Our warmest congratulations to Dr. Sara Raggi who received the Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) Agrisera Prize 2022. Sara was awarded the prize to acknowledge her significant scientific contributions to plant cell and developmental research, as well as her commitment to creating a positive and collaborative work environment at UPSC. The UPSC Agrisera Prize is awarded every year to a person working at UPSC, and this year's prize was announced on the 7th of December during the virtual UPSC Christmas Celebration.

Sara Raggi started to work as a postdoc in Prof. Stéphanie Robert’s group at UPSC in 2016 after finishing her PhD. She is involved in many scientific projects and is a co-author of several articles. One of her main projects has been to develop an automated method to measure the angle of unbending Arabidopsis seedlings after germination. This method uses machine learning as basis for the image analysis, and was created together with an engineering master student who Sara supervised.

Besides her scientific achievements, Sara Raggi has been actively engaged in improving the work environment at UPSC. She is the postdoc representative, member of the greenhouse introduction team and has helped with outreach events. She has taken over responsibilities in different groups at UPSC, e.g. the gardening group, who set up boxes to grow vegetables in front of UPSC, and the "Greener UPSC" group that aims to promote sustainability at UPSC, and helps organize social events.

Every year, anyone working at UPSC can nominate a colleague for the award, and the prize is a travel voucher, sponsored by Agrisera. Based on the written nominations, the members of the UPSC board voted to select the winner. This year, the UPSC Board received 11 nomination letters for seven candidates. Sara was chosen as the winner based nomination letters emphasizing her teamwork skills, scientific excellence and contribution to making UPSC a great place to work.
 

 Agrisera Prize at Umeå Plant Science Centre 2022

In the image, left to right: Dr. Rikesh Bhalerao (UPSC), Dr. Sara Raggi (UPSC) and Dr. Joanna Porankiewicz-Asplund (Agrisera).
 
"The prize gives us the opportunity to thank our personnel for their work and commitment. It is always very difficult to choose between the candidates, as they all highly deserve this prize," says Rishikesh Bhalerao who announced the winner of the prize this year.

Photo by Prof. Stephanie Robert.

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