Mycoplasma expert Joachim Spergser receives the Peter Hannan Award

The award was presented to Joachim Spergser during the 26th International Congress of the IOM, held from July 6-10, 2026, in Kraków, Poland. The Peter Hannan Award honors exceptional researchers whose body of work has had a lasting impact on applied clinical mycoplasma research in human or veterinary medicine and whose contributions have enabled significant advances in diagnostics, epidemiology, and infection biology.

Spergser was nominated by his long-time mentor Renate Rosengarten, Professor Emerita at Vetmeduni and former President of the IOM, who has accompanied his scientific career from the outset. In her laudation, she highlighted his contributions to understanding the infection biology and molecular epidemiology of mycoplasmas, to the development of modern mycoplasma diagnostics, and to the discovery of new mycoplasma species.

Research focus: Mycoplasmas in animals

For more than 27 years, Joachim Spergser has been researching mycoplasmas - an exceptional group of bacteria capable of causing disease in humans and a wide range of animal species. His work spans molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis, modern diagnostics, and molecular epidemiology, as well as the discovery of previously unknown mycoplasma species. By combining classical microbiological methods with state-of-the-art genomics, his research has substantially advanced our understanding of the evolution, adaptability, and diversity of these remarkable microorganisms.

A particular focus of his current research is the previously hidden diversity of animal-associated mycoplasmas. Through systematic investigations of isolates from companion animals, livestock, and a wide variety of wildlife species, Spergser and his team have already identified and described numerous new mycoplasma species. The findings suggest that a large share of the global diversity of these bacteria remains undiscovered, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of evolution, host specificity, and the emergence of infectious diseases.

Peter Hannan Award Lecture on the hidden species diversity of mycoplasmas and their striking genetic and phenotypic variability

In his award lecture, titled “Diversity of Mycoplasmas in the Animal Host – From Phase Variation to Species Discovery,” Spergser surveyed nearly three decades of research. Using selected examples, he illustrated how genetic diversity within individual strains, the evolution of entire populations, and the discovery of new species are interconnected and together advance our understanding of the adaptability of these extraordinary microorganisms.

In his closing acknowledgments, Spergser emphasized the great honor of receiving the award and the importance of collaboration: “The Peter Hannan Award is a very special distinction for me. It recognizes not only my own work, but also the achievements of the many colleagues and students with whom I have had the privilege to collaborate over the past decades. Science is a team effort. I am also very pleased that the mycoplasma research established at Vetmeduni nearly 30 years ago has remained at the international forefront and, with this special award, continues to receive the recognition it deserves.”

 

About Joachim Spergser

Award recipient Joachim Spergser hails from Tyrol and is a Senior Lecturer at the Unit of Microbiology at Vetmeduni, head of microbiological diagnostics, and an internationally recognized expert on animal-pathogenic mycoplasmas. He is the author of numerous scientific publications, serves on international expert committees, and has long been committed to advancing the diagnostics and systematics of mycoplasmas. He has been appointed Chair of the Board of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), Subcommittee for the Taxonomy of Mollicutes, for the next two years. He also founded the online platform vetmyco.org, which provides a globally used information resource on animal-associated mycoplasmas.
 

About Peter Hannan

The Peter Hannan Award is conferred in recognition of outstanding research achievements in applied medical or veterinary clinical mycoplasmology. It is dedicated to Peter C. T. Hannan, a mycoplasma researcher from the county of Surrey in southeast England. Peter Hannan made significant contributions to this specialized area of mycoplasma research, particularly in developing infection models and methods for determining the susceptibility of animal mycoplasmas to antimicrobial agents. In his honor, the IOM established the Peter Hannan Award shortly after his death in 2003; it was presented for the first time in 2004.