Education / Experience

Since Septembre 2017
Assistant Professor in Cell biology at Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale (IRBV), Université de Montréal.

2013 – 2017
Senior postdoc in Dr Richard Smith Lab, Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany. Funded by HFSP Research Grant, BMBF Grant and Max Planck Fellowship.
Project synopsis:
– Mechanical modelling.
– Mechanical measurements of cells and tissues.
– Development of image analysis software (MorphoGraphX).

2010 – 2013
Postdoc in Prof Cris Kuhlemeier Lab, Institute of Plant Sciences, Bern University, Switzerland. Collaboration with Brad Nelson’s lab, ETH Zurich, within the SystemsX.ch network.
Project synopsis:
– Development of Cellular Force Microscopy to study plant mechanical properties.
– Characterisation of tissue mechanical properties and growth at the shoot apical
meristem.

2005 – 2009
Ph.D. in Biology, Faculty of  Life Sciences, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
Supervisor: Prof Dorota Kwiatkowska. Co-supervisor: Christophe Godin, INRIA Montpellier, France. PhD funded by Marie-Curie Actions network SYSTEMS.
Project synopsis:
– 3D reconstruction of biological shapes from stereoscopic SEM images.
– Characterisation of growth at the shoot apical meristem.

2003 – 2005
Ms.C. in Physics (Specialization in Biophysics), University Paris VII, Paris XI and ENS, Paris, France.

Keynote Speaker Talks

“How plants use physics to survive and thrive?”  Eastern Regional Meeting of the Canadian Society of Plant Biology (CSPB), 25 November 2017, Montreal, Canada.

Invited Speaker Talks

“MorphoDynamX: from 4D image analysis to computational modeling” Routier-Kierzkowska A.-L. & Smith R.S.
BioImage Analysis Symposium NEUBIAS2020, 12-17 February 2017, Lisbon, Portugal.

“A new insight into plant mechanics from computational modelling to force measurements” Routier-Kierzkowska A-L., Weber A., Kierzkowski D., Mosca. G., Huflejt M., Barbier de Reuille P., Felekis D., Nelson B., Kuhlemeier C., & Smith R.S.
Introduction to Systems Biology Workshop, 17 March 2016, Institute of Plant Genetics PAS, Poznan, Poland.

“MorphoGraphX: A platform for quantifying morphogenesis in 4D”  Routier-Kierzkowska A-L.
Max Planck Society Biology Symposium, 21-22 October  2015, Berlin, Germany.

“Measuring mechanics of morphogenesis” Routier-Kierzkowska A-L., Weber A., Kierzkowski D., Mosca. G., Huflejt M., Barbier de Reuille P., Felekis D., Nelson B., Kuhlemeier C., & Smith R.S.
6th Conference of Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology, 16-19 September 2013, Lodz, Poland.

“New methods for probing cell mechanics in growing plant tissue” Routier-Kierzkowska A-L., Weber A., Kierzkowski D., Nakayama N., Mosca. G., Huflejt M., Barbier de Reuille P., Felekis D., Nelson B., Kuhlemeier C., & Smith R.S.
ESF Research Networking Program, Quantitative Models of Cellular and Developmental Biology, Workshop on Mechanics of Tissues, 29-30 October 2012, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Other Talks

“Making the mechanics visible: Micro-indentation on a confocal microscope” Routier-Kierzkowska A-L., Weber A., Sapala A., Ruetti G., Mosca. G., & Smith R.S.
VIII Plant Biomechanics Conference, 30 November – 3 December 2015, Nagoya, Japan.

“New methods for probing cell mechanics in growing plant tissue” Routier-Kierzkowska A-L., Weber A., Sapala A., Ruetti G., Mosca. G., & Smith R.S.
VII Plant Biomechanics Conference, 20-24 August 2012, Clermond-Ferrand, France.

“New stereoscopic reconstruction protocol for scanning electron microscopy images and its application to in vivo replicas of the shoot apical meristem” Routier-Kierzkowska A-L., & Kwiatkowska D.
5th International Workshop on Functional-Structural Plant Models, November 2007, Napier, New Zealand.

Awards

2015 – Award for best publication in eLife.

2012 – Award for best poster presentation at the summer School “Modeling Development in Plant Sciences”in Murren, Switzerland.

Teaching

“MorphoGraphX: A platform for quantifying morphogenesis in 4D “
2016: Lecture during EMBL Course: Bioimage Data Analysis, EMBL Advance Training Center, Heidelberg, Germany.

“MorphoGraphX practical course”
2016: 2 days workshop at Scientific Centre for Optical and Electron Microscopy, ETZ, Zurich, Switzerland

“Plant Mechanics”
2011 & 2012: 50 h of lectures and practicals during postdoc in Bern, including design of new teaching materials.

Involvement in students supervision
Aleksandra Sapala and Arturo Silveyra during my post-doc in Cologne.
Tanja Ruetti, during my post-doc in Switzerland.

I was also a participant of “Didactics in Biology” course held in Bern in 2010.