Dr. Silas G. Granato Villas-Boas is an Associate Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, with a scientific career focused primarily on microbial physiology, metabolomics and biodiscovery of bioactive metabolites. He received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark in 2003. His research interests include methods in microbial metabolomics, bioactive compounds from NZ microbes, the effect of sonic vibration on yeast metabolism and bioconversion of food waste products.