The Indonesian Society for Lactic Acid Bacteria (ISLAB) was established at the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Gadjah Mada University, on 12 March 2003, soon after the establishment of Asian Federation of Society for Lactic Acid Bacteria (AFSLAB) in November 2002, in Tokyo, Japan. In Indonesia, this scientific society is under the coordination of PERMI (Indonesian Society for Microbiology), while at International community, ISLAB is a member of AFSLAB which currently planning the 6th ACLAB (Asian Conference on Lactic Acid Bacteria), 8-10 September at Sapporo, Japan.
From the effort of every of us in developing ISLAB, members of this association increased year by year, in 2005, when we held the first international conference at Bali, listed 100 members, and in second international conference at Yogyakarta, 2009 increased by approximately 150 members, currently, in the third conference, registered at around 250 members. This increase showed that research interest on lactic acid bacteria are getting higher. ISLAB members come from diverse area, represent many parts of Indonesia, ranging from Aceh of Sumatera to Kupang of Nusa Tenggara. In general, ISLAB members come from Universities, Research institute, and few, from the industry.