Young Research Talent
Researcher Boris Schmid at the Department of Biosciences and CEES got the prestigious Young Research Talent grant from the Research Council of Norway for his project "Ecological Constraints on Plague Reservoirs". Yersenia pestis caused large plague pandemics in Medieval Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. While its human burden is far lower today, the bacterium persists in ground squirrels, jirds, voles, gerbils, rats and marmots, as well as their fleas. The primary objective of the project is to understand the ecological constraint that define where plague reservoirs can exist. A better understanding what defines a plague reservoir helps with plague surveillance now, and in a future world that is in flux with climate change.
CEES joins Seachanges, a new Innovative Training Network (ITN)
Researcher Bastiaan Star is beneficiary and Associate Professor Sanne Boessenkool is collaborator in a new Innovative Training Network (ITN): “Seachanges: thresholds in human exploitation of marine vertebrates”. The ITN is led by Dr. David Orton from the University of York. Star and Boessenkool will be working with ancient DNA studying various marine species among others fish and whales. The goal of the project is to train a cohort of scientists on the interface between archaeology and biology, who will become skilled in using various proxies to help understand past human exploitation. Star will be the main supervisor of two PhD candidates who will be based at the UiO and Star and Boessenkool are both further co-supervising several other candidates whom will also have secondments at UiO.