People

CARSTEN RAHBEK

Full Professor
Director of CMEC
Leader of Villum Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity
 

I direct CMEC and have an active interest in all its activities. My main personal research interests are patterns of species distribution, species range sizes, species assemblages, species richness and what determines such patterns (contemporary and historical factors or perhaps also just a bit of chance). Recent focus has been on the role of scale and conceptual formulation and practical design of null- and predictive models that allow direct testing of hypotheses related to patterns of diversity. The natural "other side" of my research relates how evolutionary and ecographical principles can be used to identify robust priorities for conservation of biodiversity.

Email: crahbek@sund.ku.dk

KATHERINE RICHARDSON

Full Professor
Leader of 
Sustainability Science Centre 
Leader of 
Research Centre on Ocean, Climate, and Society

My training is in biological oceanography but for many years, I have contributed to the development of Earth system science as a scientific domain. I am fascinated by how interactions between the Geosphere, Biosphere, and Anthroposphere establish state conditions of the Earth. My research is largely devoted to understanding how plankton diversity and ecosystem structure contribute to ocean carbon cycling. I also examine the role of the ocean in global carbon cycling and am a core developer of the planetary boundaries framework. I lead the Sustainability Science Centre at UCPH and am a member of the Danish Government’s Climate Council.

Email: kari@sund.ku.dk

KASPER THORUP

Full Professor
Head of Section

My primary research interest is in movement ecology, mainly the migration strategies of smaller long-distance migrants. I have recently focused on how Afro-Palearctic songbird and cuckoo migrants track seasonally changing resources through time and space. I also work more generally within ornithology, conservation and disease ecology. Furthermore, I am involved in exploiting and developing small-animal tracking from space and our “going-wild” approach. Additionally, I serve as Scientific Advisor of Copenhagen Bird Ringing Centre, Natural History Museum of Denmark and am Affiliated Scientist of Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

Email: kthorup@sund.ku.dk

DAVID NOGUÉS-BRAVO

Full Professor

My research aimed at unveiling the drivers of biological diversity for a better understanding the future impacts of Global Change on biodiversity. I'm specifically assessing the causes of Late Quaternary Extinctions (humans and climate change) integrating genomics, phylogeography and niche modeling. This is also an excellent playground to improve niche modeling and getting better predictions of future extinctions when climate change and humans come together.

Email: dnogues@sund.ku.dk

NEIL DAVID BURGESS

Full Professor (part-time)
Chief Scientist in UNEP-WCMC 

My current research interests are related to the interface between science and pratical conservation action, either on the ground in terms of reserve management or community engagement, or within international processes such as the program of work on protected areas in the CBD and the whole issue of forest carbon and the implementation of REDD within the UNFCCC. As such I work on collaboration projects with NGOs (WWF, BirdLife, Conservation International, IUCN), Governments (Tanzania) and UN agencies (UNEP-WCMC and UNDP GEF and UN REDD).

Email: neil.burgess@sund.ku.dk

JON FJELDSÅ

Professor Emeritus

I am Professor Emeritus, based at the Natural History Museum of Denmark since 1971, where I was curator of the bird collections with long experience from collecting expeditions in many parts of the world. Over the years my research has covered many fields of ornithology, conservation biology and evolutionary biology. I now use my accumulated intuitive insights to analyze what governs speciation dynamics and global patterns of species diversity as part of the research program of CMEC. My main focus has been the diversification of the 6200 species of passerine (or perching) birds.

Email: jfjeldsaa@snm.ku.dk

JETTE BREDAHL JACOBSEN

Full Professor

I am professor in environmental and resource economics at IFRO. My research interests cover a broad range of topics of human-nature interactions. I work with the valuation of ecosystem services, with landowners decisions-making, climate change mitigation, with adaptation strategies to climate change and broader with decision making under uncertainty. I teach two MSC courses in ‘applied economics of forest and nature’ and ‘applied arctic resource economics and management’, and also a Ph.D. course in environmental valuation. I am vice chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board for Climate Change.

