Andrew Hamer is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Ecological Research in Tihany where he investigates the effects of urbanisation on freshwater biodiversity. He has a PhD on the applied ecology of endangered frog species. Previously, he worked as an Ecologist at the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology (ARCUE), where he conducted research into the impacts of urbanisation on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. He has also worked as an ecological consultant for over 25 years throughout south-eastern Australia. He is currently examining the effects of landscape fragmentation on amphibian communities in Hungary.
Andrew serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Urban Ecosystems, and is an Honorary Associate of the School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne. He has published widely on the topic of urbanisation, and has actively engaged environmental practitioners, management authorities and citizen scientists in his research.
Univ.Prof. Thomas Hein started as full professor at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management in 2017 and is managing director of WasserCluster Lunz since 2008. He successfully finished his PhD about river floodplain interactions, the importance of connectivity and the effects of restoration on fundamental ecosystem processes at the University of Vienna in 2000.
The research interests of Prof. Thomas Hein are aquatic ecosystem – human interactions in riverine landscapes, with a focus on water – sediment interactions, aquatic – terrestrial linkages, ecosystem restoration and the coupling between society and ecosystems in riverine landscapes, viewing them as socio-ecological systems. Underlying principles of his research are connectivity, resilience and aspects of co-evolution of riverine landscapes. The investigations are ranging from the modification of nutrient and carbon dynamics, greenhouse gas production to changes in biodiversity in riverine landscapes and link these changes in ecosystem processes to ecosystem management, such as waterway management or river restoration measures. The Danube region is a key research area of Thomas Hein and the Danube River is one of his favorite rivers, especially the floodplains of the Nationalpark Donau-Auen. He is coordinating the Doctoral School HR21 at BOKU, a CEEPUS network about ecosystem research, and is actively involved in international teaching programs at the master and PhD level. He authored more than 90 publications in scientific journals and more than 70 conference proceedings, book chapters and other scientific articles.
Links: https://biger-science.group/
Dr. Julie Teresa Shapiro is a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale; Inserm) in Lyon, France. She is an expert in bat ecology. She first worked with bats as an intern at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky 15 years ago and has been fascinated by them ever since! Dr. Shapiro has a PhD from the University of Florida, where she studied the effects of land-use change on bats and their microbes in southern Africa and modeled the role of bat diversity and anthropogenic disturbance on Ebola virus spillover. In addition to her research on bats, she has also worked with small mammals, fungi, and Leishmania. Her current work at Inserm focuses on the ecology of antibiotic resistance in hospital networks, using metapopulation and community ecology models. Before beginning her PhD, she worked with András Báldi and Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki at the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Center for Ecological Research on ecosystem services and the effects of invasive species. She is a member of the IUCN Bat Specialist Group.
Webpage: www.jtshapiro.com
Twitter: @JulieTheBatgirl
Dr. hab. Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi is working at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in the Plant Ecology Group at the Institute of Botany. She holds her PhD and habilitation in biology, the latter on the effects of environmental pollution on bees. Her expertise includes bee biology, both honey bees and wild bees, pollination ecology and drivers of pollinator decline. She was involved in reports and meta-analyses concerning pollinator decline, pollination of crops, pollination ecology and lately the analysis of the EU CAP for pollinator preservation on farmlands. She is also an IPBES and EU expert on pollinators and pollination. Her research includes studies on the effects of environmental pollution and changes in landscape structure on bee abundance and health. Her latest project is dealing with the effects of industrial and urban pollutants on honey bees and solitary bees. As a university lecturer she teaches ecology, biodiversity, wild bee biology, but also research management, plant evolution and plant physiology.
webpage: http://www.ib.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/hajnalka-szentgyorgyi-en