Young Researcher Award - Prof. Isabel Spencer Martins
Isabel Spencer-Martins was Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal.
Her scientific career started in 1974 when she joined the Microbiology Laboratory at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC; Oeiras, Portugal). Her work on yeast enzymology and physiology resulted in a PhD degree in Biological Engineering in 1983. From 1986 till 1997 she was part of the research staff at IGC. In 1983, she joined the teaching staff of the Biotechnology Unit at FCT where she was appointed full professor 1992. In 1998, she founded the Centre for Microbiological Resources (CREM) at FCT, which she co-coordinated until her death.
Starting in 1993 Isabel setup and co-organized with fellow van Uden PhD students the annual yeast biology meetings (Jornadas de Biologia de Leveduras ‘Professor Nicolau van Uden’), hosted by yeast groups in different parts of the country to bring together Portuguese zymologists. Isabel Spencer-Martins was also the director for the Portuguese Yeast Culture Collection (PYCC).
Isabel Spencer-Martins had a unique approach to yeast research. She used the knowledge and the scientific tools from ecology and evolution and translated them to modern biotechnology, including the molecular tools developed in the last couple of decades. Thus, her group was among the first to clone and functionally express a heterologous sugar transporter in baker’s yeast; a groundbreaking achievement of fundamental importance for future research on the bioconversion of renewable resources. In recognition of her contributions to yeast biology and microbiology, two microbial species have been named after Isabel Spencer-Martins: the ascomycetous yeast Lipomyces spencermartinsiae (van der Walt & M.Th. Smith) van der Walt & M.Th. Smith (van der Walt et al., 1997) and the grampositive bacterium Bacillus isabeliae Albuquerque et al. (2008). In May 2008, Lund University, Sweden, conferred to Isabel Spencer-Martins the title honorary doctor in recognition of her outstanding scientific contributions and her longstanding collaboration with Lund University.