Email: jbj@ifro.ku.dk

NIELS STRANGE

Full Professor

My research interest is on the socio-economics of forest and nature planning and management. I have been involved in projects on spatial prioritization of conservation interventions and environmental economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Currently I am involved in projects on these topics but also other projects concerning biodiversity finance, biodiversity and business, payments for environmental services, landowner behavior, multi-criteria analysis, and decision-making under risk. I direct the European Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Course in Sustainable Forest and Nature Management. In addition, I am a member of the Danish Biodiversity Council.

Email: nst@ifro.ku.dk

BO JELLESMARK THORSEN

Full Professor

I am Professor in Applied Economics of Forest and Landscape and Head of the Division of Economics, Policy and Management Planning at IFRO. My research interests are quite broad. A considerable part of my research has focused on uncertainty and decision making in forest and natural resource settings. I am also interested in the environmental economics of forest and landscape. I also teach in various courses at KU-LIFE - mainly as a co-teacher, and I act as supervisor for a number of PhD students and MSc thesis students.

Email: bjt@ifro.ku.dk

METTE TERMANSEN

Full Professor

I am an Environmental and Natural Resource Economist at IFRO primarily working on spatially explicit economic analysis of land use decision-making, ecosystem service provision and valuation. The range of environmental themes includes biodiversity, climate adaptation and mitigation, water quality and recreation. Currently, I am particularly interested in spatial analysis of alternative designs of voluntary environmental policy schemes.

Email: mt@ifro.ku.dk 

MICHAEL KRABBE BORREGAARD

Associate Professor

My research aims to unravel how Earth dynamics drive ecology and evolution. My main focus is on islands over large time scales, but also extends to the world’s mountain regions. I am increasingly focusing on understanding what drives anthropogenic extinction of species on islands – undeniably the global hotspot of the global extinction crisis. I also work actively with methods development and produce research software in Julia and R. In addition to my research I am deputy head of department for teaching at Globe Institute, course responsible for three courses, representative for the area of Earth, Life and Data Science in the faculty Academic Council, and delegate on the Health Faculty’s sustainability steering group.

Email: mkborregaard@sund.ku.dk

RUTE DA FONSECA

Associate Professor

My group uses information extracted from genomic data to understand processes in ecology and evolution. One of our main interests is to characterize gene evolution across various time scales and its impact on phenotypes, ranging from recent domestication events to differences between vertebrates and invertebrates. We are also assessing how genetic diversity can optimally be used in biodiversity monitoring and conservation. Our projects apply methods from computational biology and bioinformatics to projects in population genomics and phylogenomics.

Email: rfonseca@sund.ku.dk

JACOB HEILMANN-CLAUSEN

Associate Professor

With a background in mycology and forest ecology, I work on basal and applied research projects on fungal biodiversity and management of natural areas, especially in Denmark. My research spans from citizen science based mapping and monitoring of biodiversity, over ecological restoration to exploration of the basal drivers shaping fungal biogeography and trait evolution. As project leader in the Danish Fungal Atlas I also work on biodiversity discovery, taxonomy, and computer vision.

Email: jheilmann-clausen@sund.ku.dk

THOMAS LUNDHEDE

Associate Professor

At the Danish Centre for Forest and Landscape at IFRO I primarily work with the socioeconomic aspects of biodiversity. Like any other natural resource biodiversity is managed within limited economical means. Therefore I focus on how society’s objectives of protecting biodiversity are best and economically efficient accomplished. Among other things this involves revealing society’s preferences for different species by means of non-market valuation techniques and econometric modelling.

Email: thlu@ifro.ku.dk

DAMIEN FORDHAM

Associate Professor

Email: damien.fordham@adelaide.edu.au 

PETER ANDREW HOSNER

Assistant Professor

My research seeks to understand how geographical, environmental, and ecological factors shape species distributions over time and influence diversification. In addition to my work at CMEC, I curate the bird collection at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, and I have interests broadly in avian research. My field work is global in scope, but I prefer to focus on poorly surveyed, mega-diverse tropical areas. I am also keen on the use of biological collections as a historical archives to document global change, and on the creative use of biological specimens in the sciences.

