People

FOR2432 researchers at the Opening Workshop for the second project phase,
September 2019 at Domäne Frankenhausen (near Kassel, Germany).

Suman Sourav is a social science researcher who holds a joint Masters Degree in Rural Development from Ghent University in Belgium, Humbolt University in Germany and the University of Pisa in Italy. He had started his education in agricultural sciences at Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth Agrigultural University in Maharashtra, India. Prior to joining FOR2432-Project A01 as a doctoral researcher, he worked in a variety of Indian and international research organizations, including ICRIER, ISEC , IWMI, UNESCAP and PAD. Suman's PhD study deals with plant growth, water quality, carbon and nutrient flows in rural-urban cropping systems at different spatial scales in Bengaluru. His area of interest mainly lies in sustainable development of agricultural ecosystem in developing countries. Suman graduated in March 2024.

FOR2432-Project A01
Organic crop production and agro-ecosystem research in the tropics and subtropics
University of Kassel (sourav.suman@gmail.com)

Albara Almawazreh obtained his master's degree in Environmental and Eesources Management (ERM) at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. With a focus on water management and hydrology, in his master thesis in the area of subsurface hydrology he studied the influence of wet and dry cycles on solute dissipation in soil with hydrus.
Albara wants to develop his modeling abilities from field scale to catchment scale and expects to learn new techniques and methods such as infrared thermography. He completed his dissertation with his graduation in September 2024.

FOR2432-Project A02
Hydrology and matter balance
University of Kassel (albara@uni-kassel.de)

Tejas started working with BangaDyn in June 2019 and will move to FOR2432 in November 2019. He is originally from Bangalore and worked previously as a research associate at ATREE (project partner).Tejas completed a Masters in Water Environment Management in Leibniz Uni, Hannover. So far, he quantified water balances using latest Remote sensing products. He will work on quantifying water balances and influence of Anthropogenic influences with an aim to understand trade-offs in sustainable management as well as an isotope hydro-geological study to understand the seepage dyamics in a small scale watershed. Tejas successfully defended his PhD thesis in September 2024.

FOR2432-Project A02
Hydrology and matter balance
University of Kassel (tejas.kulkarni@uni-kassel.de)

Marion Reichenbach is an Animal Scientist interested in livestock production systems in the Tropics and Subtropics with emphasis on nutrition and physiology. Trained at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, where she specialized in pig and cattle production systems, her Master thesis addressed the problems associated with promoting a traditional cattle ranching system based on a local breed with a specific foraging strategy as a key element for achieving sustainable development of beef production in the Bolivian Dry Chaco. Her current research focus as doctoral researcher within the interdisciplinary framework of the DGF Research Unit FOR 2432 is the relevance of nutrient management for dairy production in an urbanizing environment. Embedded in the analysis of the social-ecological system of Bangalore, she will quantify resource use efficiency on dairy farms and thus, the impact of urbanization on intensity of production.

FOR2432-Project A03
Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel & UniversitätGöttingen

Marion graduated in July 2020 with her PhD thesis entitled "Dairy production in an urbanizing environment - a system approach in Bengaluru, India". She remained associated with the project as postdoctoral scientist and teaching assistant at AHTS, until she left to pursue here career elsewhere.

Shahin Alam is a dairy animal scientist mostly focus on sustainable dairy farming system. In his prior academic carreer, he had a position (preserved -Teaching and Research) in Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He completed his^2nd masters in the department of Animal Science (Global and Sustainable Production) at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), The Netherlands. He compiled 'Impact of dry period length on farm income - including cow health and veterinary costs' thesis in Animal Production System chair group, and 'Alternative feeding options to enhance the sustainability of dairy farms in Bangladesh' thesis in Farming System Ecology chair group. In FOR2432 his research addressed the dairy production systems and spatial patterns of milk contamination with heavy metals and (agro-)chemical residues in relation to the polycentric patterns of lake distribution along the rural-urban transects. He completed his PhD degree in November 2023.

FOR2432-Project A03
Animal Husbandry in the Tropis and Subtropics
University of Kassel (shahindps@hstu.ac.bd)

Shahin Alam maintains research collaborations with the AHTS team in different project contexts up to date.

Ana Pinto Garcia is an Agricultural Engineer specialized in Animal Production. She studied Agricultural Engineering at the University Politécnica of Madrid (Spain). She completed her MSc Thesis in Nutreco Company in The Netherlands. After that, she has been working the last 3 years in different experimental farms as a field technician conducting studies related to nutrition, behavior and animal welfare. Ana Pinto Garcia joined the FOR2432 team to study the relevance of primary and functional traits for dairy cattle production in an urbanizing environment. She graduated in April 2021.

FOR2432-Project A03
Animal Breeding
University of Giessen (Ana.Pinto-Garcia@agrar.uni-giessen.de)

Silpa Mullakkalparambil Velayudhan acquired her PhD degree in FOR2432 project A03 in June 2024.

FOR2432-Project A03
Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics
University of Giessen (mv.silpa@gmail.com)

Gabriel Marcacci is an ornithologist and an ecologist interested in migratory landbirds conservation and tropical agroecosystems. He completed his Master degree in Ecology & Evolution with a specialization in animal ecology and conservation biology at the University of Bern in Switzerland. His Master thesis brought him to Ethiopia where he spent several months to investigate the effect of small- versus large-scale farming on bird diversity. His research focus within FOR2432 was the agricultural biodiversity and associated ecosystem services across the rural-urban gradient. He was the first doctoral researcher of Phase II to finish his degree in September 2022.

