We are indebted to a range of magnificent collaborators. Here we list our national and international colleagues with whom we work.
Collaborators
José Mª Abad “Pipe”
Researcher and technician at the University of Extremadura as part of different research projects led by Jose Antonio Masero. The main focus of my work as a researcher is ecophysiology, migration and the role of anthropogenic habitats in the life cycle of shorebirds. Black-tailed Godwit has been the main focal species, for this work, a…
José Alves
I am a conservation ecologist striving to understand the mechanistic bases of how biodiversity responds to changes in their environment. Currently based at the Universities of Aveiro and Iceland as a post-doctoral researcher, I address fundamental issues such as variation on demographic rates, range and habitat changes and phenological responses to climate change, as well…
Allert Bijleveld
I am a tenure-track scientist at Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in the department of Coastal Systems, but this year I work in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford where I collaborate with Dora Biro and the Oxford Navigation group (OxNav). In 2015, I obtained my PhD degree with Theunis…
Pierrick Bocher
Université de La Rochelle, France.
Christiaan Both
Associate professor at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Teresa Catry
I am a Research Assistant at the University of Lisbon, working mainly on shorebird and seabird ecology, but also with a strong interest on the conservation of steppe birds. My main research is focused on key state-of-the-art aspects of the ecology of coastal and marine birds in the contrasting ecological contexts of tropical, sub-tropical and…
Nicola Crockford
Theunis has been fostering my devotion to waders for more than three decades. For the past decade or so, in my role at the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) leading BirdLife International’s Global Flyway policy work, it has been a pleasure to help use the Global Flyway Network’s work to deliver conservation action of benefit…
Sjoerd Duijns
I am a former PhD student of Theunis (2010 – 2014), where I studied the foraging ecology of Bar-tailed Godwits. My PhD thesis: Sex-specific foraging: The distributional ecology of a polychaete-eating shorebird is available online. I am still involved with the Bar-tailed Godwit work, together with Theunis, Jan van Gils and Eldar Rakhimberdiev. Currently I…
Jordi Figuerola
I’m a senior researcher at Estación Biológica Doñana, a research institute of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) centered around studies of the mechanisms that generate, maintain and contribute to loss of biodiversity. My collaboration with Theunis focuses on identifying the consequences of wintering in Europe or traveling to Western Africa for the survival, breeding success…
Laura Govers
I am a passionate marine ecologist that studies ecosystem-scale processes in intertidal ecosystems across the world. As postdoctoral researcher I am based at the University of Groningen – Conservation Ecology Group (The Netherland). My research mainly focuses on the Wadden Sea, where I study long-distance interactions between mudflats and islands, biogeomorphological processes, focusing on the…
José Pedro Granadeiro
I am an Assistant Professor at Lisbon University, working in the Department of Animal Biology. My research interests focus on understanding ecological constraints, demography and spatial ecology of coastal and marine birds in different tropical and subtropical ecosystems. I started studying shorebirds in 2000, and soon after I met Theunis during a field trip to…
Bob Hickey
Professor at Department of Geography, Central Washington University, USA. AnnRoeBIM resident GIS expert. Global Flyway Network|Australia. On a lark (gotta get at least one bird references in here), I accepted a position at Curtin University in Western Australia a few decades ago. While I was there less than 4 years, I got involved in the…
Paul W. Howey
Microwave Telemetry, Inc. The company provides state-of-the-art avian (and marine) tracking technology for scientists.
Bart Kempenaers
Behavioural ecologist with a broad interest in all aspects of behaviour, but with a focus on mating behaviour and sexual selection. Ornithologist with a passion for shorebirds and the Arctic. Director of the Department Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and Professor in Behavioural Ecology at the…
Rosemarie Kentie
Currently I am a Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society, based at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, in the group of Prof Tim Coulson. I am still working with the Black-tailed Godwit dataset of Team Piersma. Here in Oxford I learn how to construct Integral Projection Models (IPM). One of…
Tienke Koning
Since a couple of years I support Team Theunis as a fundraiser. From 2007 until 2015 I was the director of Ubbo Emmius Fund, the charity of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Alumni of our university are very important for the relation between society and science. Ubbo Emmius Fund brings both parties together by…
Clemens Küpper
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. Research Group Behavioural Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology. Information about Clemens’ research group can be found at http://www.orn.mpg.de/3731861/Research_Group_Kuepper
Thomas Lameris
As an ecologist my main interest is how birds can adapt to indirect anthropogenic changes, such as human-induced climate warming and habitat changes following a shift in land-use. Currently, my main topic of investigation are the causes and consequences of mistimed reproduction under climate warming in migratory birds. I am based as a post-doc at…
David Lelieveld
David Lelieveld is a theatre producer in the north of the Netherlands. In 2017, for theatre festival Oerol, he produced the play TRACKS with Theunis, Jos Thie (director) and Sytze Pruiksma, about migratory birds. In 2012 he established his theatre company Pier21, with which he created performances such as De Emigrant and Feteranen (Veterans). In 2017 he co-produced the big site-specific play Koning van het Grasland (King of the Meadows), a…
Zhijun Ma
I am Professor and Principle Investigator in the bird ecology research group at the School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, China. My research targets birds living on China’s coastal wetlands, especially waterbirds and saltmarsh birds, focusing on habitat ecology, migration ecology, and conservation biology. I collaborate with Theunis focusing on the stopover ecology of migratory…