Email: peter.hosner@snm.ku.dk

NAIA MORUETA-HOLME

Assistant Professor

My research focuses on the drivers of species distributions and diversity in the Anthropocene, especially of plants and birds. I am particularly interested in quantifying the effect of human-induced climate and land use change on biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales. My team integrates field resurveys of historical data, citizen science, museum genomics, remote sensing, spatial analysis, and computer vision to understand and better predict future pathways of biodiversity. Driving my research is a strong motivation to promote science-based biodiversity conservation.

Email: morueta-holme@sund.ku.dk

JONAS GELDMANN

Assistant Professor 

My research focuses on understanding and mapping threats to biodiversity, and assessing the impact of conservation interventions. In particular how resources, management, governance, and socio-economic context influences the effectiveness and performance of protected areas. I primarily address this through a global lens, utilizing large global dataset from conservation organizations, research institutions as well as from remote-sensing sources to develop correlative models of what predicts conservation success (when possible) through the use of quasi-experimental methods and experimental designs. My position is funded through an Independent Research Fund Denmark Sapere Aude grant.

Email: jgeldmann@sund.ku.dk 

HANNAH OWENS

Assistant Professor

I am driven to discover what patterns emerge from large datasets, and how to best infer the evolutionary processes underlying these patterns. I split my research between tropical mountain birds and oceanic fishes. I also maintain several R packages and collaborate to improve ecological niche modeling (ENM) theory and practice, as well as integrating ENM with comparative phylogenetics. While fishes are my primary interest, I have worked with insects, plants, frogs, and a diversity of endo- and ectoparasites. In addition to the Mountain Center, I am appointed as a courtesy Curator of Informatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Email: hannah.owens@sund.ku.dk

NICHOLAS FREYMUELLER

PhD Student

My research interests generally lie at the intersection of paleoecology and biogeography. I am interested in how animals, particularly charismatic megafauna, have responded to changes in Earth's climate on both ecological and geological time-scales. For my PhD dissertation (joint with the University of Adelaide), I am investigating the resilience of Arctic marine mammals, particularly bowhead whales, to future climate change by integrating bio-molecular paleo-archives (such as aDNA and stable isotopes) into process-explicit ecological models. Also, I'm @Smilodontology on Twitter.

Email: nicholas.freymueller@adelaide.edu.au

RAFAEL G. SCHOUTEN

PhD Student

Email: rafael.schouten@sund.ku.dk 

AXELLE JUSTINE ROXANE CORDIER

PhD Student

My main research motivation is to understand the interaction between planktonic production up to fishes, and how this relationship can be impacted in the short and long term under climate change. I am more particularly interested in how hydrographic processes influence food-webs structure, and how it cascades on the biogeography of oceanic fishes. In my PhD project, I am evaluating the effect of climate-ocean variability on exploited fish population dynamics - mainly blue whiting, mackerel and sprat - in the Northeast Atlantic using a surplus production model in order to develop Management Strategy Evaluations (MSEs).

Email: axelle.cordier@sund.ku.dk 

KATHERINE PULIDO CHADID

PhD Student

I am an environmental engineer with an MSc in sustainable development. My research interests are biodiversity conservation, macroecology, and global change. In my PhD, I'm focusing on the effectiveness of protected areas regarding threat abatement and species conservation. Specifically in terms of conducting systematic reviews to understand how threats have been considered in conservation planning, and how protected areas are contributing to the reduction of threats to biodiversity. In addition, I will be looking at global and regional analyses to assess the effectiveness of PAs in terms of biodiversity conservation and threat coverage considering the socio-economic and ecological features of the studied regions.

Email: katherine.pulido@sund.ku.dk 

TIEM VAN DER DEURE

PhD Student 

Climate change will directly impact the lives of millions through increased risk of vector-borne diseases. The spread of vector species and warmer temperatures will mean that more people are exposed to vector-borne diseases for longer periods. I want to improve our understanding of how climate drives vector-borne disease transmission and what the implications of climate change for vector-borne disease risk will be. In my PhD project, I will develop and apply state-of-the-art models of vector-borne disease transmission to predict the effect of a warming climate on the distribution of vector-borne diseases, focusing on snail- and tick-borne diseases. My research is part of the PREPARE4VBD project.

