For the most part of my academic career, I have been studying and working at the Molecular Plant Biology unit in the University of Turku, Finland. It was there that I finished my bachelor’s degree in physiology and genetics in 2014. My bachelor’s thesis, a literature review titled “Kleptoplastic sea slug Elysia chlorotica” was also my first contact with the fascinating topic of photosynthetic sea slugs. During my studies (2011-2014) I worked as a research assistant and instrument technician in the group of docent Esa Tyystjärvi at the University of Turku, and this allowed me to gain expertise in the biophysical tools used in photosynthesis research. I became very familiar in estimating the functionality of photosynthesis via measuring chlorophyll fluorescence (e.g. with PAM fluorometers), specific absorbance changes (P700 oxidation and electrochromic shift) and oxygen evolution/consumption (oxygen electrodes and optodes) in plants, algae and cyanobacteria. Some of the more specific biophysical methods I applied during my work include thermoluminescence, flash oxygen evolution with a Joliot-type bare platinum oxygen electrode, EPR spectroscopy and chlorophyll fluorescence at cryogenic temperatures. I finished both my master’s degree and PhD under the supervision of Esa Tyystjärvi. My master’s thesis focused on studying what effect some of the photosynthetic pigments of diatoms, like fucoxanthin and chlorophyll c, have on the action spectrum of photoinhibition of PSII in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. After I completed my master’s in the degree programme of molecular plant biology and bioenergetics in 2015, I was successful in securing funding for the first year of my PhD from Finnish Cultural Foundation, and I decided to enroll to the University of Turku Graduate School (UTUGS). Initially, I was supposed to study the mysterious and possibly artefactual decrease in photosynthetic electron transfer rate that is particularly noticeable in microalgal assemblages under strong light, when photosynthesis is estimated with standard chlorophyll fluorescence analyses. This research line did eventually lead to a publication in 2018, but instead of focusing purely on the technical details of fluorescence measurements for the entire PhD, I decided to completely change the direction of my research to accommodate one my earlier academic interests: photosynthetic sea slugs. This was a risky proposition, but luckily I was able to find collaborators, most notably Prof. Dr. Sven B. Gould from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, and funding from multiple sources (Finnish Cultural Foundation, UTUGS, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Kone Foundation) to carry out my research. My PhD thesis, titled “Photoprotection and genetic autonomy of plastids in photosynthetic sea slugs”, included three first author publications that revealed new mechanisms how photosynthetic sea slugs are able to avoid excessive amounts of light/reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced damage to their chloroplasts, and I defended my thesis in 2022. During my PhD, I was involved in multiple other projects in the group of Esa Tyystjärvi that allowed me to diversify my research portfolio to also plants, algae and cyanobacteria, and not just sea slugs. This is showcased by my diverse list of 13 publications in peer-reviewed journals (Web of Science h-index 8, 238 citations). In 2022 I started as a post-doctoral researcher in the research group of Dr. Sónia Cruz in her ERC funded project (Kleptoslug ERC-2020-STG/949880), where I am delving deeper into the topic of photosynthetic sea slugs. My main focus is in understanding what light acclimation mechanisms still persist in the isolated chloroplasts inside the slugs, and how the slugs are able to suppress excessive ROS formation and repairing the damage caused by light and ROS.