Dr Barbara Drigo
Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer
“We can mitigate AMR outbreaks, and we will.”
About
Dr Barbara Drigo is a tenured Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of South Australia, and an editorial board member for several respected academic journals. Passionate about applied research that fundamentally shapes and advances microbiological practices, her research contributions have had a significant global impact.
Barbara has long been committed to combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR), having first become concerned by its widespread emergence while completing her Masters Degree in 2000.
Despite leading a diverse range of projects spanning climate change and environmental risk management and remediation, the call of AMR research never ceded. In 2016, Barbara restarted her AMR journey, when she applied for a microbial ecology position at the University of South Australia’s (UniSA) Future Industries Institute – advertised by our Research Director Erica Donner.
Barbara now leads the molecular microbial component of several projects with $5.2 million total funding and was recently named a 2024 Women in Innovation SA finalist in the science category.
She’s dedicated to combating AMR on a global scale, having worked with the World Health Organisation, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to enhancing laboratory capacity in low and middle-income countries. A review she co-authored on plant–soil feedbacks in natural and agricultural ecosystems in Trends in Ecology & Evolution is one of the top 10 most cited articles in its field.
Barbara’s other notable positions include: Chair of the Joint Academic Microbiology Seminar Adelaide branch; Chair of 500womenscientists Australia and New Zealand; UniSA representative at the Institutional Biosafety Committee & Office of the Gene Technology Regulator; member of Wiley’s Editorial Board for the Journal of Applied Microbiology; member for MDPI’s Editorial Board for Microorganisms; Review Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology; and Senior Researcher and Ambassador for eXXpedition.
