Microbe-powered jobs. What in the world does that mean? It means jobs in industries that use microbes to make their products. Microbes can be highly efficient, versatile, and sophisticated manufacturing tools, and have the potential to serve as the backbone for a vibrant economic sector, especially in rural areas. Don't believe it? Let's start with just one example. In 1980, there were only a few craft breweries in the United States. Today there are over 2,400 of these small companies. While each produces no more than 6 million barrels per year, collectively they employed over 100,000 people and generated sales of over $10 billion in 2012. This quintessentially local industry creates jobs all over the United States. There are breweries in every state and the District of Columbia; indeed there is at least one craft brewery in almost every Congressional district. The craft brewing revolution is just one example of a microbe-powered industry. To launch these companies, craft brewers had to become experts in one particular kind of microbiology — yeast fermentation. Many of them experimented with home brewing beer for personal consumption before expanding commercially. But beer is not the only thing that microbes can make and yeast is not the only kind of microbe capable of producing useful products at an industrial scale. At present, microbes are used commercially to make products as diverse as vitamins, food components, and plastics. The potential scope for industries based on the kinds of biotransformations at which microbes excel is enormous, but two obstacles stand in the way of an explosion of this sector. First, relatively few scientifically inclined students are aware that microbe-powered industry is a potential career choice. Second, even if this awareness were greater, there are currently few academic programs aimed at educating the workforce that will be needed for this sector to thrive. How can these gaps be closed? In February 2013, the American Academy of Microbiology convened a colloquium to explore whether the time is ripe for the emergence of a microbe-powered industrial sector, what will be needed for that sector to thrive, and what kinds of educational programs will be needed to attract and train the necessary workforce. Twenty experts in biotechnology, microbiology, engineering, and education, including participants from both academia and industry, gathered for two days to consider the following questions: ▪ What are the grand challenges and opportunities for microbiology in the future at the industrial level? ▪ What are the human needs of the microbial biotechnology industry that would enable tackling these challenges? ▪ What are the core elements of a microbiology education that are needed by all microbiologists in this field? ▪ What sort of training would best prepare students to contribute to the bioproducts industry? ▪ How can industry partner with academic institutions and funding agencies to foster interest in and provide training for industrial post-graduate careers? ▪ What can ASM do to support the advancement of this type of microbiology? Thanks are due to each of the participants, especially members of the steering committee, who developed the questions for the colloquium, identified appropriate participants, and moderated discussions at the colloquium. They also reviewed the draft report, as did the rest of the colloquium participants. The final report that follows captures the discussions and conclusions reached during the colloquium.