Keynote speakers
Jan Květ: Wetlands Research in the Czech Republic
Dr. Jan Květ started his career as a plant physiologist and ecologist at the Institute of Botany the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1956. In 1965, he turned to working with freshwater plants and wetlands, gradually expanding his studies to the level of whole habitats or regions. His interests are not limited to the study of wetland plant communities, but include human impacts on wetlands in a broad sense. He has carried out research nationally as well as internationally, and in Europe as well as in North America and in Australia. He participated in several wetland-oriented international programs and projects such as the IBP – ecology of wetlands, SCOPE – functioning of continental wetlands and shallow water bodies, EU Project EUREED, co-founded the INTECOL wetlands working group, and played an active role in UNESCO´s MAB program. In particular, Jan Květ has taken many initiatives to link UNESCO MAB activities with Ramsar activities at international level (for instance during a joint Ramsar/MAB mission in the Danube Delta) and in the Czech Republic, notably at the Treboň Fishponds Ramsar Site and Třeboň Basin Biosphere Reserve. Jan Květ has also advanced the cause of Ramsar through, since 1992, lectures on wetlands ecology organized by the Czech National Commission for Implementation of the Ramsar Convention. He has participated in the Czech Ramsar Advisory Panel of Experts since 2001. In addition to many scientific publications, Jan Květ is very much appreciated as a university teacher at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and has also taken part in public awareness and education programs. As an M.P., in 1990-92, he substantially contributed to the construction of the Czech Republic´s law on nature and landscape conservation. In 2001, the SWS bestowed him with the International Fellowship Award (together with Dagmar Dykyjová) In 2008, he received the Ramsar Recognition of Excellence during the Ramsar convention in Changwon, Korea. He is a life member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic and a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Günter Langergraber: The use of models to describe processes in natural and constructed wetlands
Dr. Günter Langergraber is a Senior scientist at BOKU University, Vienna, Austria. Günter completed his PhD "Development of a simulation tool for constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment" in 2001. His main points of interests are resources-oriented sustainable sanitation, constructed wetlands and modelling. He is currently the chair of the International Water Association Specialist Group on "Resources-oriented Sanitation" and a member of the Management Committee of the IWA Specialist Group on the "Use of Macrophytes for Water Pollution Control".
Nancy Dise: Peatlands and Global Change: Hero, Victim, or Villain?
Nancy Dise is Professor and Chair of Environmental Science at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Notre Dame (USA) in 1980, followed by a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia (1984) and a PhD from the University of Minnesota (1991). She joined the Open University, UK as a Lecturer (1994-2003) and Senior Lecturer (2003-5), and moved to Manchester Metropolitan in 2005. She has held visiting scientist or postdoctoral positions in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, and the US.
Professor Dise’s research broadly encompasses the biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems. Within this area she has focussed on the cycling of nitrogen, carbon and sulfur in forests, wetlands, and grasslands, the production and emission of the greenhouse gases methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide from wetlands, the impacts of atmospheric pollution on terrestrial biodiversity, and the regional modelling of catchment water chemistry.
Chris Freeman: Peatland Carbon Sequestration - Future Prospects
Chris Freeman is currently Professor of Peatland Biogeochemistry at Bangor University where he heads the Wolfson Peatland Carbon Capture Laboratory. He moved to Bangor in 1986, following a part-time BSc at Nottingham Trent University. He gained a PhD in Bangor, before conducting postdoctoral research at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (now known as CEH) until 1994. He was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship that year, and held the Fellowship in Bangor. He has since been appointed as Lecturer (2002), Senior Lecturer (2003), and then Professor (2005) at that University. He initially became interested in peatlands while a limnology researcher working on the River Conwy. He became fascinated by the ability of the DOC leaching from the peatlands of the catchment to suppress microbial metabolism in the river. His research interests now focus on the causes of the unusually high carbon-storage capacity exhibited by peatlands in locations as diverse as Welsh bogs and to the tropical peatswamps of Malaysia. He has a long-standing interest in the role of peatland ecosystems in influencing climate change. His work has been recognised nationally through the award of the Royal Society Mullard Medal, and internationally through the award of the Lindeman Award of the American Society for Limnology & Oceanography, and gathers considerable media interest ranging from the BBC to the New York Times. Chris has been a contributing author to more than 90 refereed publications.
