UiT Experts at Arctic Frontiers 2014
Expert lists for journalists at Arctic Frontiers 2014: Humans in the Arctic.
Find an expert:
- Live, work and stay healthy in the Arctic
- Health & environment in the Arctic
- Shipping & offshore in the Arctic
- Other relevant experts
Live, work and stay healthy in the Arctic
Signs of instability at the Arctic Ocean floor
The Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) is investigating the role of gas hydrates in arctic areas, and the effects they will have on oceans and our global climate in the future.
Large amounts of natural gas, mainly methane, are stored in the form of hydrates in continental margins worldwide, particularly in the Arctic. Gas hydrate consists of ice-like crystalline solids of water molecules encaging gas molecules, and is often referred to as ‘the ice that burns’.On one hand, it is seen as a potential unconventional energy resource, but methane released from hydrates will also accelerate climate change because it is a major greenhouse gas. CAGE is unique in focusing solely on the climate aspect of gas hydrates. https://cage.uit.no/
Contact: Professor Dr. Jurgen Mienert
Office: +47 776 44446
Mobile: +47 997 94063
Email: jurgen.mienert@uit.no
Climate change - not a new phenomenon
Melting glaciers and rising sea levels are certainly not new phenomena. Climate change was dramatic even during the last ice age, says CAGE’s Professor Tine Rasmussen, who recently published an article in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
Rasmussen’s article shows that repeated, severe melting of the ice sheet contributed to a very unstable climate even during the Ice Age. Together with Erik Thomsen from Aarhus University in Denmark she has studied sediment cores from the sea off north-western Svalbard. The studies show that the ice sheet shrank and grew again to a much greater extent than assumed during the last ice age.
Contact: Professor Tine Rasmussen
Office: +47 776 44408
Email: tine.rasmussen@uit.no
Climate effects on arctic animals
At UiT we study how fishes, birds and mammals cope with the large seasonal variations in climatic conditions, in light-darkness cycles (photoperiod) and in food availability/quality that are all characteristic of high latitudes. Our methods span from state-of-the-art molecular techniques to whole-animal integrative research. We benefit from access to excellent animal research facilities both for fish, wild birds and mammals, to well-equipped specialized laboratories, and to the good opportunities for field research that our geographical location and infrastructure in Tromsø offer.
Contact: Professor in animal physiology Lars Folkow
Office: +47 77 64 47 92
Mobile: + 47 901 55 626
Email:lars.folkow@uit.no
Indigenous resource management in a changing world
Reindeer husbandry, Sámi pastoralism, Indigenous resource management in a changing world, ethnic/indigenous relations, læstadianism, North Norwegian history, Indigenous peoples, North West Russia, the Nenets people (Arctic Russia).
Contact: Ivar Bjørklund
Office: +47 776 45274
mobile: + 47 906 22 651
Email: ivar.bjorklund@uit.no
Present during Arctic Frontiers
Future North - Architecture
The research project is about the future northern landscape, about the change in cities and territories that are going to happen when oil, minerals and Northeast Passage opens for new activities in the north.
Contact: Janike Kampevold Larsen, Associate Professor
Oslo School of Architecture and Design and University of Tromsø – the Arctic University of Norway
Office: +47 22997090
Mobile: +47 41617455
Marine resource economics
We live in a world with limited resources. Overfishing, loss of biodiversity and habitat, global warming and ocean acidification are only some of the local and global challenges we must address in order to secure sustainable societies. In addition to being challenges in themselves, these factors are connected with each other and how we live our lives. Bio-economic analysis, which combines economic and biological principles, can give valuable insight into these connections and give input to how we should manage the goods and services nature can provide.
Consequently, our research spans from single resources, like cod, and single industries, like the cod fisheries and the oil industry, to the relationship between industries and how they affect and are affected by the ecosystem as a whole. Additionally, we study how to capture values that are not easily detected in the market: what is a fishing trip in the midnight sun worth?
Contact: Professor of resource economics Ola Flaaten
Office: +47 77 64 55 44
Email: ola.flaaten@uit.no
An interdisciplinary approach to marine governance
Communities in the Arctic are directly or indirectly dependent of natural resources, and sustainable development will depend on appropriate resource governance. Resource governance takes place in an interaction between states, civil society and markets. At the Norwegian College of Fishery Science, the research group for the study of “Marine resources management and development” is involved in several interdisciplinary projects about marine governance, industrial development and socioeconomic and institutional effects of changes.
