19-21 September 2007, Jesus College, Oxford
Workshop Participants
Michael Brennek
is a scientific assistant at the Faculty of Geography, Warsaw University, working on landscape change in Central and Eastern Europe. He's project manager at the TT30 - Young Think Tank of the Club of Rome, where he's involved in sustainability projects and also works as a climate change expert for the British Council Poland. Michael earns his living running an IT company (itworx.pl), while after hours he's a landscape photographer. His dream is to see the Arctic before it melts.
Zuzana Burivalová
comes from the Czech Republic and is a third year biologist at Oxford. She is interested in alpine vegetation and has based her dissertation on this, focussing in particular on the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian mountains. When she is not doing high-altitude botany, she goes rock-climbing and mountaineering.
Aron Buzogány
is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for European Integration of the Free University Berlin, Germany, where he also works as a research associate in the pan-European Integrated Project on "New Modes of Governance". Originally from Romania, he has studied political science, economics and sociology in Tübingen, Helsinki and at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO). His research interest focuses on EU environmental policy and state-society relations in Eastern Europe.
Joanna Cent
is a PhD student in Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University in Krakow and research assistant in Institute of Environmental Sciences. She participates in several international and local research projects connected to human dimensions of natural resources. She's experienced in both qualitative and quantitative social research methods. Her main research interests are: environmental policies, conflict between local development and nature protection, social dialog in nature protection. She loves dogs, cinema and trekking.
Agoston Csejtei
is an Associate Lecturer at University of West-Hungary, teaching microeconomics, macroeconomics, environmental economics, econometrics and environmental law. My main research are is the economic-legal regulation of the environmental protection. I will finish my PhD studies next Spring. My hobbies are climbing, hiking, classical music, opera and collecting stamps.
Laura Dzelzyte
is the president of the Lithuanian Youth Association of the UK, and represents young Lithuanians in various institutions and political debates. She spent four years working as a business and brand consultant for Eastern European markets and is one of the founders of GreenIndex - environmental product labelling scheme. She is reading Law and Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex and working on a Bachelor of Laws dissertation on problems with the EU environmental policy making.
Hando Hain
has a BSc and MSc in Landscape Ecology and Environmental Protection. He is presently a PhD student at the Institute of Geography in University of Tartu. His professional experience includes managing several forestry-related projects in Estonian Green movement and preparing some management plans for conservation areas. During the last five years has been working as forest management and chain of custody lead auditor in NEPCon and is also manager of the Estonian NEPCon office. Hain's scientific interests include sustainable forest management, illegal forestry, forest certification, and environmental management systems.
Mihail Hanzu
has been a forest engineer since June 2007. Before, as a student, he was the president of the "SILVA" forestry student's organization for two years, and was also the International Forestry Student's Organization (IFSA) contact person for Balkan region. He considers the sustainable management of old growth forests a fascinating field and his PhD thesis will probably be related to this aspect of the Romanian forestry sector.
Alina Ionita
is a PhD candidate in Environmental Geography at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania. Her research focuses on the multiple implications of the implementation and correlation of environmental policies with related sectors at regional and local level. Her main interests are related to the implementation of the European nature conservation policy in Romania and the opportunity of developing environmental spatial information systems for the environmental management and the policy making process.
Kärg Kama
is currently completing her MSc studies in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy at the OUCE. Previously, she has graduated in philosophy from the University of Tartu. She has seven years experience in the environmental field, first working as a project manager for the Estonian Fund for Nature and later as an environmental auditor for the National Audit Office of Estonia. Her work has also involved monitoring the environmental sustainability of EU regional funds.
Nita Mihai-Daniel
is participating in the workshop in the hope that it will allow him to better understand environmental governance in the European Union. After the workshop he hopes to be able to apply the new ideas to Romania, helping to build a strong and lasting environmental governance. He is looking forward to representing Romania, and underlining the country's success in solving environmental issues, at the workshop.
Martina Mirt
is a 23 year old student from Slovenia. After she completed grammar school in 2003, she went to the University of Ljubljana to study Biology, choosing in her second year to study the Systematic/Ecological module. During her study time she has organized several workshops for students of Biology in order to broaden their biological knowledge. She has begun research on fresh water gastropods and become very interested in the impacts of invasive water plant species.
