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Federica Di Palma is a distinguished scientist in the fields of genomics, data science, and biodiversity preservation. With over 20 years of experience, she has earned international recognition for her contributions and leadership in advancing scientific research and promoting sustainable development. Federica Di Palma remains a Professorial Fellow in Biodiversity in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and she is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research and Innovation at Genome British Columbia.

Education and early career
Federica Di Palma completed her Bachelor's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Essex. She continued her academic journey by earning a Ph.D. in Immunogenetics from the Institute for Animal Health and the University of Reading, United Kingdom. During her postdoctoral research at NIH in the National Institute of deafness and other communication disorders, she made significant strides in identifying genes responsible for deafness syndromes in both mice and humans, leading to her receiving the Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) in Biomedical Research at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH).

Career
Di Palma'served as Assistant Director of the Vertebrate Biology group at the Broad Institute, where she successfully led the development, planning, and analysis of major mammalian genome sequencing projects funded by National Human Genome Research Institute, as well as additional vertebrate projects involving some of the most charismatic examples of evolution in the wild, such as the Caribbean anole lizard, the cichlids of East African lakes, and the three-spine stickleback.

At the Earlham Institute (aka The Genome Analysis Center), Di Palma assumed the position of Director of Science. During her tenure, she develop the Institute Scientific Strategy and led the Institute's UKRI-BBSRC core strategic program in food security and spearheaded various research programs focused on the application of computational and molecular biology technologies to the understanding of living systems.

Furthermore, Federica Di Palma established the international network BRIDGE Colombia and the UKRI-funded GROW Colombia project, both of which are instrumental in advancing research infrastructures and enabling socioeconomic development in Colombia.

In 2019, Di Palma was appointment as part of the Misión de Sabios (Mission of Experts) by Colombia's former President Iván Duque, a group of 43 leading scientists, academics, and intellectuals from around the world.

Research activities
Federica Di Palmas’ research endeavours are dedicated to delivering an integrated and multidisciplinary research program aimed at understanding the profound impact of evolutionary pressures on the diversity of vertebrate species, with significant implications for health and disease. Her research has been significantly enabled by cutting-edge genomic technologies and data-intensive methodologies, addressing the modern scientific challenges posed by data scale and complexity. Her research is inherently multidisciplinary, uniting concepts and methods from genomics, bioinformatics, genetics, evolutionary biology, and ecology. Notably, she has authored papers in the field illuminating the intricacies of vertebrate evolution, with a special emphasis on understanding the regulation of genes to drive the evolution of traits. Her research efforts have also extended to improving aquaculture in East Africa through the preservation of native Tilapia species, positively impacting food security and socio-economic issues in disadvantaged regions of Asia and Africa.