Dr Alejandro Perdomo Lopez

Alejandro is a lecturer in Plant Biology and teaches across a range of modules in biology and biomedical sciences. He has broad experience in organising and delivering teaching and learning activities in biology and bioscience through delivering lectures, practicals and workshops to undergraduate and postgraduate students in research settings. Likewise, he is accredited as an Associate Fellow of the HEA by the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF).

Alejandro's research target is to improve photosynthetic efficiency, edible biomass production and crop resilience to abiotic stresses under the climate change scenario, using biotechnology strategies to understand and manipulate the natural variation of key photosynthetic enzymes and to improve their catalytic properties and regulation.

Alejandro obtained a 1st class (equivalent) BSc in Chemistry from the University of Quindío, Colombia, with a dissertation on the chemistry of plant secondary metabolites. Subsequently, at the university of the Balearic Islands, Spain, he completed his MSc in Plant Biology with a thesis on 'Photosynthetic Regulation in Rice, Wheat and Mazie, and the Biochemistry of Rubisco'. Following on from this, he pursued a Ph.D. in Plant Biology to research plant physiology and environmental adaptation with regard to the biochemistry of photosynthetic enzymes.

Alejandro has worked with numerous research centres globally to improve the understanding of plant biochemical techniques, instruct others, undertake experiments and create networks within the plant science community. For example, his work on photosynthetic phenotyping of transgenic wheat at Rothamsted Research greatly contributed to the knowledge necessary to benefit food security in projected climate scenarios. Due to his innovative research in this area and strong personal motivation, he was invited to develop work at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT, Mexico). This increased his experience of work in field conditions developing skills in management and prioritisation to arrange work packages.

At Lancaster University, Alejandro was a Senior Research Associate working as part of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) establishing contacts and collaborations. Finally, he took the initiative and utilised his contacts to develop a project related to Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency Sustainable Increases in Crop Yield (RIPE project) in the lab of Professor Donald Ort at the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), University of Illinois, USA.

Alejandro’s publication record includes 14 articles and one book chapter. His reputation and in-depth subject knowledge are recognised by the wider community, as he is often requested to peer-review manuscripts and has been invited to join the editorial board of Biology MDPI. He was invited to talk about his research at the EMBO Molecular responses of plants facing climate change workshop (Montpellier, 2022), Plastid Preview (York, 2019) and the 26th Congress of the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society (Sweden, 2015).