Email: tvd@sund.ku.dk 

MAJ SOFIE P. D. CHRISTENSEN

PhD Student

I am fascinated by the complex processes and species interactions that shape arctic ecosystems. My key interest is to understand how climate change may alter plant communities in the future and what implications these changes might have on ecosystem functioning. In my PhD project, I will use datasets from historical Danish botanists to perform field resurveys and reconstruct vegetation change over the past century. The project will include fieldwork in remote areas of western Greenland.

Email: maj.christensen@sund.ku.dk 

YUEYAO HU

Visiting PhD Student

I’m a guest PhD student from China, University of Chinese Academy of Science, with a main interest in macroecology and biogeography. My PhD project is to explore the drivers of Amphipoda biodiversity patterns all over the world. The Amphipoda, as a cold-adapted taxa, exhibits high species richness in middle to high latitude. We try to explore the underlying processes shaping this remarkable distribution, and the correlation of species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and genetic diversity.

Email: huyueyao@ioz.ac.cn 

Center Administrator
PA to Professor Carsten Rahbek

Email: kkrause@sund.ku.dk 

MICHELLE PELED

Special Consultant and Center Administrator
Executive Assistant to Professor Katherine Richardson

I am the Executive Assistant to Professor Katherine Richardson, and the Center Administrator at both SSC and ROCS. My main responsibilities center around administrative, organizational, financial, and HR related tasks in order to support and maintain the key objectives, workflows and activities involving both centers. I have an educational background in the technical sciences working as an engineer for 15 years before venturing down a new path at Globe Institute.

Email: michelle.peled@sund.ku.dk 

TIM AMMITZBØLL GUDKOV

Communications Officer

I play an active part in most communication activities at CMEC, including digital communication and social media, press and news, and overall communication assistance and counseling. I am also involved in the communication activities at Sustainability Science Centre and IPBES Denmark hosted by CMEC. I hold a Master's degree in Rhetoric from UCPH with a special interest in critical analysis, representation, and strategic communication. I have previously been engaged in counseling and public relations, copywriting, and editorial work in both the private and public sector.

Email: tim.gudkov@sund.ku.dk 

LARS DINESEN

Special Consultant

I am advisor in the IPBES Denmark office financed by six Danish Universities with the Danish Ministry of Environment on its board. IPBES is a global science-policy platform on biodiversity. My responsibilities include coordination of activities and administration of economy with main tasks comprising 1) liaison with scientists and decision-makers, 2) dissemination and communication of results, 3) supporting Danish research institutions and the Ministry of Environment with IPBES and 4) raising funds for biodiversity research. I hold a Master's degree in Biology on biodiversity patterns in the tropics. For many years I have worked with international policy level environmental agreements, research, and nature management.

Email: lars.dinesen@sund.ku.dk

LOUIS A. HANSEN

Research Consultant

I am an ornithologist, graduated from the Zoological Museum, Denmark. At CMEC, I work on various projects for Professor Carsten Rahbek. A huge project with mapping the distribution of all birds in the world ended in 2020. Other largescale projects have involved mapping distribution of mammals, snakes and amphibians on the African continent. Since 2020 employed at the Villum Mountain Project (South America), compiling and organizing data sets. Privately funded fieldwork often carries me away to East Africa and India. Here, my main interests are various aspects about the montane bird species including my passion for sound recording of birds.

Email: lahansen@sund.ku.dk

ANDERS HØJGÅRD PETERSEN

Special Consultant

My main interests are within biodiversity and nature conservation particular in a Danish context. My main ambition is to contribute in making Danish nature management more efficient, data-driven, and science-based. I do spatial analyses of biodiversity including spatial conservation prioritization; often in interdisciplinary contexts, also including socio-economic aspects and ecosystem services. I have played key roles in several high-profile national analyses of the efforts needed to preserve Danish biodiversity. My broad experience from more than 30 years as a biologist, consultant and researcher also includes marine biology, environmental impact assessment and monitoring, nature-based solutions, and data analysis in general.

