MVIF thrives thanks to the dedication of many individuals who contribute their expertise in academia, research, and science communication. Their commitment is essential to advancing our mission. You can learn more about the people involved below.

Organizational Structure

Board of Directors

President: Serena Manara
Vice President & Secretary of the Board: Moreno Zolfo
Treasurer: Nadia Andrea Andreani
Board Member: Edoardo Pasolli
Advisory Founding Members: Levi Waldron, Nicola Segata

Organizing Committees

Atlantic Committee – Leads programming and event coordination for Atlantic-first events.
Pacific Committee – Leads programming and event coordination for Pacific-first events.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors ensures the smooth operation of the MVIF Association and contributes to its scientific direction, in close collaboration with the local committees, who play a key role in shaping the forum’s programming.

Serena Manara - President
MVIF manager and Scientific Advisor, Italy
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Moreno Zolfo - Vicepresident and Board Secretary
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan
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Nadia Andrea Andreani - Treasurer
Assistant Professor, Sapienza University of Rome
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Edoardo Pasolli - Board Member
Associate Professor at the University of Naples Federico II
Department of Agricultural Sciences, Italy

Bio: I am interested in developing and applying large-scale computational tools and machine learning methodologies for analysis of metagenomics data for human and food microbiome studies.
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Levi Waldron - Founder and Advisor
Professor at City University of New York (CUNY)
School of Public Health, USA
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Nicola Segata - Founder and Advisor
Professor at the University of Trento
Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), Italy
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Organizing Committees

The two local Organizing Committees play a central role in shaping MVIF’s scientific program. They design and lead live meetings in their respective time zones, support speakers and session chairs both technically and logistically, and curate themed sessions that reflect their regional interests and expertise.

Atlantic Organizing Committee

In Alphabetical order

Adeshile Oluwatosin Dorcas - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Technical Manager, DevOps Engineer, Microbiome Study Curator, Nigeria
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Alessandro Rossi - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at Humanitas University, Italy
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Anna Cusco - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at Big Data Biology Lab, Fudan University
Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, China

Bio: Anna is a microbiome scientist with over 10 years of experience in the field. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Big Data Biology Lab at Fudan University in China. Her research focuses on long-read DNA sequencing applications, microbiome and microbial genomics data analysis, and the characterization of animal-associated microbiomes, particularly those of pet dogs.

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Antonia Bruno - Atlantic Organizing Committee

Assistant Professor in Microbiology at the Biotechnology and Biosciences
Department of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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BIOME Research Team, BIOME Research Team IG

Christian Hoffmann - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Assistant Professor at University of Sao Paulo
Department of Food Sciences and Experimental Nutrition, Brazil

Christina Pavloudi - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC)

Bio: I am working as a Data Scientist at the EMBRC - European Marine Biological Resource Centre. I hold a PhD in Marine Sciences from Ghent University (Belgium) and University of Bremen (Germany). During my PhD I focused on microbial community functioning of hypoxic ecosystems, such as lagoons and oxygen minimum zones and I was in particular interested in microbes involved in the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and sulfur. Overall, I have vast experience in microbial ecology, metagenomics and eDNA metabarcoding and I have worked with samples from various matrices (e.g., sediments, water, host-associated) and habitats (e.g., lagoons, coastal water, hot springs, steam vents). My research interests include Microbial Ecology, Marine Biology and Ecology, Marine Biodiversity, Functional Diversity and Bioinformatics.

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Felix Salim - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Fellow, EMBL, Germany

Francesco Asnicar - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Tenure-track Researcher at the Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento, Italy
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Kate Rasheed - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Microbiome Study Curator, Nigeria
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Khalid Ibrahim - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Assistant Professor at the University of Zakho,
Faculty of Sciences, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Luigi Borruso - Atlantic Organizing Committee

Assistant Professor at Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Free University of Bozen - Bolzano, Italy
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Maria Carmen Collado - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Adjunct Professor at the University of Turku, Finland
Research Scientist at Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology-Spanish National Research Council (IATA-CSIC), Spain

Marianna Bergamaschi - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Pre-Doc Researcher at Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), Trento, Italy

Muhammad Shahzaib - Atlantic Organizing Committee
SEMM, PhD Student in the CIBIOCM Lab at the University of Trento, Italy
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Mohsen Hegab - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Senior Biomedical & Microbiome Scientist; Experienced Med. Sci. Educator & Member of the IAMSE; Alumnus, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany
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Roberta Raffaetà - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Associate Professor of Socio-Cutural Anthropology, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
PI of the ERC Starting grant HealthXCross

Svetlana Ugarčina Perović - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Trento, Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), Italy

Bio: Svetlana is a microbiome scientist who supports open science and open source microbiome initiatives. Her MVIF efforts are dedicated to better global communications and interactions.

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Tommi Vatanen - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Senior Research fellow, Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand
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Victoria Poromon - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Microbiome Study Curator, Nigeria
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Pacific Organizing Committee

In Alphabetical order

Andrea Silverj - Pacific Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Calgary, Canada
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Balqis Arche Nofinska - Pacific Organizing Committee
PHD student at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

Hein Tun - Pacific Organizing Committee
Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Hong Kong SA
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Jose Caparros Martin - Pacific Organizing Committee
Research Fellow, Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre
The Kids Research Institute, Australia
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Kate Lagerstrom - Pacific Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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Lisa Karstens - Pacific Organizing Committee
Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University
Departments of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, USA
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M Nithya Kruthi - Pacific Organizing Committee
PhD Candidate at Centre for Microbiome Research, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
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Pamela Ferretti - Pacific Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Chicago, USA
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Samuel Aroney - Pacific Organizing Committee
Centre for Microbiome Research, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
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Serena Fraraccio - Pacific Organizing Committee
Scientist & Microbiology Lab Manager at Oath Inc., USA
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Sayaka Mizutani - Pacific Organizing Committee
JSPS Research Fellow at The Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

Takuji Yamada - Pacific Organizing Committee
Associate Professor at The Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

Tenghao Zheng - Pacific Organizing Committee
Clinical Data Analyst, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Australia
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Yiting Liu - Pacific Organizing Committee
PhD candidate at The Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

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