Dr. Spiros Paramithiotis graduated from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition of the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, in 1996. In 1998 he received a scholarship for post-graduate studies from the State Scholarship Foundation of Greece and in 2002 he received the PhD degree in Food Microbiology from the Agricultural University of Athens. In 2003, he joined the Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition as a member of the scientific personnel where he works until today.His research interests lie mainly in the field of food fermentations, with particular emphasis on microbial taxonomy, metabolism, physiology, symbiotic patterns and the underlying molecular mechanisms. He has participated in several research projects funded by the EU, the Greek Secretariat of Research and Technology as well as food industries. He has co-authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters and has received more than 2500 citations. Prof. Vasco Azevedo is a senior professor of the Department of Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science and Knight of the National Order of Scientific Merit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation. He is also a research 1A of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), which is the highest position. His total research publications include more than 500 research articles, nine books, and more than 52 book chapters. Professor Azevedo is a pioneer of the genetics of lactic acid bacteria, Probiotics, and Corynebacterium genomics in Brazil. He has specialized and currently researching bacterial genetics, genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes for the development of new vaccines and diagnostic against infectious and autoimmune diseases. Dr Didier Montet obtained his PhD in food microbiology, University of Montpellier. He has been conducting research in the food sector and more particularly in food safety for more than 35 years. He created the Food safety team at UMR Qualisud at Cirad in Montpellier, France. He is a national expert in biotechnology and additives at the National Food Safety Agency (ANSES). He is CIRAD's representative for EFSA (article 36). His main research concerns the understanding of the microbial ecology of food and food safety. He has published more than 230 articles and 8 books as an editor in the field of food (Fermentations, traceability, mycotoxins). He has managed or participated in 8 European projects. It carries out various expertise in the world concerning national food security organizations (with the FAO, the French embassy and several international foundations). He has developed a collective expertise methodology to identify food hazards. Dr. Ramesh C. Ray is a former Principal Scientist (Microbiology) and Head of the ICAR- Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (Regional Centre), Bhubaneswar, India. He has 35 years of research experiences in agriculture and food microbiology, published 140 research and review papers in international journals, 63 books chapters, edited 14 books and authored 3 books and received more than 4400 citations. He has more than 40 research papers, book chapters and review articles concerning lactic fermentation of roots and tuber crops (please see the CV). He is a distinguished fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, India and 10 other scientific societies. Currently, he is Director of Centre for Food Biology & Environmental Studies, a non-government organization at Bhubaneswar, India.