Email: anders.h.petersen@sund.ku.dk

KARSTEN ELMOSE VAD 

Special Consultant 

I am the project manager of the school programs at CMEC. I develop science education materials in close collaboration with researchers and experts. My main objective is to bring the research-based knowledge of CMEC into the classrooms all over Denmark by designing high-quality learning activities. I have a background in environmental planning and as a science teacher. My work experience includes digital learning, podcasts, books and magazines, fundraising, citizen science, IBSE and environmental education on a variety of topics e.g. biodiversity, climate, evolution, wicked problems, natural history and "natursyn" (environmental philosophy). My ultimate goal is to engage a broader diversity of people in understanding, enjoying and discussing science and nature.

Email: kevad@sund.ku.dk 

EMMA EMILIE ANDERSEN

Academic Officer 

I have a Master’s degree in biology and have been engaged in science communication and education since my time as a student. My experience covers communication of sustainability, environmental science, ecotoxicology, synthetic biology and biodiversity, using a broad range of formats including workshops, digital platforms, e-books and video production. At CMEC, I work on the project “Biodiversity in high schools”, focusing on implementing research-based knowledge of biodiversity patterns into the curriculum of Danish high schools. I develop online teaching materials for students as well as written learning materials, courses and workshops for high school teachers.

Email: emma.andersen@sund.ku.dk

KATRINE MINDDAL

Academic Officer

My main interests are science education and science engagement activities in schools. At CMEC, I work on the project "A Greener Climate" ("Et grønnere klima") where I will develop interdisciplinary teaching materials and activities to be used in the Danish elementary schools within the topic of nature-based solutions. The project is a collaboration between science researchers and science communication professionals from both UCPH and University of Southern Denmark alongside science teacher associations, teachers, and students. My educational background is in teaching, conservation-restoration, and philosophy with years of experience in didactics and development of educational activities and materials.

Email: katrine.minddal@sund.ku.dk

LOUISE IMER NABE-NIELSEN

Special Consultant

Email: louise.nabe-nielsen@sund.ku.dk 

MARTIN SCHIER CHRISTIANSEN

Research Assistant

I am a mycologist working with Associate Professor Jacob Heilmann-Clausen, assisting in different scientific projects, monitoring programs, and science communication. My work mainly revolves around fieldwork, data analyses and writing in relation to Danish nature and conservation. I did my Master's degree on wood-inhabiting fungi and fungal ecology, which are my main research interests. At the moment, I work on teaching materials and courses, which will be used to educate forest managers and workers on actions benefiting biodiversity in managed forests.

Email: martin.schier@sund.ku.dk

THOMAS LÆSSØE

Senior Adviser

Email: thomas.laessoee@sund.ku.dk

BJØRN HERMANSEN

Emeritus

Email: bhermansen@sund.ku.dk

JAKOB FRITZBØGER CHRISTENSEN

Project Coordinator

I’m a project coordinator at Sustainability Science Centre. In other words, I help Professor Katherine Richardson lead a number of initiatives with a focus on outreach, communication and engagement of young voices in the transition towards a more sustainable society. I’ve worked at SSC since 2017 and my academic background comes from the Department of Political Science and Department of Geosciences.

Email: jchristensen@sund.ku.dk 

ESKIL NORDAHL FUNDAL 

Student Assistant

I’m currently doing my  Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Geoinformatics focusing on physical geography and geoinformatics. My primary interests are the relations between climate change, the biosphere, and cryosphere. At CMEC I help out with practical and administrative tasks, including maintaining the list of publications.

Email: eskil.fundal@sund.ku.dk 

MICHELLA MOLIN

Student Assistant

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources with specialisation in Environmental Science. Currently, I'm doing my Master’s degree in Climate Change – an interdisciplinary degree linking environmental and social science. I work as a student assistant at IPBES Denmark where I help out with practical and administrative tasks as well as assisting in various IPBES Denmark projects.

