Affiliation: Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agriculture Research Organization

Dr. Tamar Azoulay-Shemer is a principal investigator and the head of the Fruit Tree Sciences Unit at the Volcani Institute’s Newe Ya’ar Research Center, part of Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization. She holds a BSc and MSc in Biology from Bar-Ilan University and earned her PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where her research focused on chlorophyll breakdown during fruit ripening. As a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Diego, she studied guard-cell photosynthesis and starch metabolism in stomatal responses to CO₂ and ABA treatments.

Her current research emphasizes the regulation and development of stomatal conductance under climate stress. She integrates physiological, molecular, and computational methods to explore how plants adapt to elevated CO₂ levels, heat, drought, and fluctuations in humidity. Additionally, she leads breeding programs for deciduous fruit trees, including almonds, to develop resilient cultivars that exhibit enhanced stress tolerance and improved fruit quality. As a guest editor, she oversees a JoVE Methods Collection designed to provide researchers with standardized tools for studying stomatal biology in the context of climate change.