Video Transcript Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso

Video transcript for ‘Researcher Spotlight: Professor Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso’ embedded on the Faculty of Biological Sciences news pages.

(The screen shows Yoselin sitting in a chair against a plain background, and the video starts with her closing a film clapperboard and handing it to someone off screen.Yoselin talks to camera throughout.)

My name is Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso and I am Professor in Interdisciplinary Plant Sciences at the School of Biology here at the University of Leeds. 

I work in plant science. Specifically, I look at how cells communicate in plants and how that communication determines how plants grow, how they develop, how much fruits they produce. 

You can imagine that this is really important in terms of climate change. So how plants respond to drought, stress or temperature but also in terms of food security and how much crops we actually get from plants. 

I come from a family that is dedicated to biomedical sciences. They are doing science, but are mainly dedicated to human science. But while I did my degree, I was interested in plant sciences and specifically in biochemistry, molecular biology of plants. 

Something about my research that surprises people? Normally people know about cell walls and how cell walls divide cells. But these small channels embedded in the wall are able to transport communication very easily between cells. They are named plasmodesmata. And that kind of enthuses people because they are not accustomed to actually learn about plasmodesmata. 

Beyond academia my research is taking me in many different areas. One of them is outreach, diversity and inclusion through my initiative in the Black in Plant Science Network where we connect, cultivate and celebrate the next generation of black plant scientists. 

We are also expanding into commercial approaches and we interact with industry. For example, to exploit the knowledge that we gather on cell walls into new biomaterial development and into new diagnostic for these biomaterials and the degradation in the environment. 

I have a daughter. So I am a mum, and the change that with my research I want to see in the future is a change for her, a change for her living in this planet. So all the work that we do towards making plants more resilient to climate change, making better food for us is also thinking about that, about the next generation. 

In academia I want to see a change in which we see a more inclusive and diverse environment through activities such as the Black in Plant Science, but other activities that really champion the diversity that we have today into finding innovative solutions for global challenges.