People

Dag L. Aksnes
Professor Emeritus
Two of my current research questions are about mesopelagic fishes and their potential role in carbon sequestration and about effects of increased terrestrial greening on marine ecosystems. I am also engaged in science advise on how to achieve more sustainable food and feed production.

Sergey Budaev
Researcher
My current research focuses on individual cognition, decision-making and personality in animals. Although I am interested in any species, most of my work so far has been conducted on fish. I try to integrate both proximate and ultimate causation and use both experimental and modelling approaches.

Andrea Campos-Candela
Postdoc
I am a (theoretical) ecologist enthusiastic in bringing together theoretical ecology and empirical science, by integrating experimental, field and modelling perspectives and methods.

Magda L. Dumitru
Researcher
I draw on my background in cognitive neuroscience to explore consciousness in living organisms. Is perceptual awareness a prerequisite for subjectivity? How does information chunking impact our experience of the present? What are the (epi)genetic and neural mechanisms of spatial biases, cognition, and individual differences?

Sigrunn Eliassen
Professor (Vice Dean for Education)
My current research focus is on the evolution of mating systems. I use theoretical models to study adaptive behavioural decisions in different ecological settings.

Katja Enberg
Professor
My main interest is sustainable fisheries, including the effects of fisheries on genetic and phenotypic traits as well as dynamics of the harvested populations and ecosystems. I am keen on finding sustainable solutions for using our natural resources for feeding the growing human population.

Øyvind Fiksen
Professor (Vice Dean for Marine Research)
I am particularly interested in behaviour and life-history of marine organisms, and how traits emerge in populations and ecosystems through natural selection.

Jarl Giske
Professor
My main research interest is to model how animals make decisions. Currently I study the proximate architecture for decision-making in animals and the implications of this architecture on individual behaviour and on phenotypic and genetic diversity in populations.

Henrik Høiberg Jessen
PhD Student
In my PhD-project I am developing an Individual-Based Model (IBM) to study the rate and direction of evolutionary responses to concurrent fisheries and climate stressors in the North East Arctic (NEA) cod stock.

Christian Jørgensen
Professor (Group Leader)
I work with adaptation as a tool to build models that scale mechanisms at the individual level to population-level patterns and evolutionary outcomes. Topics of interest include mating systems, fishing-induced evolution, life history theory, and algorithms for modelling evolution.

Stein Kaartvedt
Guest Researcher (Professor Emeritus at University of Oslo)
My interest is pelagic ecology, and how environment, predators, and prey together affect abundance, distribution, and behaviour of zooplankton and fishes.

Tom J. Langbehn
Postdoc
I am quantitative (marine) ecologist with a strong interest in evolution and global change ecology. I enjoy thinking broadly, to link data with theory and models, and I find interest in diverse biological disciplines.

Christian Lindemann
Researcher
My main scientific interests are in the ecology and bio-physical coupling of plankton, in particular phytoplankton and its impacts on the emergent structures of the pelagic food-web. To investigate this I have been involving in work using different numerical tools and modeling approaches.

Gabriella Ljungström
Postdoc
I am an evolutionary ecologist with a strong interest in global change ecology. My research has mainly focused on understanding how environmental changes, and particularly climate change, affect animals that live in seasonal environments. I also have an interest in sustainable use of marine resources and work on several topics relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Anita Stene Løtvedt
PhD Student
I am an applied mathematician who is especially interested in environmental and dynamical modelling, as well as sensitivity analysis. My PhD project "The Effect of Water Column Dynamics on the Microbial Food Web and Transfer to Higher Trophic Levels" is a part of the project "How can fisheries contribute to a more sustainable future?".

Marc Mangel
Professor Emeritus
Marc was Professor at the University of California Santa Cruz and Adjunct Professor associated with the Theoretical Ecology Group until he retired in 2021 and is now active Professor Emeritus at UiB.

Rachael Morgan
Postdoc
I am an ecophysiologist interested in understanding the mechanisms by which fish are able to acclimate and adapt to a changing climate. In particular, my research focuses on the effects of hypoxia and high temperature in tropical fish species.

Iliana Vasiliki Ntinou
PhD Student
I will be studying the impact of changing oceanographic conditions on the seasonal and longer-term dynamics of three Calanus species in Disko Bay, Greenland, as part of the interdisciplinary project Climate Narratives.

Anders F. Opdal
Researcher
I am currently very interested in the field of life history evolution, and often find myself somewhere in the interface between long-term data series and theoretical modelling.

Kim Scherrer
Postdoc
My work focuses on the interactions between humans and marine ecosystems, especially on the sustainability and resilience of fisheries under climatic, technological and societal change. Figuring out how fisheries can better contribute to global food security and human well-being is at the heart of my research.

Ingunn Stautland
PhD Student
In my PhD project I study how light influences feeding behaviour, predator-prey interactions and spawning phenology in fish.

Jessica Tengvall
PhD Student
In my current work I am exploring, if and how, the notoriously difficult parameter natural mortality, impacts stock assessments, reference points, and management strategy evaluations. I wish to contribute to how we achieve sustainable fisheries in an Anthropogenic era while also considering society, policy, and economics.

Juan Manuel Valero Rodríguez
Postdoc
I am a marine ecologist studying environmental impacts in coastal ecosystems. I currently focus on seasonality-induced changes in Arctic fucoids and their distribution under a climate-change context.

Øystein Varpe
Professor
My research is on why we observe variation in life histories and behaviour, both within and between species. I am also fascinated by seasonality and aim to understand how seasonal environments shape ecological processes and evolutionary adaptations.

Jacqueline Weidner
Guest Researcher (Associate Professor at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences)
I am a biologist with interest in evolution and teaching evolution. During my PhD I was working on theoretical models describing fish growth under hormonal regulation, particularly the impact of predation and parasitism on juvenile growth. During the last years I have focused on teaching and the question of how to make evolution understandable for learners of different ages - from students to children in primary school.

Hanif Kawousi
MSc student 2022-2024
I will use object-oriented programming to create a model depicting evolution in songbirds experiencing fear and hunger. By doing this, I wish to investigate the mechanisms behind emotional stressors and better understand how this can affect the songbird’s evolutionary trajectory. Supervisors: Sergey Budaev and Jarl Giske.

Kristian Rørhus Fjell
MSc student 2023-2025
I will study the gravitational carbon flux in different parts of the North Atlantic by applying machine learning to videos of sinking particles and marine snow.
Supervisors: Christian Lindemann with Webjørn Melle and Ketil Malde (both at Institute of Marine Research).

Frida Wickmann
MSc student 2022-2024
I study biodiversity, ecology, and evolution. I am interested in how biotic and abiotic factors structure life history, physiology, and behavior in marine organisms. Supervisors: Andrea Campos-Candela and Christian Jørgensen.