PhD candidate members in Photosyntech

Aloïs Revéret

Aloïs works with ancient DNA to elucidate recolonisation patterns of plants and animals in the Scandinavian peninsula since the deglaciation 18,000 years ago.

Ananya Khatei

Ananya studies epigenetic elements and its evolution in brown algal lineages

Anastasiia Ivanova

Stacy works on cell wall integrity maintenance mechanism in Arabidopsis thaliana to provide a better understanding of plant reactions to stress associated with climate change.

Andreas Jørgensen

Andreas works on autumn leaf senescence in Arctic tundra plants, the timing of which has important implications for both food-web dynamics and climate feedbacks.

Anjali Khadka

Anjali works on the genetic and environmental regulation of maturation in faba bean by integrating phenotyping, crop modelling, genome-wide association studies, and genomic prediction to support the breeding of varieties adapted to Nordic climate

Anjana Anilkumar

Anjana works on developing improved strains of diatom by subjecting them through adaptive laboratory evolution using bench scale photobioreactors.

Anne Margrete Leiros Nilsen

Anne works on examining the epigenetics of temperature priming in kelps for enhanced aquaculture production and resilience in a warming climate.

Anubha Gupta

Anubha works on the effect of rising temperatures on grasses and tries to decipher the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in their adaptation. She utilizes CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Technique to validate the function of genes associated with adaptation.

Benjamin Roux

Benjamin works on biodiversity patterns within and across mountain ranges, focusing on species’ elevational distributions and how these vary among mountain systems.

Brian Ogenrwoth

Brian works on the adoption and welfare impacts of Biochar and Climate Smart Agriculture among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, a case of  Uganda.

Christian Hans Quintana Zagaceta

Christian works on understanding past interactions between temperature and precipitation in raised bogs and their impacts in the carbon budget.

Colin Sinclair

Colin examines the suitability of different types of fine-grained glacial sediments (glacial flour) as soil amendments for aiding the growth of cold-climate crops.

Corine Faehn

Corine works on sub-Arctic root-soil interactions and what functional traits may provide better carbon capture solutions for bioremediation and bio-design efforts.

Diana Katherine Castillo Avila

Katherine works on gene editing to develop potato varieties resistant to PVY.

Dominykas Salvaitis

Dominykas works on developing analytical techniques for seaweed carbohydrate research.

Francesco Giovanni Quadrio

Francesco works on the ecology and dispersal characteristics of Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) to understand the rarity of sexual reproduction and produces abundant seed and fruit.

Francesco Saffioti

Francesco works on the identification and functional characterization of genes involved in water sensing mechanisms in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Gayathri Kosala Baduge

Gayathri works on red clover as a sustainable protein source for ruminants, focusing on improving protein utilization and nitrogen efficiency in the project MilkClover.

Georgeio Georges Semaan

Georgeio works on circular and economically sustainable production of lignin, biomaterials, and bioenergy from locally sourced lignocellulosic biomass waste with new business model perspectives.

Harkingto Harkingto

Harkingto works to develop genomics tools and high-throughput phenotyping system for Lucerne breeding pipeline and to study the crop adaptation mechanisms in Nordic climate.

Henrik Høegh

Henrik works on phenotyping of wheat for drought tolerance in Nordic conditions

Ingeborg Hulda Giæver

Ingeborg works on bioprospecting microalgae suitable for mass cultivation in large vertical air-lift column photobioreacters.

Jorunn Hellekås

Jorunn is working on population genomics, investigating how local adaptation has shaped the genetic and phenotypic structure of wood-decay fungi.

Kai Ilves

Kai works on broadening the genetic base for oat breeding through phenotypic and genetic characterization of novel genetic diversity in agronomically improved, historically selected oat populations.

Katariina Raassina

Katariina works on developing imaging flow cytometry based phenotyping methods for the microalgae diatoms and on evolving a robust diatom strain for industry.

Kristin Kimo Gannestad

Kristin works with understanding the genetic and epigenetic networks in endosperm development, with a focus on imprinted genes.

Leah Wanja Gachao

Leah works on plant cell death and communication in plants, especially the extracellular ATP as a death molecule and its involvement in cell-cell communication during stress.

Lena Marie Bocian

Lena works on deciphering the role of compartmentalization in peptide processing during venom production in lacewings and cell wall formation in Arabidopsis

Léo Minini

Leo works with kelp–pathogen interactions at the molecular level and developing immune‑priming strategies to enhance disease tolerance in cultivated sugar kelp.

Lotta Schultz

Lotta works with global patterns of alpine biodiversity and the legacy effects of the drivers that determine them.

Lukas Seifert

Lukas works on the impacts of onshore wind energy on vegetation, soil, and hydrology in Norwegian ecosystems; and how to use that knowledge to push mitigation and ecosystem restoration. 

Maarten Smits

Maarten studies how climate warming affects woodland strawberry performance and its interactions with field dodder and northern root-knot nematodes.

Mabel Nabateregga

Mabel works on developing citizen science tools to facilitate and support crop breeding for climate adaptation in the Global South.

Mari Talgø Syvertsen

Mari works with epigenetics and bioinformatics in Norway spruce, looking at how different temperatures during somatic embryogenesis can induce an epigenetic memory which influences climatic adaptation traits.

Marit Huizer

Marit works on lipid and pigment analysis of marine microalgae and bioactivity studies. All of this is being done under the AlgScaleUP project.

