Dr. Ursula Gonzales-Barron, a Peruvian-Irish national, graduated with first-class honours in the Faculty of Food Industries at the National Agricultural University La Molina, Peru (1999), and later on she obtained the title of Food Engineer. She pursued PhD studies at the Biosystems Engineering Department of University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland (2006), through the award of the prestigious Irish Walsh Fellowship. After spending few months as a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Chemical Engineering in the University of Manchester, UK (2005), she took on the positions of Lead Researcher (2005-2007) and later on Senior Researcher (2007-2012) at UCD Biosystems Engineering, Ireland. Her expertise resides in diverse areas of food quality and safety, including mathematical modelling, predictive microbiology, risk assessment of pathogens, food traceability, shelf-life determination and sensory analysis. She has integrated into food safety research and risk analysis, a series of modelling tools such as meta-analysis, zero-inflated count data models and Bayesian statistics; and has also developed new theoretical frameworks for the modelling of microbial data and subsequent derivation of sampling regimes and microbial control charts for use in food industries. Eager for the establishment of research links, research dissemination and further training, Dr. Gonzales-Barron has been in receipt of 7 grants from competitive European calls. In 2013, she was awarded a 5-year Development Career Fellowship to carry out food safety research at the Polytechnic Institute of Braganza (IPB), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Dr. Gonzales-Barron has published 55 peer-reviewed articles; has presented at over 40 international conferences; has lectured at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; has supervised over 13 postgraduate students; and has hosted 7 international researchers.