Description of research and teaching

WARNING!

Please be aware that information in this database is only for my time as employee of the University of Helsinki. Also be aware that the network of collaborators includes only other researchers in this same database and so is missing all national and international collaborators outside the university. To see my full list of publications please use ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3385-972X and ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pedro_Aphalo

Please see our lab's website at http://blogs.helsinki.fi/senpep-blog/ for further information on our research, and my personal blog and pages at http://blogs.helsinki.fi/aphalo/ for information on teaching. For details on software I have developed for photobiological calculations see http://www.r4photobiology.info/.

In addition be aware that the dates of affiliation are wrong: I have held my current position as University lecturer in Plant Physiological Ecology since 2006-03-01 without interruption.

Curriculum vitae

I studied agricultural engineering, with specialization in crop breeding, at the Faculty of Agronoy of the University of Buenos Aires. At this time I started doing research and never stopped. My M.Sc. in plant production was also from this faculty. In Buenos Aires I was at the IFEVA in Prof. Rodolfo A. Sánchez's group. I went to the University of Edinburgh for my PhD studies, in Prof. Paul Jarvis' group. Then I moved to Finland, initially to Suonenjoki, to METLA's research station headed by Dr. Heikki Smolander.  Later I worked at the universities of Joensuu and Jyväskylä before moving to Helsinki. Early in my career I worked on whole-plant physiology with both ornamentals and wild native plants, later I shifted the focus to trees and to more ecologically and environmentally oriented questions. More recently we have started using molecular biology tools to study ecophysiological problems. In addition to the research described in these pages, I have taken part in research on other subjects: mineral nutrition (mainly the micronutrient boron and the role of mycorrhizas in its uptake); effects of low soil temperatures on tree growth and gas exchange; and physiology of stomata and the control of transpiration. We still have active research on this Iast subject and on the use by plants of visible and ultraviolet radiation environmental cues and signals as sources of information for anticipated acclimation. We have done both real world experiments and developed simulation models. Our recent work with highest impact has been related to the study of sunlight perception and signalling using state-of-the-art molecular methods such as RNAseq in plants grown or exposed outdoors. The research group I lead is called SenPEP. SenPEP stands for Sensory Photobiology and Ecophysiology of Plants. Please see our web site at http://blogs.helsinki.fi/senpep-blog/ for more information. I am also the communications officer of the UV4Plants scientific association (http://www.uv4plants.org/), and the editor-in-chief of the UV4Plants Bulletin.

I have held university lecturer positions both in Statistics and Environmental Metrics (University of Jyväskylä) and Plant Physiological Ecology (University of Helsinki). I also hold a docentship in Physiological Plant Ecology (University of Eastern Finland). I currently organize and teach four courses at MSc level: Sensory and physiological ecology of plants, Ecosystem ecology, Design and planning of biological experiments, and Using R for reproducible data analysis. I also regularly teach and contribute to the organization of PhD level courses in Plant Photobiology. I have organized and/or taught at European training schools on photobiology methods as well as similar events for research organizations. I have been the coordinator of the work group on UV-research methods and technology of the UV4Growth COST Action, which lead to the publication of a Handbook of Methods. I am currently the editor-in-chief of the UV4Plants Bulletin and the Communications officer for the U4Plants Association. I am the scientific coordinator of RCAFi the network of Argentinian researchers in Finland.