I have a broad interest in ecology and evolution, and my main research interest is ecological processes in highly seasonal environments, and how variation in local weather (short-term variation and long-term directional changes) might affect populations and processes in such ecosystems. I am also interested in parasite-host dynamics and transmission of zoonoses between animals and humans.

Currently teaching or co-teaching the following courses at UiA:

BIO113 - Evolutionary Biology

BIO300 - Bachelor's Thesis in Biology

BIO112 - Introduction to biology

MA143 – Biostatistics

Nat114 - Naturfag 1A fellesemne (in Norwegian)

Nat108 - Naturfag 2 (in Norwegian)

ScandTick Innovation

ScandTick Innovation is the largest research project on ticks and tickborne diseases in Scandinavia. The purpose of the project is to reduce the occurrence of tickborne diseases in humans and animals in Scandinavia. A total of 11 Swedish, Danish and Norwegian partner institutions participate in the project. Specialists in veterinary medicine, ecology, molecular biology, microbiology, medicine, health economics and environmental modeling work together to reduce the number of infected infections in humans and animals. 

Spatial ecology of ticks

Tick (Ixodes spp.) is regarded as a major disseminator of infection of so-called zoonoses (infections transmitted between animals and humans) in the northern parts of Europe. Knowledge of the distribution of the sheep tick in Norway is incomplete, but the species appears to be increasingly common further inland, towards the north, and at higher altitudes. Such an increase in distribution can, in turn, lead to increased risk of infection and the appearance of infections in new regions. Thus, it is of great importance to ascertain the current, and hopefully be able to predict the future, distributional range of the sheep tick, in order to mitigate the impact of tick-borne diseases by providing information to the public and medical services. Based on several different approaches, we study the distribution of the sheep tick and other tick species at small and large scale and seek to identify ecological drivers for the current distribution. The project is a collaboration with Dr. Øyvind Steifetten at the University College of Southeast Norway.