Vice Rector for Research, University of Costa Rica

Dr. María Laura Arias Echandi obtained her bachelor’s degree in microbiology and clinical chemistry at University of Costa Rica (UCR) and then graduated with a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She has an extensive career as a microbiologist, which she backs up with more than 100 scientific publications in national and international journals. Her scientific work has focused on the behavior of bacteria in food and food safety. Her 30 years of academic experience at the UCR have led her to become a professor and director of the Food Microbiology Laboratory and the Water Microbiology Laboratory at the School of Microbiology of the UCR. From 2021 to date, she has been Vice-President for Research at the same University.