Mark Tester is professor of plant science at KAUST, Director of the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Food Security and co-Founder of RedSea LLC (now Iyris). In 2019, he was Head of the Food Sector at NEOM. Prior to joining KAUST in February 2013, he was an ARC Federation Fellow and professor of plant physiology at the University of Adelaide, where he established The Plant Accelerator.

Previously, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where he also received his PhD in 1988. Mark is now focused on using plant science with other technologies to increase sustainability of food production.