Eva-Mari Aro (born 1950) is a Finnish

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and professor of

plant molecular biology The ''Plant Molecular Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of plant molecular biology. It was established in 1981 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media. The editor-in-chief is Motoaki Seki. According t ...

at the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Her research has focused on the function, regulation, damage, repair, and evolution of the machinery of

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

, with applications in

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

. She was elected to the

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Fi ...

in 2001 and was elected a foreign associate of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2018.

Education

Aro received a master's degree from the University of Turku in 1975. She received her doctorate in 1982 after successfully defending her dissertation on "the relationship between the structure and function of plant

and the

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

of photosynthesis to natural environmental conditions."

Career and research

In 1987, Aro was appointed Assistant Professor of

Plant Physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bi ...

in the department of Biology at the University of Turku. She became

Full Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Plant Molecular Biology in the Department of Biochemistry in 1998. Aro served as an Academy Professor at the

Academy of Finland The Academy of Finland ( fi, Suomen Akatemia, sv, Finlands Akademi) is a governmental funding body for scientific research in Finland. It is based in Helsinki. Yearly, the Academy administers over 260 million euros to Finnish research activities. O ...

(1998–2008). She was elected chairman of the International Society for Photosynthesis Research in 2004 and appointed vice-president of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) for the period 2017–2019. Aro also served on the Editorial Board of

Journal of the Royal Society Interface The ''Journal of the Royal Society Interface'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the interface between the life sciences and the physical sciences, including chemistry, engineering, materials science, mathematics, and physi ...

(2012–2015). Aro directed the Academy of Finland's Center of Excellence in Integrated Photosynthesis and Metabolism Research for the period 2008–2013. In 2014, she became director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology of Primary Producers, which was selected by the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

(ARC) to partner with other Plant Energy Biology research centers for the period 2014–2019. Her contributions to the project include the elucidation of photodamage and

photoinhibition Photoinhibition is light-induced reduction in the photosynthetic capacity of a plant, alga, or cyanobacterium. Photosystem II (PSII) is more sensitive to light than the rest of the photosynthetic machinery, and most researchers define the term as ...

mechanisms. In 2017, Aro became a leader of NordAqua, a Nordic Centre of Excellence funded by NordForsk to develop

bioeconomy Biobased economy, bioeconomy or biotechonomy is economic activity involving the use of biotechnology and biomass in the production of goods, services, or energy. The terms are widely used by regional development agencies, national and international ...

knowledge and technologies for the period 2017–2022. Aro's research interests lie primarily in the regulation of

, the process by which primary producers such as plants convert an abiotic energy source such as light into organic compounds. Her lab studies the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

thylakoid Thylakoids are membrane-bound compartments inside chloroplasts and cyanobacteria. They are the site of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. Thylakoids consist of a thylakoid membrane surrounding a thylakoid lumen. Chloroplast thyl ...

light harvesting by

photosystem Photosystems are functional and structural units of protein complexes involved in photosynthesis. Together they carry out the primary photochemistry of photosynthesis: the absorption of light and the transfer of energy and electrons. Photosystems ...

membrane complexes in model organisms such as

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

, '' Chlamydomonas reinhardtii'',

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...

s, ''

Physcomitrella patens ''Physcomitrium patens'', (synonym: ''Physcomitrella patens'' ) the spreading earthmoss, is a moss (bryophyte) used as a model organism for studies on plant evolution, development, and physiology. Distribution and ecology ''Physcomitrella pat ...

'',

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s, ''

Arabidopsis thaliana ''Arabidopsis thaliana'', the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa. ''A. thaliana'' is considered a weed; it is found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land. A winter a ...

'', and

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

. Her applied research interests lie in

. The Aro lab utilizes synthetic biology principles to design and engineer systems for the production of

biofuels Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...

Awards and honors

Aro has received several awards for her individual research contributions as well as her international collaborations: * Member,

(2001) * Honorary Doctor,

Umeå University Umeå University ( sv, Umeå universitet; Ume Sami: ) is a public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders. As of 2015 ...

(2012) * Professor of the Year, University of Turku (2013) * Academician, awarded by the

President of Finland The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...

(2017) * Academy Award, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2018) * Foreign Associate,

(2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aro, Eva-Mari Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Finnish scientists Finnish biologists Finnish women scientists Members of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American women scientists 1950 births