Stefania Maria Bennici

Since 2025 she is Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Arboriculture and Fruitculture [AGRI-03/A] at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania. Lecturer in Fundamentals of General arboriculture for the Bachelor's Degree in Management of Mediterranean Agricultural Production Systems (L-25).

After graduating, in 2014 she got a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences (L-13) and in 2016 a Master's degree in Agricultural Biotechnology (LM-7) from the University of Catania. In October 2016 she won a scholarship for the international PhD course in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science - (Cycle XXXII) at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) of the University of Catania. She obtained the title of PhD in February 2020 defending the thesis entitled: 'Citrus reproductive biology: physiological and genetic aspects of sterility, seedlessness and fruiting' for which she won, in February 2021, the AISSA ‘Michele Stanca’ prize for the best doctoral thesis for the Arboriculture and Tree Cultivation sector. From 2020 to 2021 she has been a research fellow at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) of the University of Catania. Subsequently, in 2021 she got a post-doc contract at the Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) - Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Valencia, Spain. From 2022 to 2025 she has been a Researcher on fixed-term contract (art. 24 c.3-a L. 240/10) of General Arboriculture and Tree Crops (AGRI-03/A) at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania. Between 2018 and 2022 she carried out research activities at the IBMCP (CSIC-UPV), Valencia, Spain for 30 months.

The research activity concerns issues related to the scientific sector AGRI-03/A and have mainly focused on biology, physiology, molecular characterization and genetic improvement of fruit tree species through the use of different approaches which include: use and analysis of molecular markers, genomics, transcriptomics, use of classic genetic transformation and genome editing approaches for genetic improvement in citrus fruits with reference to qualitative traits and resistance to biotic stress.

She has been and is involved as a participant and/or scientific manager in various national and international research projects. She is a member of the International Society of Citriculture (ISC), the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and the Society of Italian Horticulture (SOI).  She has participated in oral presentations and posters at several national and international scientific congresses, and she is co-author of more than 20 scientific publications in several international ISI/WOS and Scopus indexed journals. In November 2024 she won the ISHS Young minds award for best poster entitled 'S-genotyping and genome editing to investigate the genetic basis of self-incompatibility in citrus' at the International Citrus Congress 2024 (ICC 2024) Jeju, South Korea.

She is a member of the editorial board of the journals Frontiers in Horticulture and she has been guest editor of the Special Issue 'Genetics and Molecular Breeding of Fruit Tree Species' for the journal Horticulturae. She has also refereed manuscripts proposed for publication in several international indexed journals such as: Plants, Horticulturae, and The International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Last edit: 10/23/2025