Email: michella.molin@sund.ku.dk 

ANNA-SOFIE STENSGAARD

Associate Professor

I am a disease ecologist, with a special passion for parasites and the critters that transmit them between humans and other animals. At a broad scale, I am interested in what drives global patterns infectious diseases, and how to quantify the role of climate change in future disease trends. I also occasional zoom in and look at how specific species of parasites interact with their hosts, vectors or intermediate host in more local settings. Current favorite is the common liver fluke, and its distribution in snails and wildlife in Denmark. I head the newly established Research Platform for Disease Ecology, Health and Climate that aim to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration to address and communicate knowledge about the relationship between snail-borne parasites, climate and biodiversity.

Email: asstensgaard@sund.ku.dk

HENRIK GLENNER

Affiliated Full Professor

My research interest can be divided in 3 major points. 1) Lifecycle studies of barnacles and related crustacean groups have constituted a major part of my research activities. 2) Invasive species in the marine environment in Norway and other places. In the recent years I have been studying the population dynamic and genetics of two invasive marine crab species and their most prominent parasite, a parasitic barnacle or rhizocephalan, which as adult castrates their crab hosts. And 3) I am interested in how to construct the most reliable phylogeny by the use of data from diverse data like DNA, fossils and morphological and geographical sources. 

Email: hglenner@sund.ku.dk 

ROBERT WHITTAKER

Professor 

My research interests span several broadly interrelated themes within biogeography and macroecology. I have a long-standing obsession with island biogeography, having worked extensively on the successional dynamics of the Krakatau system and the much longer-scale dynamics of islands in Macaronesia. Together with my collaborators I have been working to develop island biogeographical theory to encompass multiple scales of process from ecological processes in individual trees and habitat islands up to evolutionary time scales on oceanic islands. Our work has also focused on classic macroecological patterns of species abundance distributions, island species–area relationships, island assembly and disassembly. I am also interested in the development of the disciplinary area of conservation biogeography. I hold the position of Professor of Biogeography at the University of Oxford and am an official Fellow of St Edmund Hall, also in the University of Oxford.

Email: robert.whittaker@ouce.ox.ac.uk 

MIGUEL B. ARAÚJO 

Professor

My research is focused around three broad questions: why do species occur where they do? What processes drive speciation, persistence and extinction of species at varying spatial and temporal scales? How do processes operating at the individual-species level scale up to large ensembles of species and species richness? I have also a strong interest in the application of biogeographical principles, theories, and analyses to problems concerning the conservation of biodiversity at macroecological scales.

Email: maraujo@mncn.csic.es 

ROBERT K. COLWELL

Professor

As an evolutionary ecologist, my interests center on the biology and geography of biodiversity. In the tropics, I have worked with the ecology and evolution of species interactions, and managed and developed database tools for a major biodiversity inventory. My work with biogeographical theory and spatial models has stimulated controversy and new directions in the field. Fruitful collaborations with colleagues at CMEC and at the Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil, continue to yield new insights into evolutionary biogeography and macroecology. In collaboration with Anne Chao, I have been active in developing new statistical methods and software tools for biodiversity statistics. In addition to my affiliation with CMEC, I am Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Connecticut; Museum Curator Adjoint at the Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado; and Professor e Pesquisador Visitante Especial, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil.

Email: robertkcolwell@gmail.com 

GARY GRAVES

Research Scientist

I am unapologetically curious about natural history and the pathways by which natural history observations catalyze significant discoveries in evolutionary ecology.  Fieldwork has always played an integral role in my research program on the ecology, biogeography, and evolution of birds.  Current investigations focus on the microbiome of New World vultures, biogeography of the Ozark Mountains, conservation biology of rare and declining species, and the determinants of geographic ranges. I am also deeply involved in international efforts to elucidate the complexities of the avian phylogeny through whole-genome analysis. I am Curator of Birds and Research Scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

Email: gravesg@si.edu