Dr. Top is Professor Emerita at the University of Idaho, USA. She received her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Ghent University, Belgium. Since the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance to human pathogens threatens our fight against infectious diseases, novel therapies are needed that limit this spread. However, the factors that determine the successful transfer and persistence of multidrug resistance plasmids remain poorly understood. Therefore, her main research focuses on the evolutionary mechanisms and dynamics of plasmid-bacteria co-evolution and on identifying the reservoirs of these plasmids in various environmental habitats. Dr. Top is the Secretary for the International Society for Plasmid Biology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and of the American Academy of Microbiology.