Dr. Maria Marco is a Professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. She earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at The Pennsylvania State University and PhD in microbiology at the University of California, Berkeley. As a postdoc at Wageningen University and NIZO food research in The Netherlands, she developed a love for lactic acid bacteria and the importance of these microorganisms in our foods and the digestive tract. Her postdoctoral studies led to the discovery that probiotics are metabolically active in the intestine and responsive to dietary intake. Dr. Marco started her laboratory at the University of California, Davis in 2008 and has built an internationally recognized research program on fermented foods, probiotics, and dietary modulation of the gut microbiome. She is active with science communication activities such as the EATLAC project and is the instructor for two food microbiology courses. Dr. Marco received the American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer award in 2012 and the UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award in 2024. Recently, she founded the ongoing Gordon Research Conference series on Lactic Acid Bacteria. Dr. Marco serves on scientific advisory and journal editorial boards and is currently the President of the International Society of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) Board of Directors.