Food Safety Matters

Edward G. Dudley, Ph.D. is the Director of the E. coli Reference Center and a Professor of Food Science at the Pennsylvania State University. He has a broad background in molecular biology, physiology, and foodborne bacteria genomics, with expertise in both beneficial and pathogenic species. His current research program focuses on factors that drive the virulence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and the development of DNA sequence-based methods for tracking pathogen spread during foodborne illness outbreaks, including wastewater monitoring. Dr. Dudley is a past Chair of the Food Microbiology Division of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), the Food Microbiology Representative to ASM's Council of Microbial Sciences, and a previous member of ASM's Microbe Program Committee. In 2019, he was appointed an ASM Distinguished Lecturer and Co-Editor of the Evolution and Genomics domain for ASM's online journal, EcoSal Plus. He was also elected to the American Academy of Microbiology in 2023. Dr. Dudley holds a Ph