Mark Morrison’s scientific expertise resides in the fields of microbial physiology, genetics, and genomics, with a career-long focus on the gastrointestinal microbiota of humans, ruminants, and other herbivores. He is committed to the translation of microbial genomic and metagenomic datasets into a sound biological framework, producing novel diagnostic, organismal, and enzyme-based technologies. During his academic tenure in the USA, he led the team that produced the first genome sequences for ruminal isolates of Ruminococcus and Prevotella spp.; these taxa are now widely acknowledged to also play a key role in establishing human gut “enterotypes”. He returned to Australia in 2006 as a CSIRO Science Leader and was also one of CSIRO’s five Capability Platform leaders (in Transformational Biology). During that time his research with CSIRO scientists, French and Australian clinicians produced a series of well-cited papers foundational to establishing the concept of gut microbial “dysbiosis” in Crohn’s disease. His team also produced a world-first: using DNA sequence data to direct the isolation of a “new” bacterium from a species-rich microbial community. He has been Professor and Chair of Microbial Biology and Metagenomics at the University of Queensland Frazer (nee Diamantina) Institute since 2013, and science lead for gastrointestinal function with the Princess Alexandra Hospital Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Morrison was elected Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022 and remains as Australia’s representative (as a founding member) of the International Human Microbiome Consortium, in addition to his roles with other advisory and review groups for international research institutes, industry, and grant agencies.