This is the third episode of our Plant Science Series and in this episode we are talking to Dr. Elena Hilario. Elena Hilario was born in Mexico City where she studied Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and later a masters in Biochemistry at the same university. Five years later, The University of Connecticut awarded her a PhD in Molecular and Cell biology under the guidance of Dr. Peter Gogarten where she studied how the vacuolar ATPase of the protist Giardia lamblia is a good model for the study of the evolution of early eukaryotes. A postdoc on the effect of horizontal gene transfer on the evolution of Pseudomonas species brought her to New Zealand in 1998 working at Landcare Research, followed by a permanent position as scientist at Plant and Food Research working on physical mapping and genome sequencing of several plants and lately fish and insects. In this episode we’re talking with Elena about her research, challenges, her experience of training others and more. Links: Genomics Aotearoa - https://www.genomics-aotearoa.org.nz/projects/high-quality-genomes Plant and Food Research - https://www.plantandfood.co.nz/ Dr. Elena Hilario’s protocols - https://www.protocols.io/researchers/elena-hilario/protocols