ECR Committee

ECR Committee

Since its creation in 2021, the SFRR-Europe ECR subcommittee has had as its principal aim to organise activities that can serve either as a platform for dissemination and/or networking for Early Career Researchers (ECRs).

SFRRE Early Career Researchers (ECR) Subcommittee

We are a highly diverse group of enthusiastic junior members of the SFRR-Europe. Since its creation in 2021, the SFRR-Europe ECR Subcommittee has focused on designing activities that provide PhD students and Postdocs with platforms for scientific training, dissemination, and professional networking in the field of redox biology.

One of our main priorities is to promote the scientific work of Early Career Researchers (ECRs). We currently host the monthly “Emerging Leaders in Redox Biology” webinar series, where highly promising ECRs share their latest findings with the broader redox biology community. This initiative has become an attractive platform for showcasing innovative research and fostering scientific exchange. To highlight the contributions of PhD students in particular, we also organize the annual symposium “Redox Relay Race: PhD students on the move”. Since 2025, we have expanded our activities with the “ECR Skills Webinar Series”, dedicated to professional development in areas such as scientific outreach, grant writing, career transitions, and mental health.

We also promote the training and networking of ECRs through different mentoring programmes. The ECR Mentoring Programme connects PhD students, Postdocs, and Assistant Professors with established Associated and Full Professors. Through a 1:1 mentor–mentee relationship, participants benefit from guidance in career development and leadership skills, both within academia and in industry. An alumni network of past participants is also maintained, with members gathering annually at the SFRR-Europe Meeting for the Mentoring Lunch. In 2025, with the support of Elsevier, we launched the ECR Editorial Mentoring Programme. This initiative pairs ECRs with members of the Editorial Boards of SFRR-Europe’s official journals (i.e., Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Redox Biochemistry and Chemistry, and Redox Biology) to provide 1:1 training in editorial handling of manuscripts.

In addition, we actively contribute to the organization of activities during the Annual SFRR-E Meetings. We host the “ECR networking event”, which offers new members in the field a unique opportunity to connect with their peers. Through the “Meet-the-Professor” session, we provide a setting that fosters networking between ECRs and senior researchers in our community. We also organize an “ECR Symposia”, where selected ECRs present their latest findings in person during the SFRR-E Annual Meeting. Finally, we host “Sunrise Seminars”, featuring dynamic ‘fishbowl’ discussions on hot topics such as methods in redox biology and the role of AI in scientific research and publishing.

We aim to engage with every SFRR-E member and the broader scientific community through a monthly newsletter and our social media accounts (currently on Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky and X).

We look forward to getting to know you better!

The ECR Subcommittee of the SFRR-Europe

Current members of the ECR Subcommittee:

Vanesa Cepas-López (Chair)

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Department of Oncology, University of Turin (Italy)
Originally from: Avilés, Spain

Timoteo Marchini (Co-Chair)

Position: Deputy Lab Head
Affiliation: Vascular Immunology Laboratory, Department of Cardiology and Angiology, University Heart Center Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg (Germany)
Originally from: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tim Baldensperger

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Institute of Biological Chemistry, University of Vienna (Austria)
Originally from: Magdeburg, Germany

Avilien Dard

Postdoctoral Researcher
VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology (Belgium)
Originally from: Perpignan, France

Ufuk Ersoy

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Department of Musculoskeletal and Ageing Sciences, Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool (UK)
Originally from: Yozgat, Turkey

Paraskevi Kritsiligkou

Position: Tenure Track Fellow/Independent Group Leader
Affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems Biology, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool (UK)
Originally from: Melissi Korinthias, Greece

Marin Kuntic

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: University Medical Center Mainz (Germany)
Originally from: Belgrade, Serbia

Veronica Lisi

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Wake Forest University School of Medicine (USA)
Originally from: Rome, Italy

Cristina Mas-Bargues

Position: Assistant Professor
Affiliation: Physiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia (Spain)
Originally from: Valencia, Spain

Verónica Miguel Herranz

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Institute of Experimental Internal Medicine and Systems Biology. RWTH Aachen University (Germany)
Originally from: Guadalajara, Spain

Chantalle Moulton

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Human Longevity Program, IRCCS San Raffaele Roma (Italy)
Originally from: Pretoria, South Africa

Konstantinos Papanikolaou

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Affiliation: Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, Heersink School of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA)
Originally from: Patras, Greece

Alina Sigaeva