Sinan Itraija is a new postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystem – Applied Ecology & Conservation working under the supervision of Dr. Lian Pin Koh. He conducted his PhD. and Masters studies at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan – USA.  His PhD. Research focused on an interdisciplinary approach to develop a geospatial model to map riparian ecotones in Michigan and Minnesota utilizing Geographic Information Systems capabilities, the 50-year flood height as the hydrographical descriptor of riparian ecotones boundary, Digital Elevation Models DEM’s, US. National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), US. Digital Soil Data (SURRGO), US. National Agricultural Statistics Services (NASS), and US. National Land Cover Database (NLCD).
Since November 2001 he is working as a research associate to develop geospatial models utilizing cutting edge remote sensing and GIS techniques to detect oil palm trees plantations activities and their impact on the tropical biodiversity in Indonesia.

Madlene Nussbaum is a new scientific collaborator at the Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics group. She studied geography at the universities of Berne and Zurich. She set the focus of her studies on soil and geo information science. Within her master thesis she modeled the carbon pools of Swiss forest topsoils.

Her current research involves the prediction of the total carbon pool in Swiss forest soils. This includes the improvement of the spatial predictor data and the (geo)statistical model. The project aims to supply spatial accurate data for the national greenhouse gas inventory with regard to forest soils and is funded by the Federal Office for the Environment.

Zuzana Burivalova is a new PhD student in the Applied Ecology and Conservation Group, supervised by Prof. Lian Pin Koh. Her PhD research will focus on the ecological implications of the illegal logging crisis in Madagascar's north-eastern tropical humid forests. The illegal, selective Rosewood and Ebony trees extraction happens as a result of local poverty, national political instability, frequent destructive hurricanes, and international demand for precious wood. What happens as a result of the selective logging to other species and ecosystem services in a tropical forest where as many as 90% of species are endemic? What is the simplest and cheapest way to monitor selective logging? Field work, modelling of ecosystem services, and new GIS approaches will hopefully provide some answers to these questions.

Zuzana studied biology at the University of Oxford at undergraduate level and environmental science at the University of Geneva at master's level. For her master's dissertation, Zuzana studied the canopy structure and floristic composition of a newly protected forest in northern Madagascar. Between and during the second degree she also worked on several projects at the Post Conflict and Disaster Management Branch of UNEP in Geneva.

James Smith is a new PhD student in the Ecosystem Management Group supervised by Professor Dr. Jaboury Ghazoul and Dr. Chris Kettle. His PhD project is titled “Scaling Biodiversity to Ecosystem Services: Spatial Genetic Structure and Carbon Sequestration Potential in Tropical Forest Trees”. This project aims to develop a framework whereby the susceptibility of Malaysian dipterocarp trees to loss of genetic diversity, following forest fragmentation and degradation, can be predicted by reproductive and/or wood traits. The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

James studied at the University of Oxford, graduating with a BA in Biological Sciences. Following graduation, James worked for two years in socially responsible investment before conducting fieldwork in tropical forests in Honduras and Peru. In 2010 James returned to academia, completing an MRes in Ecology & Environmental Management at the University of York (UK), where he completed projects modelling forest carbon storage in the Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania, and liana dynamics in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador.

Nicolas Bircher is a new PhD student in the Forest Ecology group. Nicolas studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich where he focused on forest and landscape management. He completed his studies in 2011 with the master thesis "Silvicultural measures for the conservation of the Capercaillie in the special forest reserve of Amden".

In his PhD project, he analyses the sensitivity of Swiss forest stands to climate change. The project is funded by the Federal Office of Environment and aims to assist Swiss forest managers in the sustainable management of their forests.

Daniel Trüssel is a new scientific assistant for the Land Use Engineering Group. He is working in the GISTeam, which is responsible for teaching several GIS courses as well as maintaining a geodata server.
Daniel studied Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich with a focus on Forest and Landscape Management and obtained a M.Sc. degree in the summer of 2011. In his master thesis, he investigated the vegetative spread through soil and soil-like substrate of fungal tree-root endophytes that belong to the widespread Phialocephala fortinii s.l. - Acephala applanata species complex (PAC).

The PhD project with the title "Quantifying Biophysical Processes Promoting Microbial Diversity in Soil" focusses on linking diffusional heterogeneity and aquatic habitat fragmentation with microbial coexistence and diversity in the vadose zone. This project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and combines aspects of soil physics, hydrology and microbiology.

