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The Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society (SPPS), announced last week that Olivier Keech, assistant professor at Umeå University and group leader at UPSC, receives the SPPS Early Career Award 2017. This award honours young scientists in Scandinavia who proceed well in their scientific career and contribute significantly and independently to plant biology.

Olivier Keech established his research group in 2014 when he became assistant professor at the Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University. His research focuses on the regulation of metabolism in response to abiotic stresses, notably in response to stress-induced senescence. Olivier Keech wants to understand why and how plants “decide” to sacrifice an organ such as a leaf for the benefit of the rest of the plant. He wants to know how this decision is communicated within the plant body and how the associated metabolic changes, e.g. the recycling and reallocation of valuable nutrients, are regulated.

There were all together four SPPS Award Winners announced by SPPS last week. The SPPS Award goes to Michael Broberg Palmgren from the Department of Plant Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Chuanxin Sun from the Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Uppsala receives the Physiologia Plantarum Award and Kurt Fagerstedt from the Department of Biosciences from the University of Helsinki the SPPS Popularisation Prize. All awards are monetary rewards as well as invitations to the SPPS Congress this summer in Naantali, Finland, where the certificates will be officially presented to the winners.

For more information about the winners and the awards please have a look on the SPPS homepage.

You can find more information about Oliver Keech's research here.

Here you can find a Swedish press release from Umeå University.