Oil and gas development:
Professor Bjørn Hersoug
Office: +47 77 64 55 47
Email: Bjorn.Hersoug@gmail.com / bjorn.hersoug@uit.no
Reseacher Maaike Knol
Office: +47 77 64 67 31
Email: maaike.knol@uit.no
Fisheries governance and development:
Professor Bjørn Hersoug
Office: +47 77 64 55 47
Email: Bjorn.Hersoug@gmail.com/bjorn.hersoug@uit.no
Professor Petter Holm
Office: +47 77 64 55 48
Email: petter.holm@uit.no
Associate professor Jahn Petter Johnsen
Office: +47 77 64 67 84
Email: jahn.johnsen@uit.no
The history of industrial development in the Arctic
Associate professor Bjørn Petter Finstad
Office: +47 77 64 69 62
Email: bjorn.petter.finstad@uit.no
The Arctic Modernities
The Arctic Modernities project investigates the impact of modernisation/modernity on the Arctic as a cultural formation. The research focuses on gender, indigeneity and ecology, providing a necessary focus on the grey zones ignored in much present-day decision making about the Arctic. Among the material being studied is a wide spectrum of genres and media, from media debates, documentation, travel writing, guidebooks and memoirs on the one hand, to fiction, poetry, paintings, architecture and film on the other. The perspective on the Arctic is both external and internal. The project builds on a previous project on Arctic discourses, which helped establish the field of the study of the literature of the Arctic, examining various perceptions of the Arctic in a circumpolar field and how these are formed by political concerns and literary conventions.
Contact: Professor Anka Ryall, Centre for Women's and Gender Research
Mobile: +47-48154939
E-mail: anka.ryall@uit.no
Contact: Assoc. Prof, Johan Schimanski, Comparative Literature
Office: +47-77764231
Mobile: +47-97424023
E-mail: johan.schimanski@uit.no
Health & environment in the Arctic
Hypothermia - reviving people
Our local celebrity professor Mads Gilbert, is together with Torkjel Tveita among the world’s leading experts on hypothermia, and reviving people who have been cooled down to extreme temperatures. In 2000 Gilbert and his team saved the life of a woman (Anna Bågenholm) who’s temperature was down to 13,7 C, the lowest survived body temperature recorded. She now also works at Tromsø Hospital.
Contact: Prof. dr. med. Mads Gilbert, office: +4777626197 mobile: +4790878740
Environmental Waste Management (EWMA)
The main objective for the project is to develop a distinct Northern Norwegian competence cluster in waste handling in the Arctic oil industry and shipping. Through research and education, the project will build new knowledge on how to handle waste from this industry in a more proper manner in the high north region and cold environment.
EWMA - http://site.uit.no/ewma/
Contact: Jørgen Berge
Office: + 47 776 46036
Email: jorgen.berge@uit.no
Stian Røberg
Office: + 47 776 45688
Mobile: +47 411 03 970
Email: stian.roberg@uit.no
Sami health research
Centre for Sami Health Research is responsible for a major health and lifestyle survey in northern Norway: SAMINOR. The research is in municipalities with Sami and Norwegian settlement. The main focus is on lifestyle diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Contact: Ann Ragnhild Broderstad, scientist
Office: + 47 76985030
Mobile: + 47 95970559
e-mail: ann.ragnhild.broderstad@uit.no
Pollutants
Contact: Torkjel Sandanger
Office: + 47 776 45404
Email: torkjel.sandanger@uit.no
Jan Brox
Office: +47 776 26715
E-mail: jan.brox@uit.no
Yngve Figenschou
Office: +47 776 46755
E-mail: yngve.figenschou@uit.no
The Tromsø Study - A unique populationsurvey
The Tromsø Study was initiated in 1974. Over 40.000 persons from Tromsø have attended at least one of the six surveys. The primary aim of the Tromsø Study was to determine causes of the high cardiovascular mortality, and also to develop ways of preventing heart attacks and strokes. This was reflected through the first name of the study: The Tromsø Heart Study. However, during the 39 years since the first examination of the Tromsø Study took place, increasing emphasis has been put on other chronic diseases and conditions, in particular atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis and fractures. It has been a deliberate policy to invite a wide range of faculty research groups to join in with subprojects in the surveys, and there are currently some 100 different ongoing research projects based on the data from the consecutive six surveys.
Contact: Sameline Grimsgaard
Office: +47 776 49285
Mobile: +47 91351858
Email: sameline.grimsgaard@uit.no
Anne-Sofie Furberg, project manager Fit Futures
Office: +47 776 44841
Email: anne-sofie.furberg@uit.no
Ocean treasure hunt
The university is the host for MabCent-SFI, a centre for marine bioactives and drug discovery. They do marine bioprospecting, and have analysed more than 150 organisms from the Barents sea, looking for organisms with potential for further research, innovation and commercialization including new medicines against cancer, bacterias, infection, heart decease, diabetes and other things. They have some great photos of these organisms, who are often very beautiful.
Website is in English: http://www0.nfh.uit.no/mabcent/
Contact: Professor Trond Ø. Jørgensen
Email: Trond.jorgensen@uit.no
Sleep during the dark months / Polar night:
Contact: Oddgeir Friborg mobile: + 47 959 20 068 Email: oddgeir.friborg@uit.no,
Shipping & offshore in the Arctic
Arctic shipping through challenging waters
The overall theme of the project is the legal framework for international shipping through Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean will provide an important means for transport within and through the region. International law and the law of the sea are applicable to the Arctic and shipping in the region. As a major part of the Arctic shipping activities will occur in the waters off Russia, the project is particularly addressing the Russian legislation and policy on the Northern Sea Route.
