Sophia Stone earned her PhD from York University (Ontario, Canada) and completed NSERC post-doctoral and Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) long-term fellowships at the University of California-Davis, (California, USA). She is a Professor in the Department of Biology & Marine Biology at Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia, Canada), where she holds the George S. Campbell Chair in Biology. Dr. Stone is currently the Department Chair and was recently appointed as Associate Dean Graduate Studies and Global Relations for the Faculty of Science. Dr. Stone has a long-standing research interest in the Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS), which controls a significant portion of eukaryotic proteome through selective proteolysis.
Her current research utilizes a combination of genetic, physiology, cell and molecular biology to understand how plants utilize the UPS to promote growth, development and tolerance of suboptimal growth conditions. Dr. Stone is the recipient of several research awards including the HFSP Career Development Award, the Faculty of Science Killam Prize (Dalhousie University), and the C.D. Nelson Award in Plant Biology from the Canadian Society of Plant Biologist (CSPB). Dr. Stone is passionate about increasing diversity in STEM and works with several university and community-based outreach initiatives aimed at encouraging the participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM.