Dr. McDougald leads the Microbial Ecology and Evolution group located at The iThree Institute (Infection, Immunology and Innovation), University of Technology Sydney. A/Prof McDougald has made significant contributions to the fields of Vibrio biology, bacterial adaptation to stress and mechanisms of molecular control of these responses, cell-to-cell communication, biofilm formation and interactions of bacteria with higher eukaryotes. Diane McDougald has over 20 years experience investigating mechanisms of survival and persistence of pathogens in the environment. Outcomes of her research were instrumental in establishing the Biofilm Fundamentals Program in the Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre. She led the Marine Health and Biotechnology Program in the Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore (2009 - 2013) and the Bacterial/Eukaryote Interactions Program in the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering at NTU (2013-2021). PhD students she has supervised have gone on to positions in academia and in the water/wastewater industry.