ruminant Mycoplasma subcommittee since 2021 and currently chairs the Scientific Program Committee for IOM 2026 congress.

 

 

The Robert F. Whitcomb Award  for outstanding research achievements in the field of plant and insect mycoplasmology has been awarded to Gail Gasparich from Millersville University, USA.

Dr. Gasparich earned her B.S. in Biology from The College of William and Mary in 1984 and completed her Ph.D. in Microbiology at The Pennsylvania State University in 1989. After a postdoc with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, She began her academic career in the Biology Department at Towson University in 1996 where she rose to the rank of Professor. She became the Associate Dean of the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics at Towson University and then moved on to become the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Salem State University prior to joining Millersville University as the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs in 2021. Her research focuses on the taxonomic and phylogenetic characterization of Spiroplasma microorganisms. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Since 1997, she has secured over $15M in funding across 30 grants. Recent grants include NSF S-STEM, NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, and a recent NSF LSAMP grant at Millersville University. Dr. Gasparich has served as the Treasurer for the International Organization of Mycoplasmology (2013-2018) and serves as Chair of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes-Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Mollicutes. She is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Bergey’s Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria as the Mollicutes Guest Editor.