Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Vladimir V. Lunin

Vladimir V. Lunin, co-first author of Molecular mechanism of polysaccharide acetylation by the Arabidopsis xylan O-acetyltransferase XOAT1

Current Position: Scientist IV, Biosciences Center, National Renewable Energy Lab

Education: PH.D. In Chemistry awarded by the Institute of Crystallography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow Russia in 2000, M.S. In Chemistry awarded by the Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia in 1997

Non-scientific Interests: mountain hiking, music, photography, skiing

Brief bio: From the early years in the University I became interested in crystallography. Protein crystallography quickly became my passion and from the time of my Master’s thesis I was completely dedicated to it. After earning PhD in 2000 I  moved to the Montreal, Canada as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow in the Biotechnology Research Institute. Few years later I moved to Toronto, Canada, to join University Health Network as a scientist. During my years in Canada I contributed to three structural genomics project as well as many other projects. In 2008 I moved to Denver, Colorado to became a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. My job was to establish a protein crystallography facility in the Biosciences Center to boost ongoing biofuels research with better understanding of the structure-function relationship of cellulases and other carbohydrate-active enzymes. Since then I stay in Colorado, fulfilling my lifetime dream of living in the mountains, raising two kids and joining them in their sports activities, be it tennis, dirt biking or ski-cross.