Maja Rupnik, Slovenia

Maja Rupnik is head of Department for microbiological research at National laboratory for health, environment and food (NLZOH) in Maribor, Slovenia. Also, since 2005 she has been a Professor for Microbiology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor. She is a worldwide recognized expert on Clostridium difficile and one of the main organizers of traditional event International Clostridium difficile Symposium (www.icds.si).

Her research interest is focused on molecular biology and epidemiology of Clostridium difficile, molecular typing techniques and on gut microbiota. The main interest of her group are the variant C. difficile strains.

Her publications include more than 80 original papers, reviews and book chapters including high ranking journals such as Nature, Nature Rev Micro, NEJM. She is associate editor for Anaerobe journal.

The honors and awards she obtained for her work include Alexander von Huboldt grant , ESCMID/bioMerieux Award for Advances in Clinical Microbiology and national award Zois Certificate of Recognition for exceptional scientific achievements in microbiology.