Professor Jack A Gilbert joined University of California San Diego in 2019, where he is a Professor in Pediatrics and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Science, and Director of both the Microbiome and Metagenomics Center and the Microbiome Core Facility. Dr. Gilbert uses molecular analysis to test fundamental hypotheses in microbial ecology. He cofounded the Earth Microbiome Project and American Gut Project. He has authored more than 400 peer reviewed publications and book chapters on microbial ecology, co-authored the book “Dirt is Good,” and is the founding Editor in Chief of ASM mSystems journal. He founded BiomeSense Inc to produce automated microbiome sensors. In 2021 Dr. Gilbert became the UCSD PI for the National Institute of Health’s $175M Nutrition for Precision Medicine program. In 2022 he became Vice President, and in 2023 President, of Applied Microbiology International, the oldest microbiology society in the UK.