Prof. Lydia-Marie Joubert received her BSc (Mathematics and Botany), Hons. BSc and MSc (Botany) from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, where she was born and raised. Her PhD was co-supervised by profs Jan Coetzee (Pretoria University, SA) and Paul Mahlberg, (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA), where she developed advanced techniques in autoradiography to study the biosynthesis of monoterpenes in plants. Her international scientific career was launched with an internship at Weizmann Institute, Israel. Her postgraduate studies focused on trichome biogenesis and essential oil secretion in indigenous Pelargonium species, using techniques in electron microscopy and gas chromatography. After postdoctoral studies in plant-microbial symbiosis, Dr. Joubert moved towards Environmental Microbiology with a research focus on microbial biofilms and their practical application in bioenergy production and wastewater remediation. Ultrastructural TEM and SEM application runs as a thread throughout her research. After moving to the USA she joined Stanford University as Senior Research Professional and lead scanning electron microscopist in life sciences, with a strong focus on technique development for hydrogel and biomaterial imaging, as well as array tomography and volume (3D) electron microscopy. Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM), as well as X-ray microscopy, were further explored and developed in her research. In 2017 prof. Joubert moved back to Stellenbosch as head of Electron Microscopy and associate professor in Microbiology. In addition to leading the main EM Unit in Stellenbosch, she established an EM unit at the Medical School in Tygerberg, Cape Town, with the acquisition of an Apreo Volumescope for 3D and conventional SEM and TEM application.

She moved back to Stanford at the end of 2019, where she holds the position of Director of Operations at the newly established Cryo-Electron Tomography Center (SCSC), which focuses on research application and training in cryo-ET. She additionally develops workflows in cryoFIB-SEM as tool for cryo-ET sample preparation, cryoVolume-EM and correlated light and electron microscopy under cryogenic conditions. Her personal research focus returned to plant and microbial studies in cellulosic bioenergy, as well as fundamental aspects of mitochondria development in health and disease. She has a keen interest in visualization and has won numerous awards in scientific imaging contests. Her electron micrographs regularly feature on the front cover of scientific journals. She was appointed as Professor Extraordinary in Microbiology at Stellenbosch University, where she continues to support the development of Electron Microscopy in Life and Medical Sciences. She is married and has three sons. Prof. Joubert lives in Los Altos, California.
 
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