Valeria Scala is Senior Scientist of Plant Pathology, at CREA - Council for Agricultural Research and Economics –Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification (CREA-DC) of Rome; Member of Member of the Italian National Institute of Reference for Plant Protection (INRPP), National Reference Laboratory (NRL) and the European Union Reference Laboratories (EURL)in bacteriology. She has authored 59 peer-reviewed articles (~1018 citations; h-index 21, Scopus, as of 22 September 2025), 4 book chapters. She has participated as WP leader or scientific partner for over 60 national and international research projects. Her areas of expertise include diagnosis in Bacteriology, development and validation of diagnostic tests, plant defense, plant-pathogen interaction, evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of microorganisms, natural substances, lipidomics.