Patricia C. Fernandez

I was born in 1972 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1991, I began my Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. After obtaining my Ph.D. in the ecology and behavior of Apis mellifera, I spent 3 years in Germany and 2 in the United States, where I learned techniques of chemical ecology such as the analysis of volatile organic compounds and electrophysiological techniques. In 2009, I was repatriated, set up a chemical ecology laboratory, and dedicated myself to research and teaching at the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Buenos Aires and CONICET, an activity I continue to pursue to this day.
While pursuing my postgraduate studies, I had two children. My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interaction between plants and insects and their relationship with the environment. I am particularly interested in understanding the chemical basis that shapes and influences different types of interactions and can determine the community structure. For almost 15 years, I have worked with various biological systems in laboratory approaches and field experiments. I have studied the ecology of different insects, including bees, ants, wasps, flies, beetles, and butterflies, in both forest and herbaceous systems. In recent years, I have started to investigate how the presence of symbiotic fungi affects plant chemistry and, in turn, its relationship with insects.