Contact: Tore Henriksen, professor
Office: +47 776 45237
Email: tore.henriksen@uit.no
The Impacts of Oil and Gas Activities on Peoples of the Arctic
The project The Impacts of Oil and Gas Activities on Peoples of the Arctic Using a Multiple Securities Perspective examines multiple understandings of security in the Arctic region, particularly in Norway, Canada and Russia, cooperating with such institutions such as the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ural Division), York University (Canada) and University of Cambridge (UK). Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is additionally the International Principle Investigator and lead in the International Polar Year Project. She has been increasingly focusing upon the relationships between health, economic and environmental security.
Contact: Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv
Office: +47 776 45593
Mobile: +47 948 42 610
Email: gunhild.hoogensen.gjorv@uit.no
Invasive species in the Arctic, “blind passengers” with ballast water and with tourists, biodiversity in the Arctic
Invasive species have traditionally been a problem at lower latitudes; this study of Inger G. Alsos and Chris Ware considered whether a growing amount of human activity in the Arctic and climate change might bring about a species invasion in the far north. (https://theconversation.com/heed-past-lessons-to-save-arctic-from-invasive-species-20181)
Contact: Inger Greve Alsos
Office: +47 776 20796
Email: inger.g.alsos@uit.no
Present on the 23rd of January
Arctic search and rescue
Maritime securityandlogisticsin coldclimates /
Arcticshipping,navigation andshipping
Contact: Bjørn Batalden, PhD.
Office: +47 776 60329
Mobile: +47 916 64 605
Email: bjorn.batalden@uit.no
Centre for safe operations in High North (SESiNOR)
The special conditions in the High North – such as vulnerable environment, rough and unstable climate and long distances – represent major challenges for industrial activities in this region.
SESiNOR is a competence centre focusing on research and development related to maritime activities, process and gas engineering, safety and environment, and automated processes. Operations at SESiNOR deal with research and development and higher education in navigation and safety on the basis of the increased activity in the Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea and in the Arctic. The centre also owns a ship simulator.
Contact: Egil Pedersen
Office: +47 77 66 03 75
Mobile: + 47 924 48 599
Email:egil.pedersen@uit.no
Arctic Earth Observations and Surveillance Technologies
From Tromsø we can observe everything from the big Norwegian oceans, the sea ice by the North Pole to the rainforests in Africa. Earth observation satellites are a very handy tool in monitoring climate changes, especially when it comes to changes in sea ice cover, glaciers and vegetation. This type of remote measurement gives us a very accurate picture on the state of the planet. There is a rather large group of scientist working with satellite data in Tromsø.
Contact: Torbjørn Eltoft, professor
Office: +47 776 45184
Email: torbjorn.eltoft@uit.no
Environmental monitoringby satellite /earth observation/remote sensing
Contact: Camilla Brekke
Office: + 47 776 46297
Email: camilla.brekke@uit.no
The EISCAT radar system
The physicist at Tromsø University is involved in the planning the world’s most advanced radar for studies of the upper atmosphere – EISCAT 3D. Here is a video about the project: http://youtu.be/72cjB6r59Fg
EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter) is an international scientific organisation, running radar systems on four stations in Tromsø (Norway), Kiruna (Sweden), Sodankylä (Finland) and Longyearbyen (Svalbard, Norway). The organization is based on an international agreement between member nations Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, UK, Japan and China.
Contact: Unni Pia Løvhaug, professor in space physics
Office: +47 776 46292
Mobile: +47 911 11086
Email: unni.pia.lovhaug@uit.no
Cesar La Hoz, professor in space physics
Office: +47 776 45161
Mobile: +47 997 74769
Email: cesar.la.hoz@uit.no
Other relevant experts
The northern lights
There have never been as many tourists coming to Tromsø to see the northern lights as there are now. Our scientists do a range of research in connection with the northern lights, including supervision of the earth’s magnetic field and a magnetometer on the bottom of the Barents Sea for navigation in connection with oil exploration.
Contact:
Magnar Gullikstad Johnsen, scientist at Tromsø Geophysical Observatory
Office: +47 776 46956
Email: magnar.g.johnsen@uit.no
Unni Pia Løvhaug, professor in space physics
Office: +47 776 46292
Mobile: +47 911 11086
Email: unni.pia.lovhaug@uit.no
Arctic Governance
Climate change – coupled with globalization – has triggered a rapidly accelerating cascade of events leading to profound environmental and socioeconomic changes in the Arctic - both on land and at sea. In response, demand is growing for science-based innovation in the conservation, management and governance of Arctic resources.
The Arctic Governance Project joined preeminent researchers, indigenous leaders, and members of the policy community to frame critical questions and issues of governance in the Arctic. The Project has also assembled an array of global perspectives on Arctic Governance in the Arctic Governance Compendium.
Contact: Else Grete Broderstad
Office: +47 776 46908
Mobile: +47 901 76 386
Email: else.g.broderstad@uit.no
