Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Charlotte Volpe

Charlotte Volpe, co-first author of Loss of ALBINO3b insertase results in a truncated light-harvesting antenna in diatoms

Current Position: PhD candidate at the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science – Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) – Trondheim, Norway

Education: PhD program at NTNU, Norway (2016-present);
MSc summa cum laudae in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (2013-2015), Italy;
BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (2010-2013), Italy

Non-scientific Interests: Traveling, SCUBA diving, environmental policy and sustainable development

Brief bio: Half Italian and half Norwegian I was born and raised in Rome, Italy where I got my BSc and MSc. During my masters I won an Erasmus plus traineeship European scholarship that gave me opportunity to do a six-month research internship at NTNU. In 2016 I started my 4-year PhD program at NTNU that included teaching duties alongside research.

Fascinated by the underwater light climate and aquatic photosynthesis – my PhD research has been focusing on the regulation and assembly of light harvesting complexes in marine diatoms and their ability to promptly adapt to the surrounding light climate. Supported by a research grant during my PhD I worked as a Visiting Researcher Scholar at UC Berkeley in the group of Prof. Anastasios Melis (Autumn 2016 – Summer 2017). The research done at UC Berkeley contributed greatly to this very paper. In 2018 I won a mobility grant that gave me the opportunity to support a 3-months stay in the research group of Prof. Claudia Büchel at the Goethe University of Frankfurt (Oct 2018 – Dec 2018). I am currently working on the papers required for finishing my PhD and I plan to have my dissertation in 2020.