Santa Olga Cacciola is a full professor in Plant Pathology at the University of Catania; she has a PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Bari. She was a post-doc at (i) the University of Bern (CH) with a Roche Foundation grant, and (ii) Johns Hopkins Univ. (USA) with an NIH grant. She has 30 years of experience in participating in national and international projects and is recognized internationally as an expert in citrus and forest tree diseases and molecular diagnostics, with a focus on Phytophthora diseases in forest ecosystems. She has been working with regional phytosanitary services in disease management and has contributed to the preparation of EPPO protocols. She was able to establish worldwide connections with colleagues and experts in the field and has been a member of the management committee and working group member in two COST Actions and joint bilateral agreements, EU projects, and other funded projects with colleagues all over the world. She has been invited as a speaker as well as a member of scientific committees at national and international conferences. She is the senior editor of Plant Disease Journal (APS), Plants and JoF (MDPI), and JPPY (Springer). Scopus Author ID: 6603225299; Scopus: N. 170 articles; N. 3448 citations; h-index = 33 (17/03/2024).