Academic interests
I am a dedicated ecologist with focus on management strategies and conservation. My main focus has been climatic- and environmental issues in South- and East-Africa. As an evolutionary biologist and primatologist my research has involved adaptability in behaviour and diet in different primate species to map out their ability to resist and survive changes in the environment. After defending my master thesis, “Foraging strategies of wild gelada monkeys (Theropithecus gelada) in an Afroalpine grassland at Guassa, Ethiopia,” at CEES the fall of 2017, I moved on to secure a guest researcher position. The next year was spent doing fieldwork in West- Tanzania where I was involved in a project researching adaptability in savannah chimpanzees. The savannah chimpanzees experience two distinct seasons with very different characters regarding diet and water availability. We collected data on habitat, diet and behavior, as well as feces and urine to measure levels of physiological stress.
In present time, as a researcher at CEES and guest academian at Bishop Stuart University in Uganda, I am project manager for a north-south-south collaboration between UiO, NMBU, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Bishop Stuart- and Makerere University, Uganda.The project aims to increase capacity in higher education on the subject of ethnobotany, as well as assess availability and promote responsible agriculture on these important nutri-medicinal plants. East-Africa faces dramatic challenges in battling the consequences of climate change. The use of medicinal plants in applied medicine can help battle issues, like malnutrition in children and others, in areas experiencing severe droughts and food shortage.