Prof. C.S. (Christa) Testerink is the new chair holder in the department of Plant Physiology in the Wageningen Plant Sciences Group. As Professor of Cell Biology of Plants at the University of Amsterdam, she focused on abiotic stress signals, root growth and salt tolerance in plants, mainly at the molecular level.
Christa Testerink studied Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the VU University Amsterdam, and was awarded a PhD by Leiden University in 2001. She then worked as a postdoc researcher, assistant professor, and associate professor with a Veni, Vidi and Aspasia grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research at the University of Amsterdam, before being appointed full professor last year. In 2016, she acquired a prestigious ERC Consolidator grant worth € 2 million for research into how plants perceive salt (sodium).
Her research often features in popular-scientific media, such as the Dutch National Science Quiz or more recently, the KIJK magazine. She is a fan of social media, including Twitter, as a means of sharing science with a wider audience.
