Invited SpeakersThomas Elmqvist, Professor (University of Stockholm, Department of Systems Ecology, Sweden): Ecosystem services and resilience in urban landscapes
Kees van Gestel: Integrated assessment of bioavailability and ecological effects of metal pollution in a Dutch floodplain area
Walter Giger, Professor (Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Switzerland): Nonylphenolic chemicals as environmental contaminants: Historical retrospect on three decades of research and recent progress
Juha Kämäri, Professor (Finnish Environment Institute): Comprehensive scenarios of Europe's freshwater futures
Rosa Margesin, Associate Professor, (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Hydrocarbon bioremediation in alpine soils
Ian P Thompson, Professor of Engineering Science (University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science): Stimulating microbial clean-up of the environment
Thomas Elmqvist, Professor (University of Stockholm, Department of Systems Ecology, Sweden): Ecosystem services and resilience in urban landscapes
Thomas Elmqvist, PhD, is a professor in Natural Resource Management. His research is focused on ecosystem dynamics, ecosystem services, land use change, natural disturbances and components of resilience including the role of social institutions. He is coordinating two major interdisciplinary research themes as part of the new Stockholm Resilience Centre (www.stockholmresilience.su.se) at Stockholm University. The first focus on governance and management in urban landscapes, the other on adaptive governance of dynamic land- and seascapes. He was involved in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and in the two sub-global assessments in Sweden. He is also principal investigator of multidisciplinary projects in Madagascar and in the south Pacific. He serves as associated editor for the journals Ecology and Society and Conservation and Society. He is currently a co-chair of the Science Committee bioSustainability, as part of Diversitas (www.bioSustainability.org)
Kees van Gestel: Integrated assessment of bioavailability and ecological effects of metal pollution in a Dutch floodplain area
Kees van Gestel is associate professor of ecotoxicology at VU University in Amsterdam. He studied environmental science at Wageningen University and worked at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment where he also did his PhD. Since 1992 he has been working at VU University. His main research interest is the bioavailability, bioaccumulation and toxicity of metals and organic compounds, single and in mixtures, in soil invertebrates. He published more than 175 papers. He is editor of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and Applied Soil Ecology and on the editorial boards of several other environmental toxicology journals.
Ian P Thompson, Professor of Engineering Science (University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science): Stimulating microbial clean-up of the environment
Prof. Ian P. Thompson (University of Oxford, Department of Engineering). Recently joined (March 2008) the University of Oxford as Professor of Engineering Science (http://www.eng.ox.ac.uk/~cheit/), specialising in the manipulation of micro-organisms using physical and engineered approaches (ultrasound and nanomaterials) for industrial waste water treatment and bioremediation. Until April 2007 he was the Head of Environmental Biotechnology in CEH NERC Oxford, which specialised in bioremediation, waste treatment and the toxic impact of contaminants on microbial communities. Current research projects includes the development of microbial based end-of-pipe clean-up systems for treating industrial effluents, ultrasound and nanomaterials for stimulating microbial activity, and nanomaterials-microbe interaction toxicity studies. He has published over 100 papers and in the past five years secured over £3.0M in competitive funding. He is co-founder and steering member of the Environmental Knowledge Transfer Network http://www.eco-web.com/register/04046.html) which is a Government funded virtual centre specialising in the needs of the commercial sector in environmental research. He is subject editor of Soil Biology & Biochemistry, on the editorial boards of Applied & Environmental Microbiology and FEMS Microbiology Ecology, member of several UK Research Council expert committees and Visiting Professor at the University of Aberdeen. From April 2007 he has been seconded to the University of Oxford and is based at the University Begbroke Science Park (http://www.begbroke.ox.ac.uk/) Institute of Advanced Technologies. During this time he has established a state of the art environmental biotechnology laboratory and currently has two grants investigating nanomaterial-bacterial interaction, studies aimed in selectively killing bacterial pathogens in industrial systems and microbial conversion of green waste to high value products. He is founding Director of Microbial Solutions Ltd (http://www.microbial-solutions.com/) which specialises in treating waste metal working fluids, diagnostic and formulation chemistry.
Juha Kämäri, Professor (Finnish Environment Institute): Comprehensive scenarios of Europe's freshwater futures
Juha Kämäri is a professor at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), being on a leave of absence of his position as a Research Director of the Institute. He is a member of the Research Council of Biosiences and Environmental Research of the Academy of Finland, and an Expert Councellor of the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. He has participated in several multidisciplinary research programs and research teams, and has been responsible of several research and assessments projects aiming at policy support. He has been the leader/coordinator of several EC-funded research projects dealing with scaling-up dynamic models for biogeochemical cycling (DYNAMO), with the use of satellite information for lake monitoring (SALMON), and with benchmarking of models for the Water framework directive (BMW). Presently he is the Co-coordinator of a large Integrated Project dealing with Pan-European water scenarios (SCENES).
Walter Giger, Professor (Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Switzerland): Nonylphenolic chemicals as environmental contaminants: Historical retrospect on three decades of research and recent progress
http://4dweb.proclim.ch/4dcgi/proclim/en/Detail_Person?9824
http://www.eawag.ch/kuerze/personen/homepages/gigerest/index_ENRosa Margesin, Associate Professor, (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Hydrocarbon bioremediation in alpine soils
Rosa Margesin is associate professor of microbiology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and visiting professor at the Free University of Bozen, Italy. Her research is focused on cold-adapted microorganisms, with the consideration of various topics such as biodegradation and bioremediation of organic pollutants in cold environments (with emphasis on alpine soils) and the characterization of cold-adapted, alpine bacteria and yeasts and their activities. The monitoring and evaluation of soil bioremediation by measuring soil biological activity is another field of interest. She is co-editor/editor of nine books related to soil microbiology and cold-adapted microorganisms, co-editor of two thematic journal issues and serves on the editorial borad of environmental journals.
http://www.uibk.ac.at/microbiology/personal_pages/margesin_rosa.html