“Multidisciplinary research, partnerships, and multisectoral perspectives are key to solving today’s health and environmental challenges and effectively informing policy development and implementation.”
Dr. Federica Di Palma
Dr. Federica Di Palma holds a PhD in Immunogenetics from the University of Reading. With a career spanning over two decades, she is an expert in genomics and data science, noted for her profound international collaborations including seminal work with preeminent U.S. institutions such as the NIH, Harvard, and MIT, as well as pivotal contributions to UK and British Columbia’s scientific landscape.As the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research and Innovation at Genome BC in Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Di Palma continues to advance the frontiers of genomics forward. Her tenure at the Earlham Institute in the UK was marked by transformative leadership, notably steering the BBSRC’s core strategic program on food security and pioneering diverse research initiatives that harness cross-disciplinary synergies between computational and molecular biology to decode the complexities of living systems.
Federica is passionate about exploring and preserving biodiversity around the world. She has led expansive, multidisciplinary international research programs, particularly in Development Assistance Committee nations, forging strategic alliances, catalyzing capacity building in human capital and infrastructure, and adeptly bridging scientific insights with policy and industry for sustainable long term global impact. Her ongoing affiliation as a Professorial Fellow in Biodiversity at the University of East Anglia underscores her commitment to academic excellence and thought leadership.
Federica’s previous experience includes her roles as the Assistant Director, Vertebrate Genome Biology at the Broad Institute of Harvard, a Senior Research Scientist and Service Centre Manager at the Hubbard Centre for Genome Studies at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, and a Fogarty Fellow at the National Institutes of Health.
