Bibb was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013. His nomination reads:
Mervyn Bibb is nominated for his seminal contributions to the genetic manipulation of antibiotic-producing bacteria, and to our understanding of antibiotic production and its regulation. He characterised Streptomyces plasmids, invented a method for introducing them into Streptomyces, and then developed cloning systems. This opened the way to his characterisation of the basic features of Streptomyces genes. He then applied this knowledge to the synthesis of antibiotics and their global and pathway-specific regulation. New therapeutic agents and ground-breaking approaches to yield improvement are emerging from this work.[1]
^Bibb, M. J.; Findlay, P. R.; Johnson, M. W. (1984). "The relationship between base composition and codon usage in bacterial genes and its use for the simple and reliable identification of protein-coding sequences". Gene. 30 (1–3): 157–66. doi:10.1016/0378-1119(84)90116-1. PMID6096212.
^Ward, J. M.; Janssen, G. R.; Kieser, T.; Bibb, M. J.; Buttner, M. J.; Bibb, M. J. (1986). "Construction and characterisation of a series of multi-copy promoter-probe plasmid vectors for Streptomyces using the aminoglycoside phosphotransferase gene from Tn5 as indicator". MGG Molecular & General Genetics. 203 (3): 468–478. doi:10.1007/BF00422072. PMID3018431. S2CID25943568.
^Bibb, M. J. (2005). "Regulation of secondary metabolism in streptomycetes". Current Opinion in Microbiology. 8 (2): 208–15. doi:10.1016/j.mib.2005.02.016. PMID15802254.