I studied molecular plant biology at the University of Turku (Finland), and there I also started my research career. During my master’s thesis and PhD research I tried to understand the mechanism by which light irreversible damages photosystem II. For that I needed to quantify production of reactive oxygen species, especially of singlet oxygen. I was then and I am still interested in developing better methods to measure these compounds. In addition to photoinhibition, I measured the redox state of the plastoquinone pool, to understand it´s regulation under different light conditions. I mostly worked with plants, but also with algae and cyanobacteria. After completing the PhD, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher in Turku. I worked with senescing trees and wanted to understand why autumn colors exist and how photosynthesis functions in a senescing leaf. Now it is time to broaden my horizon; in the Marine Photophysiology & Phycotechnology lab I am going to work with two projects. The first one focuses on photoinhibition and photoprotection in senescing leaves and the second one in the same topics in macroalgae.

Keywords: Photosynthesis, photoinhibition, tree senescence, chlorophyll fluorescence, photoprotection.