Speakers at IUFRO Congress 2024

Siebe Briers is an Expert at the Bioregions Facility and Bioeconomy Programme of EFI. Siebe has a Master of Science in Agro- and Ecosystems engineering (major in forestry) and a postgraduate in Innovative Entrepreneurship. His background in forestry, on the one hand, and in innovation and entrepreneurship, on the other hand, make him well-placed to support European regions to transition to a forest-based circular bioeconomy through open innovation activities.

Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat is a principal scientist at the Mediterranean Facility of the European Forest Institute. Before joining EFI in 2022, Magda started her career at Saint Joseph University of Beirut. As full professor, she chaired the Life and Earth Science Department and was the director of the Laboratory of Biodiversity and Functional Genomics. She also co-founded and managed an NGO versed in forest ecosystem restoration.

Magda holds a PhD degree in Plant genetics from La Sorbonne University-Paris.

She is a National Geographic explorer since 2019. Her main research interests are in the fields of conservation and valorisation of Mediterranean Natural and cultural heritages and Mediterranean forests resilience.

Mercedes Caron is a Researcher at the Mediterranean Facility of the European Forest Institute holding a PhD degree in Applied Biological Sciences - Forest and Nature Management.

Thomas Colonna is a Forest Smallholders Expert at the European Forest Institute.

Dr Rik De Vreese is Team Leader of the Urban Forestry Team at the Resilience Programme. He has a master of Applied Biological Sciences - Forest and Land Management at Ghent University and a PhD in Human Ecology (VUBrussels, 2018). He has been active in the urban forestry science-policy-practice interface since 2000 and was awarded Young European Urban Forester of the Year in 2015. He is member of the International Steering Group of the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) and webmaster/social media manager for EFUF.  His research focusses on the relations between humans and trees, in the urban and peri-urban sphere. More specifically, Dr De Vreese has been involved in research on integrating ecosystem services in decision-making and urban planning, mainly with a transdisciplinary lens. He has (co-)authored over 15 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Florencia Franzini is a researcher in the Bioeconomy Program of the European Forest Institute (EFI). Florencia holds an MSc in Forestry from the University of Helsinki and subsequently obtained a PhD with Distinction from the University of Helsinki. Florencia is interested in how human perception shape behaviors in complex systems, with project involvement focusing on European forest practitioners and their perceptions towards climate-smart forestry management.

Alex’s research interests and expertise are in the broader area of forest governance, spanning bioeconomy, sustainability transformations, innovation networks, and communication sciences. He uses a variety of methods including, but not limited to, social network analysis, qualitative content analysis, Delphi studies, quantitative and qualitative surveys as well as other mixed methods.

Tanja’s current research focuses on agroforestry - innovations, extension services, and business models. Her broader expertise, research interests and experience are in the wide field of social aspects of forests and forestry, rural business development, and sustainability transformations. Tanja is a Junior Researcher in Sustainable Markets and Society team at EFI. She is also affiliated as a doctoral researcher with her alma mater (UEF, Finland). Tanja has a double MSc in European Forestry (UEF) and Forest Management (SLU, Sweden) and an MSc in Agriculture and Forestry in Environmental Management of Forests (University of Joensuu). She is also a Professional Teacher with Finnish pedagogical qualification.

Yasmin is a junior researcher at the European Forest Institute. She is part of the Climate-smart forestry team under the Bioeconomy programme. She holds a BA in Forest Engineering and a Msc in European Forestry. She has worked on projects involving bio-based products, forest monitoring, silviculture and biotechnology. Yasmin is passionate about strengthening the role of forests and the forest sector in climate change mitigation and societal improvement

Johanna Klapper is a Junior Researcher in the Bioeconomy Programme of the European Forest Institute (EFI). She holds a BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University Koblenz-Landau, Germany, and a MSc in Forest and Ecosystem Sciences from the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany. She has worked on projects involving forest and ecosystem modelling, spatial data analysis, and global trade of wood-based products.

