David Clarke graduated with a B.Sc in Biotechnology from Dublin City University in 1989. From here he went to the National University of Ireland in Maynooth to undertake a PhD in Microbiology, graduating in 1993. He then traveled to France where he was awarded an International Traveling Prize Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust to undertake post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Barry Holland who was based at the Institut de Genetique et Microbiologie, Universite Paris-Sud. In September 1998 David briefly returned to the Department of Biology at NUI Maynooth before joining the faculty of the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, UK as a Lecturer in January 2000. He returned to Ireland in February 2007 and he is a Professor in the School of Microbiology at UCC. Prof Clarke is currently Head of the School of Microbiology, Director of the BSc Biotechnology programme and he is a Funded Investigator in APC Microbiome Ireland (http://apc.ucc.ie).