And the new IMD Mascot is....

… Rizzo !

According to the winning author, Dr. Eliza Wolfson, a scientific illustrator from Bristol, UK:

“Rizzo the Rhizobium is every legume’s little helper in lean times. In return for a cosy root nodule to live in and a bite to eat, Rizzo will fix the problem (and some nitrogen!)”

Congratulations on a great design, name, and description! Rizzo was our top-voted design, accumulating 21.9 points out of 30 possible!

We would also like to congratulate the 2nd and 3rd place mascots:

Thaddeus (on the left) and Rusty (on the right) are our runner-ups! The author for both of them is Dr. Jordan Bailey, a plant pathologist based in Orange, Australia. Jordan left us a great description for these mascots!

“While there are many amazing and beneficial microorganisms, fungi and bacteria can also cause plant diseases. These diseases can be devastating to crops and the environment, especially when introduced to a new ecosystem.  As a plant pathologist, I have mainly worked with rust fungi. I wanted to highlight the impact of fungi as plant pathogens using typical spores from this group. Rusts have very complicated life cycles, even though these two dudes look different. they are spores from the same species!  

Rust fungi are amazing plant pathogens and have had such a huge impact on human civilisation - they are the reason the British drink tea, as coffee rust wiped out coffee plantations in Sri Lanka in 1875. The Romans even had a God of Rust - Robigus - that they would pray to in an effort to prevent rust infections on their grain crops. One rust fungi that is currently threatening Australia's native myrtaceous species is myrtle rust, it is well on its way to wiping out entire species and demonstrates the potential impact of these plant diseases and the importance of Australia’s strict biosecurity policies. “

For the first time ever, the IMD team launched a Mascot Art Competition to celebrate International Microorganism Day 2021. We had 39 fantastic entries competing to be Saca, Bak and Gillus’ new friend, from several different regions of the globe.

Geographical distribution of the contestants of the first IMD Mascot Art Competition.

The IMD team would like to acknowledge everyone that entered our first ever Mascot Art Competition!