Barbara Gerten has over 30 years of industrial microbiology experience and has studied microbiology and biochemistry. She currently works in regulatory marketing and is an active member in several national and international bodies addressing microbiological topics in ISO and CEN, including the ISO Working Groups ‘Culture media’ and ‘Method validation’.

Dr. Estelle Riche holds an engineering degree in chemistry from ESCOM (France) and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA). Her responsibilities include understanding the potential impact of water contaminants on the results of laboratory tests and providing support to scientists regarding the optimal use of purified water in their experiments.

Barbara VanRenterghem, Ph.D., is the editorial director of Food Safety Magazine, a position she has held since 2008. From 2005–2008, she was the chief editor of Controlled Environments Magazine and the science editor of Animal Lab News and Lab Manager Magazine at Vicon Publishing. At Eaton Publishing (1999–2005), she rose from the positions of assistant scientific editor for BioTechniques and acquisitions editor for BioTechniques Press to the editor of content development and acquisitions and director of commercial product development. While at Eaton (then acquired by Informa), she served as the chief editor of Preclinica. She received a B.Sc. in biology in 1989 from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1994 from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.