Cintia Marchetti: I am grateful for the years spent in Czechia

Cintia Marchetti came to Olomouc nine years ago for a month-long stay as part of an international cooperation between Argentina and the Czech Republic. The following year she started her doctoral studies here, which she has successfully completed. As a member of CATRIN’s Plant Genetics and Engineering research group, she focuses on hormonal regulation of plant growth, especially under water stress conditions.

“When I was finishing my Master’s degree in Argentina, I was thinking of going abroad to get my PhD. I wanted to experience how science is done outside my country and grow as a researcher. I chose Olomouc as a destination after visiting as an exchange student because there were great experts on the topic of plant hormones in cereals, which was the topic that interested me the most,” said Marchetti, explaining her motivation for working in Olomouc.

She considers plants to be amazing organisms because they cannot run away from challenging conditions and have therefore developed the ability to tolerate them instead. “What allows them to survive is an astonishing set of metabolic and hormonal changes. Understanding the mechanisms governing these changes will be crucial for humanity because we must confront climate change and the risk of water scarcity in major agricultural regions,” she warned. She hopes that her work will contribute to the development of more sustainable and efficient agriculture. “At the moment, I am very happy with the research we are doing in our groups and I hope that we will soon produce interesting results that will bring us closer to our goal,” she said.

In addition to plant research, which she enjoys very much, she appreciates the international environment at CATRIN. “I am very happy to have a number of international scientists working in our research centre,” she added.