Effie Tsakalidou graduated in Chemistry from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1980. In 1981, she moved to Germany to pursue post-graduate studies with a scholarship from the A. S. Onassis Foundation. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cologne, Germany, in 1986. The following year, she joined the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), Greece, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Dairy Research. She is currently a Professor of Food Biochemistry in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and the Director of the ACA-DC microorganism collection (http://www.aca-dc.gr/) at the Laboratory of Dairy Research, AUA. Her research focuses on lactic acid bacteria (LAB), particularly on taxonomy, metabolism, bacteriocins, probiotics, physiology, genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, and the technological applications of LAB strains. She has co-authored over 400 publications in these areas, including research and review articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, invited papers, and presentations at national and international conferences. Dr. Tsakalidou has served as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI in numerous research projects, including 20 EU-funded projects, 41 national projects, and 10 projects funded by third parties. She is a member of the Editorial Board of several international scientific journals, including International Dairy Journal, and an active participant in various scientific societies. From 2010 to 2022, she led the Laboratory of Dairy Research at AUA, and from 2012 to 2017, she served as the Deputy President of the AUA Council of Administration.