Invited Speakers
- Prof. Joseph Alcamo - Director, Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel, Germany.
Joseph Alcamo is Director and Professor at the Center for Environmental Systems Research at the University of Kassel, Germany where he leads the development and application of global and regional environmental models. He is Co-Chair of the Global Water System Project, a joint project of four international global change research institutions. He is Coordinating Lead Author of the recently published report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the IPCC’s new report on climate change impacts, and UNEP’s new report on “A Global Environmental Outlook.”
- Prof. J. David Allan - School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan, USA.
David Allan is a Professor at the University of Michigan, specializing in the ecology and conservation of rivers. He is the author of Stream Ecology (with M.M Castillo) and Streams: Their Ecology and Life (with C. E. Cushing). Allan's current research investigates landscape influences on river ecosystems at locations in Michigan and elsewhere, the factors affecting success of stream restoration, and the effects of altered flow regimes on rivers of the Great Lakes basin. His conservation activities include working closely with local watershed councils, and he has served on the Board of American Rivers and the Michigan Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
- Ass. Prof. Emily Bernhardt - Department of Biology, Duke University, USA.
Emily Bernhardt is an assistant professor in Duke University's Biology Department. Her research examines the role that stream ecosystems play in altering the timing, form and magnitude of downstream nutrient losses. She is especially interested in how this capacity is diminished through land use change, and the potential for ecosystem recovery in degraded streams.
- Dr. Nick Bond - Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Australia.
Nick Bond is an ecologist with strong interests in the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbance on aquatic ecosystems, restoration ecology, and the application of principles from landscape ecology to aquatic ecosystems. Current research is focussing on spatial dynamics and population persistence of fish in intermittent streams.
- Dr. Francis Chiew - Stream Leader (Catchment Hydrology), Water Resources Research Theme, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia.
Francis Chiew has over 15 years experience in research, teaching and consulting in hydrology and water resources. He is currently a CEO Science Leader in CSIRO Land and Water in Canberra. His interests include hydroclimatology, hydrological modelling, statistical hydrology and urban stormwater quality. Francis has co-authored over 200 research papers and is active in converting research outcomes into products for the water industry.
- Prof. Cliff Dahm - Head, Hydrogeoecology Research Group, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, USA.
Cliff Dahm is a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico (UNM). He teaches ecosystem studies, freshwater ecosystems, limnology, geomicrobiology, and professional ethics. His research interests include ecosystem studies, aquatic ecology, surface water/ground water interactions, microbial ecology, stream and river restoration, biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology, ecohydrology, and evapotranspiration.
- Ass. Prof. Sarah Gergel - Co-Director, Centre for Applied Conservation Research, Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Sarah Gergel is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Ecology in the Centre for Applied Conservation Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Her research focuses on the interactions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, using models, air photos, satellite imagery and field work. She is a co-editor of Learning Landscape Ecology, a book for teaching the tools of landscape ecology.
- Prof. Stan Gregory - Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, USA.
Dr. Stan Gregory, a professor in the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife at Oregon State University, has studied riparian and floodplain processes, created and evaluated alternative land use futures in the Willamette River Basin, and modeled interactions of riparian pattern, policy and biocomplexity in coupled human/riverine systems. His recent research produced a book entitled “Willamette Basin Atlas: Trajectories of environmental and ecological change” and a special issue on the Willamette River in Ecological Applications in 2004.
- Prof. Joyeeta Gupta - Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands.
- Prof. Stephen K. Hamilton - W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, USA.
Stephen K. Hamilton is a Professor at Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University (USA). His research interests are centered on ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry of running waters, wetlands and floodplains. He has worked extensively in South America and Michigan and also done some work on dryland rivers in Australia.
- Dr. Roland Jansson - Landscape Ecology Group, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Sweden
Roland Jansson is an ecologist interested in running waters and biogeography. His research includes ecological effects of climate change, flow regulation and stream restoration. He also studies the importance of dispersal for species composition and the role of climatic oscillations for patterns in the diversity and distribution of species.
- Dr. Christoph Matthaei - Department of Zoology, University of Otago, New Zealand.
Christoph Matthaei is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Otago. His research interests include the role of disturbance in lotic ecosystems, the effects of human land uses on stream ecosystems, river restoration and minimum instream water requirements in diverted rivers and using functional indicators as biomonitoring tools.
- Prof. Christer Nilsson - Leader, Landscape Ecology Group, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Sweden.
Christer Nilsson is a professor of landscape ecology. His research focuses on large scale ecology, primarily on how landscapes and their vegetation are formed by natural processes, how humans affect these processes by for example river regulation and forestry, and how landscapes should be managed in a sustainable way.