Erfan Haghighi is a new PhD student at the Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics group with a focus on Energy-Environment interactions. He is particularly interested in Flow and Transport through Porous Media.

Erfan has an M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran with a specialty in Energy Conversion. He fulfilled his M.Sc. thesis under the supervision of Prof. Mehrdad T. Manzari and Prof. Siamak K. Hannani in numerical simulation of two-phase flow in oil reservoirs entitled "Compositional simulation of 1-D oil reservoirs flow using a new high-resolution central scheme" which was funded by Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC). He extended a recently developed high-resolution central scheme to compositional flow problems which gives superior results over most of available methods.

His current research focuses on the dynamics of evaporation from terrestrial surfaces so that coupling between external and internal mass transfer during drying of a porous medium will be studied. Erfan is developing models along with experiments to linking pore scale phenomena with landscape processes.

Stan holds a Biology degree from the University of Freiburg, Germany and a PhD degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Western Australia. After finalising his PhD thesis entitled "Transpiration as the Leak in the Carbon Factory: A Model of Self-Optimising Vegetation" under the supervision of Prof. Sivapalan and Dr. Roderick in 2006, he took on a scientist position at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, where he has been working in the Biospheric Theory and Modeling Group under Dr. Kleidon until 2011.

His current research includes: (1) Evaluation and development of the Vegetation Optimality Model (VOM), (2) Evaluation of biological and thermodynamic organising principles for modelling soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT), (3) Modelling of the effect of elevated CO2 on vegetation and the catchment water balance, (4) Investigation of the physical and biological constraints for SVAT.

Veronique Ringwald is a new scientific assistant in our Forest Ecology Group. Veronique Ringwald studied forest science at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg i Br., Germany, and completed her studies with the diploma thesis “Growth analysis on native species of the Mata Atlântica in southern Brazil – Dendrochronological studies about growth periodicity.”
The last 2 years she worked as a trainee at the WSL, Birmensdorf, and as a project collaborator at the Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt Baden-Württemberg (FVA).

Since the first of June she works as a scientific assistant in the tree-ring lab, where she is involved mainly in field and laboratory work with reference to tree-rings. In addition, she takes care of the tree-ring laboratory and the workshop (including maintenance of equipment and material and introduction of students in laboratory methods).

Alvaro G. Gutierrez is a new postdoctoral Research Associate at the Forest Ecology Group. Alvaro Gutierrez is a forest ecologist, who conducted his PhD-project at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ-Leipzig, Germany) and received his doctoral degree from the Technical University of Munich. His research focused on forest dynamics and global change, particularly on temperate rainforests of southern Chile. 

Since April 1st he is working as a Research Associate on stand dynamics and forest succession modeling. He will develop applications of FORCLIM for temperate rainforests of southern Chile and the Pacific Northwest of North America.

Andreas Rudow is a new Research Associate at the Forest Ecology Group. Andreas Rudow studied Forest Sciencies at ETH Zurich. Since 1995 he works in combined research, implementation and knowledge transfer projects on tree biodiversity, phytosociology and forest management at the ETH. E.g. projects of the program on Promotion of Rare Tree Species (SEBA) and projects on the Promotion of Sweet Chestnut (partially as independent and guest at ETH). Besides, in 2010 he started to develop an e-learning tool to support dendrology education in Environmental Sciences at ETH. Starting from 2011 he will hold the lectures “Introduction into Dendrology” and “Identification of Woody Plants in Winter”.

Olivia Rickenbach is doing a PhD under the joint supervision of Dr. Jean-Pierre Sorg and Prof. Jaboury Ghazoul. Her research project is funded by the Research Fellow Partnership Program of the North-South Center at ETH. It aims to establish the knowledge crucial to establish models for mutually beneficial collaborations between forest dwelling hunter-gatherers and logging companies in wildlife management in industrial logging concessions in the Congo Basin.

Olivia has a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Fribourg where she focused on plant invasion ecology for her B.Sc. thesis. Her Master’s degree she received from the University of Zurich. Her Master’s thesis investigated the impacts of conservation interventions of a lapwing conservation program of the Swiss Ornithological Institute on the bird’s life history traits. 

Having a background in Biology, Olivia developed an interest in traditional ecological knowledge and consequently the idea for her PhD thesis based on experiences made during a stay in Indonesia, where she worked with WWF and private consulting companies on issues related to participatory land-use planning and palm oil certification.