Paula
Silva

Biography

Paula Silva holds a PhD in Genetics from Kansas State University (2021), an MSc in Agricultural Sciences from the Faculty of Agronomy (2014), and a Bachelor's in Biological Sciences from the Faculty of Sciences at UDELAR in Uruguay (2011). She has completed short research stays in various institutions in Mexico, China, and Australia throughout her career. Her research focuses on the genetics and genomics of wheat, with a special emphasis on breeding for disease and pest resistance. Currently, she is exploring the genetic basis of physiological traits in wheat. As an associate researcher in the agricultural-livestock system at INIA Uruguay, she leads the cereal rust pathology group, the disease resistance program for wheat and barley, and the precision phenotyping platform for multiple wheat diseases in collaboration with CIMMYT. With 16 scientific publications in Q1 journals in genetics and genomics, she has accumulated over 600 citations since 2017. Additionally, she has presented at numerous international conferences and contributed to both academic and outreach publications. Paula is actively involved in teaching as a guest lecturer in courses on genetics, breeding, and pathology. She is a member of Uruguay's National Researchers System at the initiation level, is part of UDELAR's Graduate School, and is committed to training new professionals and researchers at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Since 2024, she has served as an editor for Theoretical and Applied Genetics and collaborates as a reviewer for several renowned journals specializing in genetics and genomics.

Projects