Associate Professor İpek Kurtböke has been working in the field of Biodiscovery over the last 42 years involving academia, industry, and government sectors. Since 2001 she has been teaching at the University of the Sunshine Coast where she developed undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programs/majors/minors in the field of applied microbiology and biotechnology, as well as conducting research in the fields of environmental, biomedical, agricultural, marine and food microbiology. She is currently a Senior Fellow (SFHEA), UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education. She specializes in microbiology discipline-based teaching with regionally engaged focus.