Nils Chr. Stenseth

Nils Chr. Stenseth is an evolutionary biologist. Essentially all his work is based upon population ecology – being applied to a broad spectrum of ecological systems and questions ranging from terrestrial (population fluctuations and small rodents, including lemmings, and hare and lynx), to marine (e.g., cod) and freshwater (e.g., pike) to zoonotic disease systems (specifically plague) as well as bringing in ecological thinking into evolutionary biology. Stenseth established the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES: https://www.mn.uio.no/cees/english/index.html) which he chaired till 2018 and the Centre for Pandemics and One-Health Research (P1H: https://www.med.uio.no/sustainit/english/centres/p1h/index.html) where he serves as the Deputy Chair. Currently Stenseth is the PI of an ERC Synergy project entitled “Reconstructing the environmental, biological, and societal drivers of plague outbreaks in Eurasia between 1300 and 1900 CE” within which he brings together population ecology, molecular biology, climatology, and history.

Prof. Stenseth delivers lectures at the University of Oslo and holds the position of Chair of the committee for evaluating the development of a Pandemic Centre at UiO (Oslo, Norway). Additionally, he serves as the Science Ambassador of the Alliance of International Science Organizations-ANSO.

Professor Stenseth’s exceptional contributions have been recognized through numerous prestigious awards. In 2023, he was awarded the Grand Medal Prince Albert 1st, Prince of Monaco, and the Gunnerus Medal by The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. His international collaborations have also been acknowledged with awards such as the ECI prize in marine sciences, International Ecology Institute (Otto Kinne Foundation, Germany), Chinese national award for International Science and Technology Cooperation, the Bonnevie Prize for carrying out excellent work within the field of biology and many others.

His academic honors include being elected as an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mammalogists (2023), a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023).

During his career Prof. Stenseth has authored over 850 works and papers. According to Google Scholar, his publications have amassed over 66,000 references and his work has been cited more than 23,000 times. Has an h-index of 130.