Dr. Schmalenberger graduated from the University of Hannover and completed his PhD at the Federal Agricultural Research Centre and Technological University Braunschweig, where he investigated microbial communities of transgenic crops. He continued his postdoctoral research at the University of Bayreuth, the University of Manchester (UK), and the University of Sheffield (UK), where he focused his attention on the abilities of soil microbes to mobilize nutrients otherwise unavailable to plants. Dr. Schmalenberger took up a lecturer’s position at the University of Limerick in 2010, where he expanded his research, studying Listeria monocytogenes growth conditions on fruit and vegetables.