I am an ecological researcher and the Scientific Director of the former Nordic Centre of Excellence NorMER. I am also now the coordinator of the initiative to develop a new Pandemic Center at UiO, which will focus on leveraging the expertise available throughout all of the departments at the University of Oslo to better prepare Norway for threats from infectious diseases.
My personal research focus is on the behavioural ecology and population dynamics of species in response to ecosystem variability. My projects have included studies on seabirds and fish species located in the Arctic and Antarctic regions in response to global climate and anthropogenic pressures. More recently, I have been working on applying ecological approaches to improving our understanding of disease dynamics, including, but not limited to, COVID-19.
I am especially focused on the following general topics:
- Population dynamics of kittiwakes and guillemots in northern seas in response to climate variability and human pressures.
- Adaptation of marine ecosystems in northern seas and assessing impacts from human and environmental pressures.
- The importance/relevance of inter-individual signalling on the behavioural ecology of king, emperor, and Adelie penguins. My overall aim is to align and merge these Arctic and Antarctic themes to realize an overall better understanding of threats and challenges to earth's polar ecosystems.