PROJECT LEADER
BARBARA ZIMMERMANN
Project Leader
Leader of the LARGE Research Group and a Professor at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Barbara is also a project leader for Grensevilt and CarniForeGraze, a senior researcher with Skandulv, and a member of Skogsjerv. Barbara is originally from Switzerland, but received her PhD at INN and has been living and working in Norway since 1993.
SENIOR RESEARCHERS
PETTER WABAKKEN
Senior Researcher
Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Petter has 40 years of experience with game research and management across national borders. He initiated the first cross-border research projects on large predators in Scandinavia, and is the Norwegian project manager for the Scandinavian wolf research project Skandulv, leader of a long-standing project on the expansion and return of bears in southern Norway, and has equal leadership in the Scandinavian forest wolf project Skogsjerv.
ANE ERIKSEN
Senior Researcher
Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Ane has a PhD in behavioral ecology from the University of Oslo on song learning and mate choice in songbirds. She has been involved in various game research projects in Scandinavia and North America and studies, among other things, predator and prey behavior, communication, movement patterns and habitat choices in species such as wolves, moose, brown bears, polar bears and eagle owl.
KAREN MARIE MATHISEN
Senior Researcher
Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Karen Marie has worked with moose browsing in the boreal forest, the cascading effects of elk on biodiversity, and applied research on how to reduce the consequences of moose browsing damage on forestry. She works with a network of forest owners and game managers in Eastern Hedmark in the border areas of Sweden, and leads dialogue about integrated forest-moose management in areas with and without predators.
KAJA JOHNSEN
Senior Researcher
Senior adviser at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Kaja has a PhD in population dynamics from INN on small rodents. She has been involved in research projects on large herbivores, and did her master thesis on interactions between moose and red deer at winter feeding stations.
KRISTIN MATHIESEN
Senior Researcher
Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Kristin is working with human dimensions and attitudes, values and behavior related to conflicts in wildlife management in general, and large carnivores in particular. She is supervising a PhD that looks at trust in large carnivore research, and is also engaged in wild reindeer conservation issues.
MORTEN TOFASTRUD
Senior Researcher
Head of department of Agricultural Sciences, Blæstad at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN). Morten has expertise in animal science and has worked with beef cattle grazing in the boreal forest. He works on the CarniForeGraze project as a supervisor for Post-Doc, PhD and master students.
MARCO HEURICH
Senior Researcher
Professor at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. His research focuses on the conservation ecology of mammals, the effects of wildlife on biodiversity and the application of remote sensing in ecology and conservation. Marco is also an Associate Professor at the University of Freiburg and head of the Department of National Park Monitoring at the Bavarian Forest National Park. Moreover, he serves as the scientific coordinator of the EUROLYNX and EUROWILCAT Networks.
LUCREZIA GORINI
R&D Senior Advisor
R&D Senior adviser at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN). Lucrezia has a PhD in Animal Biology from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and research experience on population dynamics and predator-prey interactions. She has long worked with strategic monitoring of grants and funding opportunities for international cooperation in research and education (particularly Nordic and EU funding) and with career development for young researchers. She is currently working at the Norwegian Environment Agency on open data and national and international environmental indicators (e.g. SDGs). She has a special interest in all aspects of Open Science.
MADHU CHETRI
Researcher
Madhu Chetri has a PhD in Snow leopard ecology from Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN). He has 20 years of research experience monitoring snow leopards and their prey as well as other carnivores in the Himalayas, Nepal. He has been involved in several international conservation and research-funded projects in the Himalayas. Currently, he is involved in a 5 years capacity-building project in the Himalayas implemented by INN and funded by the Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
CECILIE DYNGELAND
Postdoctoral Researcher
Postdoctoral Researcher at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Blæstad, on the project “Grazing in carnivore forests for sustainable production of food, timber and biodiversity” (Carniforegraze). Cecilie has a PhD in sustainable development and policy evaluation from the University of Sheffield. As a social scientist her research has focused largely on policies affecting smallholder farmers in developing countries in Africa and Latin-America.
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
GIORGIA AUSILIO
Doctoral Student
Doctoral student with the Grensevilt project at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Giorgia did her master's thesis at Grimsö Research Station, which was about wolf impact on the moose population and moose grazing damage. She has worked extensively in the field, with red deer inventory, wolf and wolverine predation studies, and the inventory of lynx and wolves. Giorgia's PhD investigates how hunting and wolf predation affect spatial movement in moose, interactions between wolves and moose, and moose calf survival.
ANNE LOOSEN
Doctoral Student
Doctoral student with the Grensevilt project at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Annie has worked on a variety of wildlife-related projects, from landscape-scale ungulate habitat studies to evaluation of large carnivore mitigation strategies. She completed her master thesis in 2017 at the University of Alberta in Canada and moved to Norway in 2018. Annie's PhD project looks at effects of recolonizing carnivores, roads, forestry practices, and a changing climate on moose browsing ecology.
MELANIE SPEDENER
Doctoral Student
Doctoral student in CarniForeGraze at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. Melanie wrote her Master thesis about microhabitat selection of free-ranging beef cattle in boreal forest in a project with Barbara Zimmermann and Morten Tofastrud. Her PhD project is about the effects of summer ranging cattle on the boreal ecosystem. How do they effect tree regeneration and plant biodiversity? And how are they affected by the presence of large carnivores?
THERESA KIRCHNER
Doctoral Student
Doctoral student with the Moose on the Move project at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Evenstad. She also works on the Grensevilt and Wolf-Human interaction projects. Theresa has a background in marine biology and wildlife science, and has experience in studying the fine-scale movement and behavior of humpback whales using animal-borne tags. She will use similar technology as part of her PhD to investigate the influence of human disturbances on the movement, energy expenditure and fine-scale behavior of wolves and moose.
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