Katerina is from Bulgaria, one of the oldest countries in Europe, also known for roses valleys and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus.  

In 2016 Katerina took part in European Student Parliament meeting, “Future of Humanity”. This event strongly triggered her interest in science, and later she volunteered at the Sofia Science Festival for three years.  

Moving to the UK, she studied Biotechnology at The University of Nottingham. As a part of on academic exchange programme, she went on a year abroad at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. This enhanced her interest in plant science and led her to obtain projects in modifying plant systems for therapeutics and targeting plant toxicity challenges of leaf vegetables. In a collaborative project called “Industrial microalgae: Food, Fuel and Medicine. What’s next?”, she presented her team as a Young Scientist Speaker at the International Webinar on Plant Genomics and Plant Science, 2020. 

Through her university time, she has volunteered in positions such as international coordinator, school and course representative, student ambassador, chairman, mentoring, and teaching activities. Since 2019 she has been an affiliate member at the Royal Society of Biology. Early in 2021, she was a committee member of the Student Futures Day career event, which success was presented at the JISC CAN conference at Keel University, UK. In the summer, she worked on The Cascade Grant BioGreen student-led project to test research findings of beer waste use in agriculture as a natural fertiliser. Later the same year, she received the Nottingham Advantage Award.  

Now she is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Castrillo’s lab at the University of Nottingham and Rothamsted Research.