SciLifeLab Voices: Isolde Palombo
Hej Isolde!
Tell us a bit about yourself
I started as a project coordinator at SciLifeLab in October 2022. I did my master’s in Molecular Biology, followed by a PhD in Biochemistry at Stockholm University. After that, I moved to KI where I did two postdocs and an assistant professorship in the field of type 2 diabetes and endogenous fat accumulation.
After 8 years at KI (and 4 kids), I decided to leave research and continue to work with science without conducting it. I find it extremely valuable in my role at SciLifeLab to have been employed by all three Stockholm universities.
What part of the Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists excites you most?
I am really proud of being a part of this prize, as it not only rewards scientific excellence but also the ability to communicate your science. I have always been frustrated about the fact that scientists in general are not very good at communicating their fantastic research. This is slowly changing, which makes me happy since it closes the gap between researchers and the rest of the world.
The prize is a very festive event and of course, it is very rewarding to welcome the winners to Stockholm, prepare all the events, and arrange all the meetings to make their week in Stockholm a memory for life.
Apart from project leading “Prize”, what is your role at SciLifeLab?
I am part of the Event team at the Operations Office, so I manage and coordinate events and site visits to Campus Solna. I am also coordinating the Site coordinators and providing support for the various initiatives we have at campus Solna, which is a little bit of everything one could say.
What does an ideal winter holiday evening look like at the Palombo’s?
We spend most of our free time in Åre, in the Swedish mountains. Ideally, the kids would be exhausted after a full day in the slopes and would fall asleep before 8 pm, so me and my husband could sit on the sofa, have a glass of wine, and look out at the beautiful winter landscape.
A more common scenario is that I fall asleep first, halfway through dinner. Either way, I love the feeling of being physically tired after being outside in the cold the entire day.