Krzysztof Niedzialkowski
has graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics and from the Law Faculty of the University of Warsaw. Since 2003, he has been working as a project manager and a legal specialist at the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2005 he began his PhD studies at the Institute for Social Studies at the University of Warsaw. His research interests include political, economic and legal aspects of nature conservation. He is also interested in migration movements.
Marta Panek
is currently studying an MSc in Environmental Protection at the Faculty of Biology at Warsaw University. Her main field of interest includes the relationships between environmental awareness of Polish society and functioning of nature conservation on various levels, as well as the role of NGOs in raising said awareness and implementing conservation practices. She took part in organising protest actions against the building of the Augustow ring road through the most precious part of the Rospuda Valley.
Aleksandra Pepkowska
is a conservation biologist at the Institute of Nature Conservation (Polish Academy of Science) currently working on the ecological network Natura 2000 in The Carpathians. She is also studying for a PhD at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) where she used to work on a few scientific projects connected to nature conservation in Poland and European Union. During her travels, scientific conferences and scholarships, she likes to broaden personal and professional acquaintances. In her free time she likes climbing, traveling and taking photographs.
Piotr Predki
is a 23 year old student of Environment Protection at Warsaw University. In a scientific field, he is interested in hydrobiology, recultivation of water areas, and environmental protection. He is an open-minded, creative and easy going person, who likes to discover new ideas. In his leisure time he is keen on cycling, swimming, going out with my friends and meeting new people from all over the world.
Merlin Rehema
is a second year MSc student in environmental protection. She became interested in environmental protection in grammar school when she joined her school's environmental protection club Scarabaeus. Since then she has participated in different conferences and workshops and bees. She is a conscientious, hardworking and energetic individual who enjoys new challenges and working as an active team member. She is interested in photography, football and music, and likes hiking.
Agnieszka Siemiginowska
was born near Poznan, Poland, and moved to Boston, Massachusetts with her family at the age of six. She received her undergraduate degree in geography from Rutgers University and has just completed her Master's degree from Oxford University in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy, with a dissertation on domestic energy policy in Krakow, Poland. In particular, she is interested in environmental issues arising from the expanding European Union.
Tori Timms
is a British undergraduate from the University of Oxford reading Geography, and am currently about to begin her third year. Her particular academic interests include biodiversity and conservation, and she is about to spend 7 weeks in the Cayman Islands researching the role of civic society in structures of environmental governance for her dissertation.
Veronika Ulmanová
is from the spa town of Teplice in the Czech Republic. She is 22 years old and is a student of Masaryk University in Brno where she is interested in, and studying, international relations and environmental studies. She is looking forward to coming in Oxford this September to meet the other participants of this inspiring workshop!
Triinu Vaab
has a BA in Landscape Architecture form Estonian University of Life Sciences. She is currently studying for a Master's in landscape architecture and aims to graduate in spring 2008. Her Master's thesis is about state forest recreational areas and she is interested in wild nature and fine arts. She is employed as a planner in Valga County Government and has a background in dealing with laws and norms that regulate spatial planning in Estonia.
Anna Zajac
is a PhD student at the Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland. Her thesis is entitled, "Distribution and conservation of habitats of Vertigo snails: an example of Natura 2000 site in the Nida river valley". She recently completed an MSc in Environmental Protection at the Department of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. Her interests include; the ecology of Vertigo snails, ecology of aquatic invertebrates, and models of WWI and WWII military vehicles.
Przemslaw Zelazowski
comes from Poland and has brief work experience related to environmental governance (Ministry of Environment and Polish Academy of Sciences). Since last year he has focussed on his education, completing an MSc course in Environmental Change and Management at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford, and continuing on to study for a D.Phil. at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment, where he is studying land-use land-cover change in the transition zone between Amazon lowlands and Andean highlands. His research explores a range of techniques, which allow for application of satellite imagery in environmental assessment and predicting future landscapes.
Iwona Zwierschowska
is a physical geographer with a background in Environmental Planning. Currently she is a PhD student at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Her research focuses on the impacts of cities on the environmental systems in the region of Great Poland. I am particularly interested in land use structure in cities and environmental fragmentation that influence connectivity of the environmental system. Country, regional and local planning regulations are important factors shaping the space.