I am very honoured to be elected as an EMBO member. Many thanks are owed to my lab members who have driven the science forward contributing greatly to this success. I have always been very lucky to be surrounded by amazing colleagues, who have shaped my research in innumerable ways. Thanks to all these people, I have great fun doing interesting science. I am looking forward to contributing to the European scientific community.
Professor Snezhana Oliferenko
19 July 2024
Professor Snezhana Oliferenko elected to EMBO Membership
In EMBO’s 60th anniversary year, 100 new Members and 20 Associate Members join the EMBO community
Professor Snezhana (Snezhka) Oliferenko has been elected to EMBO membership, joining 120 scientists from across Europe and beyond, who have been elected to the EMBO Membership, an honour that celebrates research excellence and outstanding achievements in life sciences.
A Professor of Evolutionary Cell Biology, Snezhka studied biochemistry and virology at Lomonosov Moscow State University before joining Lukas Huber’s lab at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria, for her PhD studies. She then moved to Singapore for her postdoctoral training with Mohan Balasubramanian. In 2002, Snezhka established her research laboratory at the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory in Singapore. At the end of 2013, she moved her lab to the Randall Centre for Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King’s College London, UK.
Since August 2016, Professor Oliferenko has been on secondment and now satellite attachment to the Francis Crick Institute in London. Snezhka’s lab uses two related fission yeast species with different physiology as a discovery tool to investigate how cells organize and remodel their interior during growth and division and how cell biological processes evolve.
The new EMBO Members and Associate Members have been recognized for accomplishments that cover the spectrum of life science research, including work that has advanced understanding of how infectious disease spreads, the intricacies of ocean nutrient cycles, the mysteries of cellular signalling networks, the secrets of how plants survive in desert environments, and the links between the biology of our brains and our emotions.
The first EMBO Members were elected in 1964 – that initial group of 169 life scientists has now grown into a community of more than 2,100 EMBO Members and Associate Members. 92 Nobel laureates are amongst those who have previously been elected to the EMBO Membership.
EMBO Members guide the execution of the EMBO Programmes and activities, for example by evaluating funding applications, serving on EMBO Council and committees, and contributing to initiatives such as training, policy, outreach and mentorship. New members are nominated and elected by the existing EMBO Membership.
The new EMBO Members and Associate Members have made immense contributions to fundamental life science research, and, in many cases, their work has paved the way for innovations that have improved lives and livelihoods around the world. As EMBO marks its 60th anniversary, we celebrate the pivotal roles played by the EMBO Membership in strengthening international life science research and contributing to the EMBO Programmes and activities. I send my warmest congratulations to all those elected.
Fiona Watt, EMBO Director
EMBO will formally welcome the new members at a meeting of the EMBO community between 29 October and 1 November 2024 in Heidelberg, Germany. An online directory listing all EMBO Members and Associate Members, their affiliations, and subject areas is available here.
In this story
Professor of Evolutionary Cell Biology