From control of epidemics to understanding of the gut microbiome, to understanding beneficial and harmful microbial impacts on farming, and ecological systems, to understanding the impact of climate on microbial systems, microbial communities are an integral and essential part of life on earth. This conference aims to bring together experts in ecology, microbial genomics, population evolution, dynamical modeling and high throughput data science to share the current state of knowledge and catalyze new interactions across biology, computational, and mathematical sciences. The potential range of topics is huge. To provide focus for this effort, our organizing team has chosen to emphasize two key areas and their interplay: microbial genomics, and microbial population dynamics.