Prof. Dr. Ines Mandić-Mulec received her PhD in microbiology in 1993 at New York University, NY (USA) and completed her postdoctoral training in the USA (at the Public Health Research Institute and Skirball Institute,New York, USA). She returned to the University of Ljubljana in 1999 and was elected a full professor in 2010. 

Ines Mandic Mulec is professor of Microbiology and Vice-dean of the Department of Microbiology at the Biotechnical Faculty (BF), University of Ljubljana. She holds the Chair of Microbial ecology and physiology, which unites faculty members, postdocs, Ph.D. students, laboratory technicians that carry out various research projects addressing the dynamics, mechanisms, and evolution of intra and interspecies microbial interactions and contribute time to teaching variety of microbiology courses and supervision of student’s thesis projects.

The main research interest of Mandic-Mulec lab is deciphering molecular mechanisms and consequences and evolution of bacterial group behaviours such as cell-cell signalling (quorum sensing), kin discrimination, and horizontal gene transfer in genetically heterogeneous groups such as biofilms or swarms. Recent work also addresses Bacillus – pathogen (Salmonella, Campylobacter) interactions. Combining her interest in microbial ecology and molecular genetics of Bacillus subtilis, she aims to understand and develop ecologically friendly plant growth-promoting bacteria and/or novel probiotics. She has published over 90 research works and has been invited to speak at prestigious universities and international conferences.