Chris Michiels is professor and head of the Laboratory of Food Microbiology at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. His research addresses mechanistic and quantitative aspects of the inactivation, survival and growth of foodborne bacteria throughout the food production chain, and aims to support the development of novel or improved technologies for controlling food safety and quality. The primary focus is on the mechanisms of adaptation and resistance development of foodborne bacteria towards different types of stress applied in food processing and preservation, such as heat, high pressure, cold, acid and preservatives. The research approach combines basic microbiological methods with a range of molecular, genetic and omic techniques to investigate bacterial adaptation at the molecular, cellular, population and ecosystem level. Chris Michiels has (co-)authored about 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and he has edited a book on high pressure microbiology. He is also editor of the International Journal of Food Microbiology