Two new professors in fisheries management

J. Rasmus Nielsen and Clara Ulrich, DTU Aqua (National Institute of Aquatic Resources), have been made professors in the strategic research area fisheries management. J. Rasmus Nielsen’s focus is on spatial population dynamics, fisheries and their interaction with the environment and other marine activities, while Clara Ulrich’s focus is on fisheries systems, including fleet dynamics and interactions.

Clara Ulrich is the first female professor at DTU Aqua. She is 40 years old and has a master’s and PhD from Agrocampus Ouest in Rennes, France. She took up a postdoc position at DTU Aqua in 2000 and became a senior researcher in 2005. She works with a broad spectrum of management problems associated with mixed fisheries – from model development to practical collaboration with fishermen and other stakeholders and authorities. She is currently an international coordinator, heading a project to draw up strategies for reducing the amount of discarded fish in European fisheries. The project is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and has 31 partners in 12 countries. Clara Ulrich is also a member of the European Commission’s advisory committee for fisheries and aquaculture (STECF) and provides significant scientific contributions in connection with advising on the EU’s common fisheries policy.

J. Rasmus Nielsen is 49 years old and holds a master’s degree in biology with Nordic philology as a subsidiary subject from Copenhagen University and a PhD from Wageningen University in Holland. He has also studied at McGill University in Canada. J. Rasmus Nielsen has worked for the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and for DANIDA (Danish Development Cooperation) in Vietnam, but has been employed at DTU Aqua since 1992. He has been a senior researcher and research coordinator for many years at DTU Aqua and for a time also head of section. J. Rasmus Nielsen has a particular focus on fish population and fisheries dynamics and has also specialised in survey methodology. He has headed a great many research projects over the years and has several times been international coordinator for major projects, including one that researched and assessed the impact of the planned Fehmarn Belt fixed link (between Denmark and Germany) on fish populations and fishing in the area. Furthermore, he focuses on teaching and supervision of students and has completed the DTU education in university teaching.