Department of Natural History
University Museum
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Trondheim, Norway

Mike Martin is an evolutionary geneticist whose research focuses on reconstructing and interpreting the evolutionary histories of plants, animals, and their pathogens through the analysis of complex genomic data. Martin completed postdoctoral training at the Centre for GeoGenetics (University of Copenhagen) and the Centre for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics (University of California Berkeley), and was an NTNU Onsager Fellow in molecular biodiversity prior to obtaining his current tenured faculty position at the NTNU University Museum. Martin is particularly attracted to cases in which ancient nucleic acids further understanding of present-day distributions of biodiversity. Martin is particularly interested in the development of new genomic analysis methods for the world’s precious natural history collections.

Department of Terrestrial Ecology
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
Trondheim, Norway

Brage Hansen is an expert in reindeer movement ecology and spatial-temporal population dynamics. As a Professor II at NTNU’s Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, he leads the Dynamics of Arctic Ecosystems Group. The group’s research combines stochastic demographic modelling tools, timeseries analyses and experimental approaches, with a particular focus on the Svalbard terrestrial ecosystem, to explore how anthropogenic drivers (e.g. climate change, harvest) impact patterns of population/community dynamics, behaviour, and evolution, in time and space. 

Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics
Swedish Museum Natural History
Stockholm, Sweden

Love Dalén is an evolutionary geneticist whose research interests are focused on using palaeogenetics to investigate evolutionary consequences of past environmental and anthropogenic change. His current research ranges from projects that aim to investigate the impact of Pleistocene climate change on animal micro-evolution, to projects that explore the genetic consequences of small population size in animals that have gone through human-induced population declines in the last century. Dalén has a PhD in Zoology from Stockholm University, where he worked in population genetics of the arctic fox. After his PhD, he took up a postdoctoral position in Madrid and, following this, a Marie-Curie Fellowship at Royal Holloway University of London. Since 2009, he has held a permanent research position at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, where he now works as a Professor in evolutionary genetics and is head of the department’s research section. His research group comprises several postdocs and PhD students, working on a broad range of palaeogenomic projects, for example on woolly mammoth, lemmings, arctic foxes and Sumatran rhinos. Dalén is a founding member of the Swedish Centre for Palaeogenetics.

Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics
Globe Institute
University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark

Binia De Cahsan Westbury is an evolutionary biologist with research interests in conservation genetics and palaeogenomics. She focuses on genetic changes in both historic and contemporary populations, with a particular interest in endangered species such as koalas and black rhinos. De Cahsan Westbury earned her Ph.D. from the University of Potsdam (2020), where she studied genetic diversity and introgression in the endangered European fire-bellied toad. She integrates genomic data from museum collections and environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess genetic diversity and explore shifts over time. Currently a senior researcher at the University of Copenhagen, she applies temporal genomics to investigate evolutionary processes shaping present-day populations, utilising both modern and ancient genomes to understand long-term genetic changes and extinction risks.

Department of Natural History
NTNU University Museum
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Trondheim, Norway

Vanessa Bieker is an evolutionary geneticist whose research interest lays in uncovering the genomic basis of species adaptation upon introduction to new environments. These introductions may have either happened through natural dispersal or through deliberate or accidental introductions by humans (invasive species). Bieker obtained her Ph.D. in 2021 from NTNU, where she worked on invasive plants. Her research utilizes historical herbarium and museum collections to track changes over time, and applies various methods from the field of evolutionary genomics, including population genomics, phylogenomics, and metagenomics.

Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics
Department of Biology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Trondheim, Norway

Nicolas Dussex is a geneticist whose research interests lie in field of conservation and evolution. He is particularly interested in the evolution of small populations, the genome-wide effects of population declines on population persistence and the consequences of translocations on population fitness. Dussex obtained his PhD from the University of Otago, where he worked on endemic New Zealand parrots. He subsequently joined the Swedish Museum of Natural history and Centre for Palaeogenetics (Stockholm University) to focus on the genomics of endangered (e.g. Sumatran rhinoceros, kakapō) and extinct species (e.g. huia) as well as the genomic basis of adaptation (e.g. woolly rhinoceros). Dussex is experienced in using temporal genomics approaches, relying on a combination of modern, historical and ancient genomes to study the evolution of populations in real time. Moreover, he is particularly interested in developing comparative and ‘macrogenetics’ approaches to assess the human impacts on whole ecosystems.

Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics
Department of Biology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Trondheim, Norway

Mathilde Le Moullec is a wildlife ecologist interested in cross-species spatial synchrony of arctic ecosystems and how temporal changes in spatial synchrony may be related to climate change, as well as how climate change and overharvest affect high-Arctic ecosystems. Le Moullec’s work further aims to cross boundaries, linking this knowledge gained on harvest- and climate-induced variations of historical genetic diversity with current fluctuations of populations’ demography. Le Moullec has completed several successful field campaigns across the Svalbard archipelago, and is primarily responsible for collecting the large number of ancient reindeer materials upon which the ColdRein project depends. She currently holds a position as Researcher at the Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics.

Natural History Museum of Denmark
The University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark

Eline Lorenzen is a molecular and palaeoecologist who studies the ecology and evolution of genetic and phenotypic diversity through time, primarily in large mammals.  After completing her PhD at University of Copenhagen, she undertook independently funded postdoctoral fellowships at the Centre for GeoGenetics, a Centre of Excellence at University of Copenhagen, and at University of California, Berkeley. Eline is permanent faculty in the Natural History Museum of Denmark, where she is also Curator of Mammalogy. Her interdisciplinary research combines population genomics of past and present populations with insights from macroecology, archaeology, the palaeosciences and climate change research to identify and understand the evolutionary forces that have shaped past and present patterns of biological diversity. In addition, her group uses the analysis of geometric morphometrics and stable isotopes to understand patterns of phenotypic diversity within species and populations through time, linking morphological and genetic patterns.

Center for Energy Metabolism and Reproduction
Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology
Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shenzhen, China

John Speakman is an expert in the molecular basis of mammalian energetics using -omics approaches and whole-body measurements of physiological and metabolic parameters. He is also a triple fellow of the Royal Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences USA. He leads two research groups: one at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, and one at the University of Aberdeen. His work focuses on the causes and consequences of variation in energy balance, and in particular the factors that limit expenditure, the genetic and environmental drivers of obesity and the energetic contribution to ageing. He is an internationally recognised expert in the use of isotope methodologies to measure energy demands and has used these methods on a wide range of wild animals, model species and humans.

Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences
School of Biological Sciences
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Scotland

Ela Król is a physiologist using transcriptomics approaches to characterize animal responses to a wide range of environmental manipulations. She earned her Ph.D. in Animal Physiology and Energetics in 1992 and her Habilitation degree in 2009, both from the Jagiellonian University (Poland). She has been involved in the projects funded by the Research Council of Norway to study the effects of climate change on Svalbard reindeer since 2017. She now holds a Research Fellow position at the University of Aberdeen.

Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
Ås, Norway

Knut Røed is perhaps the foremost expert in Eurasian reindeer genetics, with broader expertise in animal science, evolutionary biology, ecology. Having recently retired, he holds a position as Emeritus Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management
Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
Ås, Norway

Leif Egil Loe is an expert in ungulate ecology, especially focusing on Svalbard reindeer ecophysiology and behavior. He earned a PhD from the University of Oslo in 2004. He was an Associate Professor in wildlife ecology and management at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences from 2010 to 2013, and he became a full professor in 2013.

Institute of Evolutionary Biology
School of Biological Sciences
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK

Katerina Guschanski is an evolutionary geneticist who studies how genetic diversity and the interaction of organisms with their environment change through time and space and how climatic and anthropogenic factors contribute to this change. To tackle these broad questions, she is working at the intersection of ecology, molecular biology, large-scale comparative and functional genomics, and bioinformatics. Current research projects range from quantifying the effects of human-driven population decline on genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of great apes, speciation in primates, and the evolution of host-associated microbiomes through time, over demographic transitions, and in response to drastic environmental change. Katerina did her PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology studying the molecular ecology of mountain gorillas. She then took up a postdoctoral researcher position at Imperial College London and later an EMBO and HFSP funded postdoc at the University of Lausanne. From 2015 to 2020, Katerina was a group leader at Uppsala University. Since 2020, she is a Senior Lecture in Genomics at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine
Université de Savoie Mont Blanc
Le Bourget-du-Lac, France

Glenn Yannic is a molecular biologist who studies the consequences of environmental and anthropogenic changes on the genetic diversity of alpine and arctic species. Glenn received his Ph.D. at the University of Lausanne, on the evolutionary history of the complex karyotypic group of Sorex araneus. He then moved to Laval University, Canada, where he developed a large-scale population genetics program on caribou and reindeer on a global scale. He currently holds a faculty position at the University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France, where he is developing an integrated research program to investigate the historical and contemporary factors shaping genetic variation in ungulate populations (e.g., caribou, chamois), based on the use of different approaches, including analyses of current DNA and aDNA genetic variation, spatial modeling, paleoclimate reconstructions and simulations, i.e., in the emerging field of Geogenomics.