Prof. Karen Vickery graduated from Veterinary Science with honours in 1979 and worked in general veterinary practice in NSW, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She obtained her PhD in 1996 investigating hepatitis B virus (HBV). She is a Scientific Director for the Surgical Infection Research Group at Macquarie University (MQ), Australia, and is primarily responsible for investigating medically important biofilms. In 2011, she was awarded an MQ Vice Chancellor Innovation Fellowship to investigate biofilm contamination of medical implants and surfaces. In 2013, she became lead investigator on an ARC Linkage grant researching detergency and surface biofilms.