Teaching and Development

  • MICR2001 Food Microbiology 1 (Coordinator)
  • MICR3860 Food Microbiology 2 (Coordinator)
  • MICR7001 Food Microbiology (Coordinator)
  • FOOD3017/FOOD7006 Food Safety and Quality Management (teach 2 weeks)

Assignment based courses:

  • FOOD3601 Special Topics (Coordinator)
  • FOOD4601 Advanced Topics (Coordinator)
  • FOOD7018 Food Bioprocessing (Coordinator)
  • FOOD7024 Special Topics in Food Science and Technology (Coordinator)

Researcher biography

Mark is a Professor of Food Microbiology and Deputy Head of the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland (UQ). He is also currently the Deputy Director of the Innovative Ingredients program in the Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA). Since completing his PhD at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) under the supervision of Prof Phil Giffard, he has undertaken postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Prof John Helmann (Cornell University, USA, 1999-2000) and in the CRC for Diagnostic Technologies (QUT) (2000-01). He subsequently supported his own position through being awarded a Dairy Australia Fellowship (2001-03) and an NHMRC New Investigator Grant (2004-06). He took up an academic position to specialise in food microbiology at UQ in 2007. Mark leads a research team in the area of food fermentation, food quality and food safety with current funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery). He has had previous funding from the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub, ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre and Linkage schemes, Horticulture Innovation (HIA), Dairy Innovation Australia Ltd (DIAL), Geoffrey Gardiner Dairy Foundation (GGDF) and Agrifutures Australia. His current research focus is in lactic acid bacteria applications, plant-based dairy alternative fermentations and anti-pathogen (Campylobacter and Listeria monocytogenes) biocontrol food applications. He has supervised 20 PhD and MPhil students to completion and currently supervises 6 PhD students and 1 postdoctoral research fellow. He teaches into food microbiology, food safety and food biotechnology courses. Mark is a Fellow of both the Australian Society for Microbiology (FASM) and Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (FAIFST) and a member of the editorial boards of mBio, Journal of Food Protection and Food Australia. He was the recipient of the 2017 Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) Keith Farrer Award of Merit and the 2023 AIFT President's Award. Mark is currently the Secretary of the Australian Association of Food Protection.

Areas of research