Events

Recent advances in robotics and AI have created new opportunities for biologists: using autonomous labs to accelerate the Design-Build-Test-Loop for testing hypotheses and answering research questions. In this session of the CBA Podcast Club, we explore how 24/7 autonomous robotic stations and closed-loop AI models are poised to change how we conduct basic research. How will automation alter the day-to-day role of researchers, and what does it mean for the future of curiousity driven science?

The week's episode features an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, whose science fiction novels have famously inspired both scientists and policy makers over the last few decades.

Doctoral candidate Jacqueline Kay Knutson at the Department of Geosciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, is defending the thesis Transport and Processing of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Peatland-Dominated Catchments in Subarctic Scandinavia for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor.

Based on data from sub-arctic Sweden and Greenland, Johan will discuss the evolving interaction between carbon, mercury and permafrost over time. 

On June 10 - 11, 2026, the Centre for Biogeochemistry in the Anthropocene (CBA) will gather for a two-day meeting. Here, CBA members will present their research, as well as give and recieve constructive feedback with colleagues. The event will be held at the Tollboden research station.

PhD candidate Xiang Lu at the Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, is defending the thesis 'Boreal lakes as mediators for terrestrial organic carbon processing and greenhouse gas emissions: a case study from Langtjern Norway' for the degree of PhD.

The Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES) is a network of stations that enables field-based ecosystem research. Each station brings unique research foci, expertise, experiments, long-term monitoring and societal settings to the infrastructure built on shared scientific goals and methodologies. 

Several of the BioGov project's PhD candidates have collected sufficient data to begin their analyses.

This data workshop will provide the candidates an opportunity to present their data and recieve constructive feedback from advisors and peers on how to proceed. 

Recent research has revealed a surprising phenomenon: the production of so-called “dark oxygen” and its possible connection with polymetallic nodules found on the abyssal plane. 

As interest in mining polymetallic nodules grows, these findings raise new scientific and ethical questions about how (and whether) such activities should proceed.

As the world transitions toward a less carbon-intensive and more electrified energy system, demand for copper and other critical minerals is expected to far outstrip current supply. One proposed solution is to mine polymetallic nodules found on the abyssal plains of the ocean floor.

Ph.d.-kandidat Alouette van Hove ved Institutt for geofag, Det matematisk-naturvitenskapelige fakultet, vil forsvare avhandlingen Navigating emission plumes: Inferring sources from drone observations via intelligent path planning for graden Philosophiae Doctor.

PhD candidate Laurent Fontaine at the Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, is defending the thesis 'Statistical Analysis and Modeling of Microbial Communities in Aquatic Ecosystems' for the degree of PhD.

This talk details how we have come to understand the microbial ecosystem in sewage conveyance systems and the ways we use this information to track pollution in surface waters, identify risk and opportunity for wastewater treatment, and determine the role of urban wastewater systems in antimicrobial resistance dissemination.

On November 12 - 13, 2025, the Centre for Biogeochemistry in the Anthropocene (CBA) will gather for a two-day meeting. Here, CBA members will present their research, as well as give and recieve constructive feedback with their colleagues. The event will be held in Domus Juridica, located in central Oslo.

Professor Ilona M. Otto will give a seminar on: Social tipping dynamics and the role of inequalities in the net-zero transition. Otto is a key scholar in Europe for understanding the relationship between climate tipping points and social tipping points.

On June 11–12, 2025, the Centre for Biogeochemistry (CBA) will gather its members for the annual two-day meeting – this year taking place in Drøbak. The first day will be dedicated specifically to the BioGov project, one of several research projects operating under the CBA umbrella.

By Gustaf Hugelius, Stockholm University; Bolin Center for Climate Research

Ass. Professor Nicolas Valiente Parra will give a seminar on: Microbial metabolism: the central force driving greenhouse gas emissions in lakes.

This talk explores how microbial metabolism regulates greenhouse gas emissions in lakes, highlighting its central role in carbon and nitrogen cycling across northern ecosystems. By connecting microbial-scale processes to ecosystem-level, the work directly contributes to CBA’s mission of understanding and predicting climate change feedbacks.

Researcher Thanh Tam Tran will give a seminar on: Antimicrobial resistance in the Nordics: mapping existing surveillance systems and assessing the impact of COVID-19 using regression models.

Boreal lakes: analogous of the ancient ocean?

Welcome to a Panel Conversation in connection with the exhibition "A feeling of Longing That Freezes and Thaws" (March 7–March 23). The conversation will take place between art and science. contributions from the artist Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith, Prof. Sebastian Westermann, and PhD fellows Anfisa Pismeniuk and Mats Ippach (CBA).

Welcome to the opening of the exhibition "A Feeling of Longing That Freezes and Thaws" (March 7–March 23). In collaboration with researchers from the Centre for Biogeochemistry in the Anthropocene (CBA), Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith presents an installation exploring the poetics of permafrost. The exhibition examines the sensory and emotional dimensions of permafrost thaw.

PhD candidate Rowen Monks will give a seminar on: Challenging a paradigm in aquatic microbial ecology: plans for investigating the uncertain role of the nuisance algae, Gonyostomum semen and associated microbia, in organic nitrogen cycling.

As part of the CBA site-visit, there will be lectures open for all.