- Ass. Prof. Julian D. Olden - School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, University of Washington, USA.
Julian D. Olden is an Assistant Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington (M.Sc., University of Toronto; Ph.D., Colorado State University). His research interests include the study of invasive species, climate change and river regulation, and their effects on freshwater biodiversity and biogeography.
- Prof. Jon Olley - Research Director, Rivers and Coasts Research Theme, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia.
Jon Olley leads a diverse team of 50 scientists, with skills ranging from radioisotope geochemistry to fish ecology, undertaking research to improve our understanding of how large river systems respond to changes in land use and climate. He has 20 years research experience on catchment system response, in particular, where sediment and nutrients are derived.
- Cathy Reidy - Landscape Ecology Group, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umea University, Sweden.
Cathy Reidy has been a researcher with the Landscape Ecology group at Umeå University in Sweden since 2003. Her research focuses on the ecohydrological impacts of dams at global scales. Recent work address dammed rivers in the face of climate change, and global fish habitat loss due to dams.
- Assoc. Prof. Andy Steven - Stream Leader (Aquatic Biogeochemistry and Ecology), Rivers and Coasts Research Theme, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia.
Andy Steven has over 20 years of experience in aquatic research and management throughout temperate and tropical Australia, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. In this time he has worked and published on issues as diverse as water quality in catchments, estuaries and coral reefs, fisheries and marine pest management. Currently Andy leads the Aquatic Biogeochemistry and Ecology research stream of CSIRO Land and Water. He also leads an eWater Cooperative Research Centre project on the flow biogeochemistry an ecology of Australian estuaries and is an adjunct Associate Professor with the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University.
- Rebecca Tharme - Theme Leader, Water Management and Environment, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka.
Rebecca Tharme is a wetland ecologist with 16 years' experience in the areas of river ecohydrology, environmental flow assessment, and wetlands-agriculture system interactions in developing countries. She is a researcher on the theme 'Water Management and Environment', within the Global Research Division of the International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka.
- Dr. Klement Tockner - Team Leader, Floodplain Ecology and Biodiversity, Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Switzerland.
Klement Tockner heads the research unit Floodplain Ecology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology and is professor at ETH Zuerich. He has special expertise on invertebrate ecology, ecosystem functioning, and landscape ecology. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Aquatic Sciences and Associate Editor of Ecosystems.
- Prof. Charles Vörösmarty - Director, Water Systems Analysis Group, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 USA.
Charles Vörösmarty is a Research Full Professor at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire. He serves as founder and Director of its Water Systems Analysis Group. His research interests focus on the development of computer models and geospatial data sets used in synthesis studies of the interactions among the water cycle, climate, biogeochemistry, and anthropogenic activities. His studies are built around local, regional, and continental to global-scale modeling of water balance, discharge, constituent fluxes in river systems, and the analysis of the impacts of large-scale water engineering on the terrestrial water cycle. Dr. Vörösmarty is a founding member of the Global Water System Project representing the inputs of more than 200 international scientists under ICSU's Global Environmental Change Programs. In this capacity he is spearheading efforts to develop global-scale indicators of water stress, to develop and apply databases of reservoir construction worldwide, and to analyze coastal zone risks associated with water diversion. He recently won one of two national awards through NSF to execute studies on hydrologic synthesis. Dr. Vörösmarty also serves on several national and international panels, including the US Arctic Research Commission, the NSF-ARCSS Committee (AC), and the Arctic HYDRA International Polar Year (IPY) Planning Team. In the US, he served on an NRC panel to review NASA's polar geophysical data sets, the decadal study on earth observations, and is co-Chair of the NSF-Arctic CHAMP hydrology initiative. The Water Systems Analysis Group serves as the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) Focus Research Center on Hydrology. He has assembled regional and continental-scale hydro-meteorological data compendia, including the largest single such collection, Arctic-RIMS (covering northern Eurasia and North America). For the United Nations he served as consultant to the 24-agency UN World Water Assessment Programme and represented the International Council of Scientific Unions at recent UN Commission on Sustainable Development meetings.
- Dr. Chris Walsh - Senior Research Fellow, School of Social and Environmental Enquiry, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
Chris Walsh is a senior research fellow in the School of Social and Environmental Enquiry at The University of Melbourne. He has been working on the ecology of streams in urban areas for 12 years, in collaboration with research groups and management agencies that are leading the development of low-impact stormwater management.
Joyeeta Gupta has a bachelor's degrees in economics and law from Delhi and Gujarat University respectively, a master’s degree in law from Harvard Law School, and a PhD from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She is presently professor in climate change law and policy, and water law and policy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education respectively. She has published extensively in the area of climate change; and has taught water law, policy and politics, for the last fifteen years.