Medical microbiologists first became involved with rapid methods around the mid-1960s, and started to accelerate in the 1970s and continued to develop in the 1980s and 1990s, which continues up to the present today. Other disciplines such as environmental, industrial and pharmaceutical, cosmetic, water and food microbiology were lagging about 10 years behind. However, recently much progress has been made by all disciplines in microbiology in the field of rapid methods. Many symposia and conferences were held nationally and internationally to discuss the developments in this important applied microbiology topic. The most comprehensive hands-on workshop, the international workshop on Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology, was developed by author Daniel Y.C. Fung in 1981 at Kansas State University (Fung, 2002). To date about 4,000 people from 60 countries have participated in this international workshop.