Prof. Paul Ross is Head of Biotechnology at the Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre (MFRC), Teagasc and a Principal Investigator in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) at National University of Ireland, Cork. Prof. P. Ross graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Microbiology/Biochemistry in 1984 and with a PhD in Microbiology in 1989, both from NUI, Cork.  He took up a post-doctoral fellowship at the Dept. of Biochemistry, Wake Forest University Medical Centre, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.  While there, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Professor and was a founding faculty member of their Molecular Genetics Programme. His main interests, while in the US, were the study of unusual flavoprotein oxidases from enterococci including NADH peroxidise.  He returned to Ireland in 1993 to take up a Senior Research Officer position at Teagasc, Moorepark to lead the research programme on Dairy Biotechnology.  In 1997, he was appointed as Head of the Dairy Quality Department and then further promoted to Senior Principle Research Officer in 2001.  Paul is now Head of the newly constructed Biotechnology Centre at Moorepark.  His main research interests are in antimicrobial peptides and anti-infectives, probiotics, milk bioactives bacteriocins, probiotics, gut microbiology and functional foods. He has published 191 peer-reviewed publications and is an inventor on 13 patents.  In addition, he has supervised 38 post graduates (including 19 Ph.D.s and 19 Masters).  He also has coordinated or been a (co-)principle investigator on numerous national, EU and National Institute Health (US) grants.  Prof. P. Ross currently stands on National (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) and International (EFSA) committees dealing with GMOs and novel foods. He also is a member of the Executive Management Group of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, a virtual Centre between University College Cork and Teagasc (~ 100 scientists) devoted to the study of intestinal flora and their impact on human health.  He is also on the Editorial Board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. In 2007, Paul received the William Haines Award in dairy Science from the California Dairy Research Foundation.