Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Konstantinos Vavitsas

Konstantinos Vavitsas, first author of The synthetic biology toolkit for photosynthetic microorganisms

Current Position: Senior Research Associate, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Education: PhD in Biotechnology, University of Copenhagen (2017), MSc in Applied Biotechnology, Uppsala University (2014), BSc in Biology, National and Kapodistrial University of Athens (2011)

Non-scientific Interests: Reading (a lot), dancing (tango), classical music

Brief bio: I started my scientific journey in my hometown, Athens, where I studied Biology. My next stop was Uppsala, Sweden, where I studied Applied Biotechnology, an MSc program with both business and biotech focus. During my degree project, Associate Professor Karin Stensjö introduced me to cyanobacterial physiology. I moved to Denmark to do my PhD at the University of Copenhagen, under the supervision of Professor Poul Erik Jensen. My research was on heterologous terpenoid production on several photosynthetic hosts, including my beloved cyanobacteria. I obtained a postdoctoral fellowship which took me to the University of Queensland, in Australia, to work on synthetic biology tools development in (of course) cyanobacteria.

 

I returned to my alma mater as a Senior Research Associate, working on Biotechnological Applications of photosynthetic microbes. I am Community Editor for PLOS synbio, steering committee member of EUSynBioS, and an active member of the synthetic biology community.