Marcus Lindner is Principal Scientist in the Resilience Programme. He holds a degree in forest sciences from the University of Freiburg and a PhD in Geoecology from University of Potsdam in Germany. Marcus has 30 years of experience in research on climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation strategies in forest management, disturbance risk management, forest sector sustainability, forest resource assessments and ecosystem service provisioning from European forests. His work often targeted the science-policy-practice interface and included several policy support studies for different DGs. He is currently coordinating the Horizon2020 project RESONATE on forest & forest value chain resilience.

Anna-Maria Farsakoglou is a Researcher at the European Forest Institute.

Lyla O'Brien works as a Junior Researcher at the European Forest Institute.

Cleo Orfanidou's interests include climate-smart and sustainable end uses of wood which support decarbonization, as well as the sustainability of harvested wood products throughout their supply chain and life cycle. Her recent work within EFI's Climate-Smart Forestry group has focused on the potential and limits of the forest-based sector for mitigating climate change in the EU, with a particular emphasis on wood material flows and carbon stock and stock changes. Cleo is a researcher at EFI while she is affiliated as a PhD candidate in Bioproduct technology at Aalto University. She holds an MSc in Architectural Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a BSc in Civil Engineering from Greece.

Helga Pülzl is Assistant Director for Policy Support of the European Forest Institute and responsible for the Policy Support Facility and its Trust Fund. Her main research interests are in European and international forest governance and policy change, bioeconomy perceptions and sustainability indicators development. She coordinates the IUFRO Working Party 9.05.01 on bioeconomy policy and holds a Phd and master’s degree in political science from the University of Vienna.

Elisabeth Schatzdorfer is a Principal Scientist at the European Forest Institute.

Rina Tsubaki is a communications manager leading the Lookout Station, a science-media capacity-building initiative at the European Forest Institute. She is currently pursuing a PhD with the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group at Wageningen University to explore the role of social media in informing and organizing public participation in the forest context. Before joining EFI, her work focused on newsroom and journalism capacity building and developed a number of projects that focused on accuracy in journalistic reporting, particularly newsroom practices of social media monitoring and verification of user-generated content.

Diana is the Head of the Bioeconomy Programme. She has a PhD in Sustainability Impact Assessment from the University of Freiburg, and an MSc in Forestry and Wood Industry from the Technical University of Munich. She was previously Principal Scientist and Team Leader for the “Sustainable Bioeconomy” team at EFI. She has been working at EFI since 2009. Prior to that she was research assistant at the University of Freiburg, at Skogforsk and the Technical University of Munich.

Diana’s research interests include topics related to systemic, wholistic and cross-sectoral approaches to sustainability, circular bioeconomy and innovation within the planetary boundaries. She is active in the EFI’s Bioregions Facility, as well as in multiple EU projects (main focus on environmental and socio-economic performance, or tools for ecosystem services/natural capital), as well as several other smaller projects. She is also active in regional and international initiatives and networks, supporting the implementation of a circular bioeconomy.

Sara Uzquiano is a Researcher in the Resilience Programme. Her work at EFI is focused on assessing the impacts of different climate scenarios and management options on forest resilience to ensure that the forest value chain remains strong. Furthermore, it identifies adaptive, mitigation, and biodiversity indicators and examines the synergies and trade-offs across forest management systems.

Dr. Hans Verkerk is principal scientist in the Bioeconomy programme of the European Forest Institute (Finland) and he leads a team on climate-smart forestry. He holds a MSc degree in Forest and Nature Management from Wageningen University and obtained his PhD degree with distinction from the University of Eastern Finland. He has been involved in studies on European forest resource assessments, woody biomass availability, forest ecosystem services and climate change impacts and mitigation.

Venla Wallius is a researcher in the Bioeconomy programme, Sustainable Markets and Society team. She holds an M.Sc. degree in Economics and Business Administration and is currently finalizing her PhD studies in Corporate Environmental Management. Venla’s research interests include bioeconomy perceptions and business models in sustainability transitions.

Dr. Bernhard Wolfslehner is the Head of Governance Programme of the European Forest Institute (EFI) and has more than 20 years of research experience on sustainable forest management. Among other tasks, he is leader of the EFI FOREST EUROPE team and Head of the Secretariat of the INTEGRATE network.