Viridiana Silva-Perez

Viridiana Silva-Perez

Viridiana was a Centre Associate investigator and a Molecular Plant Breeding Researcher at Agriculture Victoria.  She is an expert in plant physiology and genetics.

During her PhD in the Centre, Viridiana developed an innovative technique that allows identifying wheat plants with particular photosynthetic properties. It can be used for breeding to improve photosynthetic capacity and efficiency in wheat for increased yield potential. Her aim in this project was to characterise the photosynthetic properties of different wheat varieties, and develop faster screening techniques that measure the spectrum of light reflected from the leaf.

In 2006, Viri completed a BS in Crops Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, México. She then moved to France where she completed her MS in Plant Sciences at the AgroParisTech, (a French university-level institution, also known as a “Grande Ecole”) in 2008 before heading back to Mexico to complete another MS in Plant Genetics at Colegio de Postgraduados in 2011.

She completed her PhD in 2017 at ANU with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis and CSIRO.

 

AWARDS

2012-2015. PhD scholarship from CONACYT and MasAgro-CIMMYT.

2012. Student Poster Prize by Australian Society of Plant Scientist at COMBIO 2012, Adelaide.

2009-2011. Ms scholarship from CONACYT (Institution of Science and Technology in Mexico).

2007-2008. MS scholarship from “Fondation Etchèbes”, France and SEP (Ministry of Public Education in Mexico).

Viridiana was part of the Centre from 2014 to 2020