Max Teplitski is a chief science officer at the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), where he leads industry-wide science and technology, supply chain, and sustainability portfolios. Before joining IFPA, Dr. Teplitski was Division Director and National Program Leader at the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, where he oversaw federal research investment in produce safety, microbiology, and nutrition. An author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Teplitski was a professor at the University of Florida, where his research and education program focused on comparative and functional genomics of human pathogens to understand their adaptations to survival in nonhost environments. Dr. Teplitski served as a Fulbright Specialist in Agriculture (Escuela Politecnica del Litoral), U.S. Embassy Science Fellow (U.S. Department of State), and G.E. Burch Fellow in Theoretical Medicine (Smithsonian Institution). He is a courtesy professor at the University of Florida Plant Pathology Department.