She completed her PhD at the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in December 2001. During her doctoral studies, she spent about 2 years as a visiting researcher in Hungary (G. Horváth and I. Vass labs). In 2002, she joined the Molecular Plant Biology Unit at the University of Turku, Finland, as a postdoctoral research fellow. She was awarded the title of Docent in Bioenergetics in 2009 and has led the Photosynthetic Microbes Lab at the University of Turku since 2010 (www.utu.fi/photo-microbes(external)). She currently holds the position of full Professor of Basic and Applied Photosynthesis. She contributed as a junior PI in the Finnish Centre of Excellence and served as Co-Director and later as Director of the Nordic Centre of Excellence, NordAqua: “Towards Versatility of Aquatic Production Platforms: Unlocking the Value of Nordic Bioresources” (www.nordaqua.fi(external)), funded by NordForsk Bioeconomy program (2017–2022).

She is also the Director of the BioCity Turku Research Programme “Advanced Bioresources and Smart Bioproducts – Towards Sustainable Bioeconomy” (SmartBio, www.smartbio.fi(external)), and the Deputy Director of the RCF funded FIRI FIN-BioFoundry infrastructure.

She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications. 13 PhD theses have been completed under her (co-) supervision, and she is currently supervising 11 PhD candidates and co-supervising 3 others. She has delivered numerous invited talks, e.g. in 2023 - 8 invited lectures, 3 keynote presentations, and session chairing at the Gordon Research Conference, in 2024, she has given 10 invited talks and chaired 5 scientific sessions. 

Besides academic research, she has been actively involved in activities supporting science-based policy, including co-authoring the SUNERGY roadmap and Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). She serves as the national node for the SUNERGY EU initiative (https://sunergy-initiative.eu/(external)) and as an executive board member of the SUNER-C EU CSA, actively working towards creating a large-scale european ecosystem for solar fuel and chemical production.

*** Our group is always looking for motivated post-docs, PhD and MSc students. If you are interested in any of the research areas pls contact YAR (allahve at utu.fi) along with your CV.

Her research focuses on fundamental mechanisms of photosynthesis and the development of sustainable biotechnological solutions through two complementary strategies: (i) a short-term vision centered on algal biomass production for the circular bioeconomy, and (ii) a long-term vision targeting the creation of living cell factories and engineered living materials (ELMs) for the solar-powered production of chemicals and fuels.

They are actively involved in several EU, Nordic, and national projects and maintain strong collaborations with industry and other stakeholders.

Current research activities include:
(i) Unraveling alternative electron transport pathways and photosynthetic regulation in cyanobacteria and microalgae;
(ii) Designing solid-state cell factories and ELMs for efficient solar chemical and fuel production;
(iii) Exploring exoelectrogenesis in cyanobacteria and algae for green electricity generation, including mechanistic studies;
(iv) Characterizing Nordic cyanobacterial and algal biodiversity to enable industrial effluent remediation, nutrient recovery, and synthesis of value-added products.

Major projects as Principal Investigator/coordinator:

- 2025 - 2027, RCF national research infrastructure roadmap FIRI FIN-BioFoundry, UTU share for the first round 400 000 €, (UTU, VTT, Aalto, Tampere University), deputy-director;

- 2024 - 2028, EU HE RIA, Solar Butanol production by solid-state photosynthetic cell factories, S2B, 4 Mil €, UTU share 1.2 Mil €, coordinator;

- 2024 - 2026, Business Finland co-research project, Microalgae for sustainable bioeconomy, AlgaCircle, 1 Mil €, coordinator;

- 2024 - 2029, project funding, Jane and Aatos Erkko foundation, The next generation biohybrid systems for photosynthetic fuels and chemicals production; 2.2 Mil €; UTU share 1.6 Mil €, coordinator;

- 2023 - 2027, project funding, Academy of Finland ”A bio-inspired generator of green electricity using photosynthetic bacteria and sustainable materials” (Photo-e-Mat), 1 Mil €; UTU share 400 000 €, coordinator;  

- 2023 - 2027, project funding, Finnish Cultural Foundation “Green solution: Photosynthetic power generation from sunlight and water”, 200 000 €, PI; 

- 2023 - 2024, project funding, Tandem Industry Academia (Vaikuttavuussäätiö) “Integration of greenhouse farming and microalgae bioproduction for a sustainable circular agriculture approach” (AgriAlga) 215 000 €, PI; 

- 2022, donation, MVVT Maa- ja vesitekniikan tuki ry 500 000 €, PI;

- 2022 - 2026, project funding, EU IA “Reusing Effluents from Agriculture to unLock the potential of Microalgae” (REALM) UTU share 900 000 €, PI;

- 2022 - 2025, project funding, EU CSA “SUNERGY Community and eco-system for accelerating the development of solar fuels and chemicals” (SUNER-C) UTU share 120 000 €, PI; 

- 2021 - 2023, project funding, Novo Nordisk Foundation “Advanced photosynthetic biocatalysts” (PhotoCat) total funding 3.957.578 DKK; UTU share 330 000 €; coordinator 

- 2020 - 2023, project funding, EU FET-Open “Leaf-inspired nanocellulose frameworks for next generation photosynthetic cell-factories” (FuturoLEAF) total funding 3Mil Eu; UTU share 600 000 €, PI; 

- 2020 - 2023, project funding, Novo Nordisk Foundation “Photosynthetic cell factories for production of phenylpropanoids” (PhotoPro) total funding 3.800.000 DKK, PI;

- 2019 - 2023, project funding, Academy of Finland “CO2 capturing leaf inspired biocatalyst from photosynthetic cells and lignocellulosic building blocks” (AlgaLeaf) total funding 987 834 €, UTU share 333 000, PI;

- 2018 - 2022, project funding, Academy of Finland “Revisiting the photosynthetic electron transport chain opportunities for improved efficiency toward valuable sink” 466 989 €, PI;

- 2017 - 2022, project funding, NordForsk, Nordic Centre of Excellence “Towards versatility of aquatic production platforms: unlocking the value of Nordic bio-resources” (NordAqua) total 30 000 000 NOK, coordinator

Currently, she serves as the chair of the MSc program in Sustainable Biotechnological Processes. She has been teaching the 'Applied Photosynthesis' and 'Bioenergetics' courses since 2009.