Marte Ranvik

Marte works on an alternative growth medium for horticulture to replace peat and investigates plant growth, microbial community and plant health.

Martine Alexandra Andersen Hennig

Martine works on the environmental impacts of infrastructure development, combining life cycle assessment (LCA) with studies of vegetation and soil responses to topsoil translocation and ecological restoration in forest, grassland, and peatland ecosystems.

Maximilian Koch

Max is examining the effects of cover crops on the soil microbiome and the resulting impact on crop-pathogen interactions to support sustainable agricultural development in the Nordic countries.

Michael Stefan Dills

Michael works on microbial community interactions based around photosynthesis and methane oxidation to understand how multi-species systems function in the environment and in industry.

Mika Helene Kirkhus

Mika works on predicting how climate change will affect ericoid plant-fungal interactions and distributions in Norway.

Mikel Moriana Armendariz

Mikel works on finding out what Arctic plant community types are more vulnerable to incoming species, as well as studying what species are more likely to spread into alpine areas.

Nelly Braun

Nelly works on how cell wall-associated receptors contribute to drought sensing in Arabidopsis thaliana, to improve our understanding of plant responses to water stress under climate change.

Peter Groth Farsund

Peter works on how climate and plant communities shape soil food webs, and implications for soil carbon and nutrient cycling.

Precious R. Guevarra

Precious works on elucidating the molecular mechanisms underpinning nitrogen use efficiency in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) by combining transcriptomic profiling, association studies and functional gene validation.

Relindis Ghai Njah

Relindis works on validating previously selected candidate markers and analyzing new potential markers for use in plant breeding programs aimed at generating cold tolerant strawberries.

Rikke Bryn Røsåsen

Rikke works on enhancing energy use efficiency in controlled environment agriculture through experimenting with various lighting strategies.

Runa Gidske

Runa works with conservation biological control in fruit production and the role of predators in control of tortricid moths in fruit production, and how predators are affected by surrounding semi-natural habitat.

Rune Haugland Navarsete

Rune works with genome sequencing, diagnostics and modelling of the plant pathogens called Soft Rot Pectobacteriaceae.

Sachin Dhakal

Sachin works on the bioactive and anti-methanogenic properties of brown seaweeds using -omics, and investigates different seaweed as feeding resources for sustainable animal nutrition and production.

Sara Morghen

Sara studies drought stress perception in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana.

Saria Sato-Bajracharya

Saria studies the diet and fitness of high alpine birds (ptarmigans) under climate change by analyzing fecal pellets to investigate how food composition and selection varies with the timing of spring.

Shailaja Thapa

Shailaja studies photosynthetic adaptation in leafy greens under dynamic light and temperature regimes, contributing to energy-flexible decision making in vertical farming system.

Sidonie Loïez

Sidonie works on plant-insect-fungi-nematode interactions and their evolution towards climate change.

Sofie Geck Sevatdal

Sofie works on equine gut microbiome research, using metabarcoding to study molecular ecology and microbial community dynamics.

Steven Zwartkruis

Steven works on identifying and characterize genes involved in cell wall integrity in the woodland strawberry model.

Vasili Balios

Vasili works on stable transformation of Cuscuta and study the interaction between Cuscuta and host through hyperspectral imaging and investigating protein interactions.

Yogesh Deepak Deshmukh

Yogesh works on developing an integrated modelling framework for agrivoltaic systems, evaluate the interactions between crops and the photovoltaic PV panels and explore the integration of agrivoltaics into the Norwegian energy system.

Alumni

Alexandre Détain

Alexandre worked on deciphering the physiology,  metabolic and molecular events in arctic snow-algae under various polar conditions.

Andreas Langdal

Andreas worked to ensure food- and environmental sustainability throughout the production chain of marine food.

Clément Gauci

Clément worked on developing bio-engineering tool to secure biomass production for seaweed farmers in future climates.

Griffin Goldstein Hill

Griffin worked on elucidating the driving factors of genetic differentiation in Norwegian macroalgae populations.

Hanna Böpple

Hanna worked on microalgae cultivation on waste streams from RAS systems and anaerobic digestate, and evaluation of sustainability and logistics of the value chain in SLAM-DUNK.

Hesam Mousavi

Hesam worked on the effects of different fertilizing regimes on soil health at INN.

Ida Velle Myking

Ida worked on the endosperm-based post-zygotic hybrid barrier (ePZB) to elucidate on its genetic basis, and how it is influenced by genomic imprinting as well as abiotic factors.

Liv H. Gilpin

Liv worked on developing genomic based breeding technology for high quality apples in a nordic climate and NMBU.

Maaike Zwier

Maaike worked on pollen, spores and microfossils from sediments collected in lake and bog environments at UiB.

Menghour Huy

Menghour worked on synthesizing microalgae biomass with potential antioxidants and extract them for applications at UiS.

Pierre Liboureau

Pierre worked on the red seaweed Palmaria palmata (dulse) with a focus on the reproduction, growth and nutritional qualities of dulse to develop sustainable aquaculture for human consumption.

Renate Marie Alling

Renate worked on how the development of endosperm influence hybridization among closely related species at UiO.

Signe Bråtelund

Signe worked on the genetics of wild and selection populations of sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) at NMBU.

Vinay Kumar Reddy Nannuru

Vinay worked on genomic prediction models for disease resistance in wheat at NMBU.