Dr Arie Havelaar is a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida, specialising in microbial risk assessment and epidemiology of food-borne diseases. He is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems and the Emerging Pathogens Institute. His research covers the broad field of public health aspects of pathogens in food and the environment, and the effectiveness of preventive measures. Currently, his attention is mainly focused on development and application of microbiological risk assessment and the burden of food-borne illness. He is co-author of more than 100 scientific publications, several books and numerous scientific reports. Also a director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Risk Assessment of Pathogens in Food and Water, Havelaar was in New Zealand to speak the inaugural meeting of the new Food Safety Science and Research Centre (NZFSSRC), a national virtual centre of science hosted by Massey University and established after the false botulism scare of 2013, and also the NZ Institute of Food Science and Technology conference, both of which were held in Nelson this week.