Dr. Thomas Edison dela Cruz is a professor of microbiology and group lead of the Fungal Biodiversity, Ecogenomics and Systematics (FBeS) group at the University of Santo Tomas. His research focuses on the biodiscovery of fungi and slime molds (or myxomycetes) in tropical ecosystems and the understanding of their biodiversity, ecological patterns and interactions. He conducts research on fungal natural products for agriculture, health, and environemtal applications and on ethnomycology and microbiology education. He completed his Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. Rer. Nat.) at the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany and his BSc Microbiology and MSc Biological Sciences degrees at the University of Santo Tomas. He holds a Diploma in Science Teaching at UP Open University. He serves as Philippine Representative to the Asian Mycology Committee from 2007 to present and a fellow of the Philippine Academy of Microbiology. He currently serves a member of the Executive Committee of TWAS - TYAN.