The WPAEM (“Working Party on Advanced Education in Food Microbiology”): A “Task Force” representing 12 professors of 11 different countries (including USA and Canada) and a representative of UNESCO convened in Copenhagen from 6 to 9 June 1989, and prepared a first “Core Curriculum” for Advanced Education in Food Microbiology. This was published the following year in IJFM (4, 107-118). Useful deliberations on the first draft were initiated and chaired by Prof. David Mossel at the ICFMH in Bingen/Germany (1993) and Budapest (1996). Following the further development of the “Core curriculum”, a Master’s programme in “Public Health Science (Food and Drinking Water)” was initiated at the Dept. of Biosciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield Campus, Hatfield Herts (UK) in September 2003. This was endorsed at a former ICFMH-WPAEFM meeting during the “FOOD MICRO 2002” Symposium in Lillehammer, Norway, August 2002. The present convener of the WPAEFM is Prof. Corry Struijk of the Eijkman Foundation in Utrecht, The Netherlands; e-mail: eijkmanfoundation@kpnplanet.nl .