Jose A. Masero
Professor in ecology, marine biology and zoology at the Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
Kimberley J. Mathot
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Very broadly, my research centers on understanding the causes and consequences of phenotypic variation across different levels of biological organization. What limits within-individual phenotypic plasticity? Why do individuals from the same populations often show consistent differences in their average behaviour (also referred to as animal…
David Melville
Global Flyway Network associate|New Zealand & China. I have been studying waders and undertaking wetland conservation management in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway since 1974. This has included work in Australia, Thailand, India, Republic of Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Alaska, but mostly Hong Kong (where I worked for WWF Hong Kong establishing the…
Juan G. Navedo
I am a Professor at the Institute of Marine Science and Limnology (ICML), Faculty of Science, Universidad Austral de Chile, leading the Bird Ecology Lab, where I focus my research in studying Nearctic and ‘Patagonian’ shorebird ecology since late 2013. Deciphering the effects of humans on wildlife conservation, either land-use changes, presence, settlement, activities or pollutants, using migratory shorebirds…
Han Olff
Professor at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Thomas Oudman
Thomas Oudman is a behavioural ecologist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and currently enjoys a 2-year Visiting Scholarship at the Laland Lab, financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. He is working on the learning behaviour of migratory birds, focusing on how traditions help and hinder them in adjusting their flight…
Sytze Pruiksma
Sytze Pruiksma is a composer, sound artist and bird watcher. Since 2008 he combines his love for birds and landscape with the music he makes. As a soloist but also in projects together with poets, dancers, video artists and scientists like Theunis Piersma he gives voice to the landscape he cares about and worries about.…
Adrian Riegen
Global Flyway Network associate|New Zealand. Profile ‘under construction’.
Afonso Rocha
I am a postdoctoral researcher based at the Functional Biodiversity Group, University of Aveiro (Portugal). As conservation ecologist passionate for shorebirds and their habitats, I focus on the migratory connectivity along the East Atlantic Flyway and global processes of climate change. I have a particular interest in migratory strategies, physiological constraints and adipose tissue signatures…
Nathan Senner
NEWS: Starting in January 2019, I am assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. From 2012 to 2015, I was a post-doctoral fellow in the Conservation Ecology Group at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands with shorebird guru, Dr. Theunis Piersma. While in The Netherlands, I worked to understand how Black-tailed…
Judy Shamoun-Baranes
Assistant professor in the interdisciplinary research group Computational Geo-Ecology, in the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Ruben Smit
Dr Ir Ruben Smit is a passionate and award winning photographer and filmmaker (De Nieuwe Wildernis / The New Wilderness). Theunis will be the ambassador for the film about the Wadden Sea Ruben is currently working on. Here is the Wad film teaser. Ruben received a Gouden Kalf, the Rembrandt Award, and is a BBC…
Klaas Sietse Spoelstra
Strategic advisor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, focusing on “Sustainable Landscapes” related topics. Initiative leader of citizens-network-program King of the Meadow | “Kening fan’e Greide” partnering with scientists, artists, citizens, NGO’s, governments and farmers.
Jos Thie
I am a theater maker who lives in Friesland (Wergea). That is my base for making performances that are made and played everywhere in The Netherlands and beyond. From my childhood, my passion is to reach the largest possible audience with performances that stimulate the imagination and thus stimulate our thinking about ourselves and about…
Piet van den Hout
As a biologist — not as a naturalist — I am clearly a late bloomer. After abandoning a career in law, I came to work in Theunis Piersma’s lab at the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in 2001 — as a student. In 2003 I embarked on a PhD-research, with Theunis as a…
Matthijs van der Geest
I am a marine benthic ecologist, with a special interest in the organizing principles (competition, predation, and mutualism) that structure marine benthic communities. Currently I am based at the Coastal Systems group of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) as a guest researcher. In 2000, I did a master project in Theunis Piersma’s group at…
Henk van der Veer
Henk van der Veer is Head of Scientific Department at the Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Coastal Systems (COS).
Jan van Gils
I am a direct colleague of Theunis at Royal NIOZ Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, where I work as a senior scientist using shorebirds as my ‘model organisms’. My current interest centers around the role that migrant shorebirds play as connecting agents between ecosystems on a global scale. Ecosystems are currently changing rapidly, but at…
Francois Vézina
I am a Professor of ecophysiology at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, Québec, Canada. My team’s research focuses on reversible physiological adjustments that allow birds to face environmental constraints. More precisely, we study physiological mechanisms helping birds to deal with challenging periods such as cold winters, migration and reproduction. I am particularly interested by…
Auxiliadora Villegas Sanchez
Assistant professor in ecology, zoology and physiology at the Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
Songlin Wang
Global Flyway Network associate|China. Director of the China Program of Ocean Outcomes – O2, with focus on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. Songlin, who lives in China, is an experienced and passionate conservation professional. His international career includes work for The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund (WWF China and WWF International), and The Paulson Institute, among…
