Dr. Tesei has over 10 years of experience in extremophile research, conducted in institutions across 3 different countries, Italy, Austria and the USA. She studies microbial mechanisms of stress tolerance in extreme habitats by OMICS approaches, with a focus on two major themes: molecular and physiological adaptations to harsh living conditions, and biotechnological applications of fungal extremophiles. After obtaining her Doctorate degree in Food Chemistry and Biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), she was awarded the Hertha Firnberg career development program for highly qualified female scientists by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). She served as Principal Investigator and co-investigator on several research projects aimed at the discovery of novel bioactive compounds from extremophiles and was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she conducted research on space microbiology.