Biography

Maria Carlota Vaz Patto graduated in 1994 in Agronomic Engineering at ISA-UTL, Lisboa. During 1994-1995 she attended a postgraduate course on Plant Breeding at IAMZ, Zaragoza, Spain. She obtained her MSc degree in 1997, conferred by the CIHEAM, on Vicia faba molecular breeding research developed at CIFA, Córdoba, Spain. For her PhD thesis she studied quantitative disease resistance on Hordeum chilense, graduating in 2001 at the Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

From 2001 till 2004, she was a postdoctoral researcher on maize quantitative resistance to abiotic stresses at Bologna University, Italy, jointly with the BCV lab at ITQB, Portugal. Later and till 2007, she worked on legume quantitative disease resistance as postdoctoral researcher at IAS-CSIC, Spain, jointly with BCV-ITQB. Between 2007 and 2009, she was a postdoctoral researcher on maize and Lathyrus quantitative genetics at BCV-ITQB. Since 2009, she has been working on Plant Quantitative Genetics at ITQB NOVA first as Auxiliary Researcher, latter as Invited Researcher and finally from March 2015 as Principal Investigator.

She is presently the Head of the Genetics and Genomics of Plant Complex Traits Lab (PlantX Lab), Head of the ITQB NOVA Plant Sciences Division and Member of the ITQB NOVA Scientific Comittee. In 2023, she was appointed ITQB NOVA Plant Biology PhD Program DIRECTOR. She coordinates several Curricular Units within ITQB NOVA PhD and MSc programs.

She is an Integrated Member of GREEN-IT: Bioresources for Sustainability Portuguese RESEARCH UNIT, and PI of its Germplasm Diversity, Conservation and Breeding scientific group.
She is also a Member of the Portuguese ASSOCIATED LABORATORY Life Sciences for a Healthy and Sustainable Future (LS4FUTURE).

Her MAIN TOPIC OF RESEARCH is quantitative genetics applied to plant breeding, namely on the identification of genes controlling complex interesting agronomic traits (quantitative trait loci-QTLs), as end-users quality or other yield parameters such as resistance to biotic or abiotic stresses, in legumes (such as common bean, Lathyrus and Vicia sp.), but also in cereals (maize) of Mediterranean and national interest. She is also concerned with the study of the genetic diversity found on these crop species and its wild relatives and the comparative mapping of traits among them.
The application of molecular biology tools to plant breeding is a goal of her research.

She has been SUPERVISING TEN PostDoc RESEARCHERS, 14 PhD STUDENTS (12 of them as Main supervisor), seven master students and 27 Research Initiation Fellows.

She contributed to 95 ISI PAPERS, 13 BOOK CHAPTERS and more than 225 CONGRESS PRESENTATIONS and has been member of the Managing Committee of 5 COST Actions (849, 860, FA1208, FA1405, CA22146).

She is VICE-PRESIDENT of the International Legume Society (ILS) since 2019 and MEMBER OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE of the International Legume Society (ILS) since 2012.

Additionally she served as Member of the Scientific Committee of:
-Fourth International Legume Society Conference ILS4 (September 2023, Granada, Spain)
-XVIII Eucarpia Biometrics in Plant Breeding meeting (September 2022, Paris, France)
-Intercropping for Sustainability Conference 2021 (on line)
-XVI Congresso Luso-Espanhol de Fisiologia Vegetal (June 2019, Pamplona, Spain)
-Third International legume Society Conference ILS3 (May 2019, Poznan, Poland)
-XVII Eucarpia Biometrics in Plant Breeding meeting (September 2018, Ghent, Belgium)
-7th International Food Legumes Research Conference (May 2018, Marrakech, Morocco)
-Final joint LEGATO-EUROLEGUMES International Conference. Advances in Grain Legume Cultivation and Use (September 2017, Novi Sad, Serbia)
-Eucarpia Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses and Protein Crops Joint Sections International Meeting (September 2017, Vilnius, Lithuania)
-XVI Eucarpia Biometrics in Plant Breeding meeting (September 2015, Wageningen, the Netherlands)
-Eucarpia International Symposium in Protein Crops (May 2015, Ponte Vedra, Spain)
-6th International Food Legumes Research Conference (July 2014, Saskatoon, Canada)
-First Legume Society Conference (May 2013, Novi Sad, Serbia)
-XV Eucarpia Biometrics in Plant Breeding meeting (September 2012, Hohenheim, Germany)
-5th International Food Legumes Research Conference and the 7th European Conference on Grain Legumes (April 2010, Antalya, Turkey)
She was the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee of the 6th European Congress on Grain Legumes (November 2007, Lisbon Congress Centre, Portugal) and member of the Local Organizing Committee of the Second Legume Society Conference (October 2016, Troia, Portugal).

She is presently the EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of the Legume Perspectives Magazine.
(https://www.legumesociety.org/2019/12/02/legume-perspectives/)

In September 2023 she was awarded Honorary Member by the International Legume Society for her contribution to the Legume Research Community.