Edward C. Tidswell, BSc, PhD - Dr. Tidswell is Executive Director within the Microbiological Quality and Sterility Assurance organization of Merck & Co., Inc., with ownership over sterility assurance, microbiological quality and compliance issues across all sterile and non-sterile products, specifications, testing and manufacturing. His prior appointments include senior global R&D, and quality leadership roles across diverse drug, device and biologics portfolios for the likes of Baxter Healthcare, Eli Lilly and Evans Vaccines. Dr Tidswell actively publishes and is a leading authority on pharmaceutical microbiology, risk, aseptic and sterile manufacturing (ORCID: 0000-0003-0069-1967). Currently a member of the PDA Journal’s Editorial Board, prior roles in PDA include serving on the SAB, leading the Aseptic Interest Group, and contribution to numerous Technical Reports and Points to Consider documents. Since June 2010 Dr. Tidswell is honored to serve as a volunteer for the USP and is the Chair for the Microbiology Expert Committee.