Our Members
CURT Founders (in alphabetical order)
Dr. Amy K. Hahs
Senior Lecturer in Urban Horticulture at the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, University of Melbourne, and Melbourne based coordinator of the initial CURT4Future in 2020-21. Interested in urban impacts on biodiversity, spatial ecology, nature-human interactions and how to translate research into practical actions to make better cities.
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Jeschke
Professor of Ecological Novelty at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and Freie Universität Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Tanja Straka
Guest professor in urban ecology at the Freie Universität Berlin and guest scientist at the Animal Ecology Research group, University of Münster and EURAC Research Institute, Bolzano, Italy. Tanja's interest lies in exploring and improving the coexistence of people and wildlife in shared urban environments. Now, she seeks to examine this intersection through the lens of social-ecological networks.
Prof. Dr. Nicholas (Nick) Williams
Professor of Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture at the University of Melbourne Research Interests: Comparative urban ecology, Green infrastructure, Urban Biodiversity Conservation, Wildflower meadows and grassland restoration, invasive species
CURT Members (in alphabetical order)
Prof. Dr. Örjan Bodin
Professor in Environmental Science at Stockholm University. He is studying different challenges and opportunities in collectively governing and managing the natural environment, and much of his research bridges the natural and social sciences. His research encompasses case studies across the world, interdisciplinary methodological and theoretical developments, and experiments.
Prof. Dr. Joanna Coleman
Assistant Professor in Urban Ecology at the Department of Biology, Queens College at the City University of New York. Research in her lab is interdisciplinary (using ecology, molecular biology & social science methodologies) and applied, where the overall goal is to inform interventions to conserve biodiversity (and the ecosystem services it renders) in the urban century.
Dr. Kadambari Deshpande
Bat ecologist, currently Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru, India. With over a decade of experience in studying bats, her research interests include bat sensory and foraging ecology, social-ecological systems and interdisciplinary research on human-bat interactions, One Health, and accrual of ecosystem services from bats to people in forest-plantation mosaics to peri-urban and urban landscapes.
Prof. Dr. Cynnamon Dobbs
Assistant Professor in Urban and Community Forestry at the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Connecticut. Interested in socio-ecological approaches towards understanding patterns and process of urban forestry and its ecosystem services
Prof. Dr. Monika Egerer
Professor of Urban Productive Ecosystems at the Technical University of Munich. In her research, she investigates the relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being in urban ecosystems, with a focus on urban gardens. Monika’s work aims to bridge theory and practice to create and support systems in cities that offer food, habitat and community.
Dr. María Felipe-Lucia
Ramón y Cajal fellow at the Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC) in Jaca, Spain. Her research seeks to understand the drivers and consequences of social-ecological interactions on sustainability.
Dr. Lynn Govaert
Group leader at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin, Germany. She investigates how ecological and evolutionary dynamics influence one another and simultaneously shape community dynamics and structure. (Photo credits: David Ausserhofer).
Dr. Nanamhla (Nhana) Gwedla
Lecturer in Environmental Science at Rhodes University, South Africa. Her research interests are in urban green infrastructure, plant distribution, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, human well-being and urban nature, participatory urban greening, and diverse perspectives on urban nature.
Dr. Solène Guenat
Postdoctoral researcher in the Social Sciences in Landscape Research Group of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research.
Dr. Yuval Itescu
Senior lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel. His research focuses on how humans influence biodiversity dynamics, particularly in urban and insular environments, studying biogeography, evolutionary ecology, species interactions, human-nature relationships, and conservation.
Dr. Guillermo Germán Joosten
Postdoctoral researcher at Akademie für Raumentwicklung. His main research interests are the environmental anthropology of socio-ecological conflicts, transdisciplinary work with stakeholders, and the development of narrative futures of human-environment relations.
Dr. Lotta Kluger
Marine ecologist, team lead of the Marine Food Security theme at the Center for Ocean and Society, Kiel University. Working on social-ecological sustainability and ecosystem-based management of marine resource use, food web modelling, social-ecological network analysis, and the human dimension of fisheries and aquaculture.
Dr. Sophia Kochalski
Fisheries scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the Cross-disciplinary Research Center in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS) at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Dr. Brenda Lin
Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Environment leading the Adaptive and Livable Cities Team. Her research examines how natural systems or components of natural systems can be maintained or integrated into an increasingly developed landscape to provide ecosystem services that optimise both environmental and human well-being.
Zeno Porro
Doctoral student at the Freie Universität Berlin and Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), interested in ecology, conservation, and human dimension of wildlife. Currently investigating the disease risk in urban blue and green spaces focusing on birds, bats, mosquitoes.
Fiona Rickowski
Doctoral student at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and Freie Universität Berlin interested in invasive species and social-ecological systems. Currently researching the impacts and management of the invasive American mink in Iceland using social-ecological networks.
Dr. Florian Ruland
Postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and Freie Universität Berlin. Interested in behavioural changes of animals in urban ecosystems, nature positivity and cohabitation.
Dr. Jose Daniel Teodoro
Social networks scientist with a focus on participatory decision-making, socio-environmental systems management, and climate change adaptation.
Fresh perspectives in urban SENs – meet our early career researchers
Zoe Davis
PhD student at the University of Melbourne, working with Amy Hahs and Nick Williams. She is using SENs to explore how kids engage with nature during play in Melbourne playgrounds.
Teresa Verellen
Graduate student at the University of Connecticut, under the supervision of Cynnamon Dobbs-Brown. In her thesis she uses SENs to study how urban forest projects help meet community environmental and social needs in three Connecticut towns.