FOR2432-Project B01
Functional Agrobiodiversity
Georg-August University Göttingen

Matthias did his M.Sc. in Fundamental and Applied Ecology at Bielefeld University. His M.Sc. thesis was spatial models of wolf-caribou interactions (aim: caribou protection). So far, he worked on effects of urbanization on pollination services. His project work in FOR2432 included developng spatial-temporal models of pollination services along an urban-rural gradient. He contributed to ecological modeling in two areas: Species distribution modeling using commonness optimization & Assessing the risk of Imidacloprid to honey bees using a honey bee simulation model. He graduated in June 2024.

FOR2432-Project B01
University of Göttingen

Verena completed a BA in European Studies at Maastricht University and subsequently obtained a MSc in International Development Studies from Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands). In the context of her studies and during several internships, she has worked in the field of agricultural and development economics. Verena joined FOR2432 as a member of subproject B02, which studies social and environmental preferences, decision-making behavior of households and public good provision. She graduated in June 2023.

FOR2432-Project B02
Environmental and Resource Economics
University of Göttingen (verena.preusse@uni-goettingen.de)

FOR2432-Project C01
Grassland Science and Renewable Resources
University of Kassel (jayan.wijesingha@uni-kassel.de)

FOR2432-Project C02
Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing
University of Göttingen(zzhu@gwdg.de)

Pramila Thapa obtained her master`s degree in Agriculture Economics at the University of Göttingen and University of Kassel with a focus on landscape ecology and natural resource management. Prior to joining FOR2432-Project C03 as a doctoral researcher, she worked in the Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Policy Research and Development. An agriculturist by training, she has worked among smallholder farmers in rural Nepal and Tanzania as a researcher and facilitator. Her research focus in FOR2432 was on social-ecological dynamics and ecosystem services of green and blue infrastructures in urban contexts. Pramila successfully completed her PhD in July 2024.

FOR2432-Project C03
Social-ecological interactions in agricultural systems
University of Kassel(pramila.thapa@uni-kassel.de)

Arvind Lakshmisha acquired his PhD degree in FOR2432 project C03 in March 2024.

FOR2432 project C03
International Agricultural Policy and Environmental Governance
University of Kassel (arvind@uni-kassel.de)

As a remote member of FOR2432 who joined late in Phase I, Sivee Chawla finished her degree in Australia in June 2022.

FOR2432-Project C03
Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia (siveechawla@yahoo.com)

Neda Yousefian holds a BA in Anthropology from Howard University. Pursuing her interest in agriculture, she spent 2.5 years working on an agroforestry project with a women farmers cooperative in Mauritania, West Africa. Her Master thesis built on this experience as she studied the nutritional content and ethnobotanical uses of the Moringa oleifera tree in Senegal. She earned her M.Sc. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis. Afterwards, she spent 2 years at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working in a collaborative research project on safe vegetable production and savings-led microfinance with smallholder farmers.

Her research interests encompass food systems, sustainable agriculture, ethnobotany and development. As a doctoral researcher in the FOR 2432 group she studied consumption and food transition practices of Bengaluru's middle classes as it relates to sustainability and the rural-urban food production systems. Her defense in November 2024 will conclude the doctoral research activities within FOR2432.

FOR2432-Project C04
Human Geography
University of Göttingen (neda.yousefian@uni-goettingen.de)

Anjali Purushotham acquired her PhD degree in FOR2432 project C05 in July 2021.

FOR2432 project C05
Agricultural policy University of Göttingen

FOR2432-Project C05
Development Economics /CeMIS
University of Göttingen (nitya.mittal@uni-goettingen.de)

Dr. Ellen Hoffmann is affiliated with the work group "Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics" (OPATS) at the University of Kassel. A biologist by training, she has subsequently worked in the field of agricultural sciences, both as a researcher and a science manager.   She coordinates FOR2432 and contributes to  the interdisciplinary discussion on system approaches, land use changes, and social-ecological dynamics in the context of urbanization.

FOR2432-Project Z
Ecological Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel (ellen.hoffmann@uni-kassel.de)

Mirka Erler is a human geographer interested in sustainable nutrition and agriculture. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Geography at the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) and her Master of Science in Transformation of Urban Landscapes at RUB and Tongji University Shanghai, China. In her Master thesis she studied the demands of Shanghai's citizens for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Comparing her findings with German CSA models, she drew conclusions for the implementation of such a project in Shanghai.

Her current research focus within the interdisciplinary framework of the DGF Research Unit FOR 2432 is the food transition of Bengaluru's Middle Class and its implications for sustainability. As in her Master thesis she combines quantitative and qualitative methods.

FOR2432-Project C04
Human Geography, University of Göttingen(mirka.erler[at]uni-goettingen[dot]de)

Mirka graduated in May 2020 with her PhD thesis. "Food and the middle class: The site of food transition in rural and urban Bengaluru, India"and remains associated to the project in her current position as postdoctoral scientist.

FOR2432-Project B02
Environmental and Resource Economics
University of Göttingen (santos.silva@wiwi.uni-goettingen.de)

FOR2432-Project B01
Agroecology, University of Göttingen(arne.wenzel[at]agr.uni-goettingen[dot]de)

Arne Wenzel graduated in July 2020. His PhD thesis is entitled "Agricultural biodiversity and associated services across rural- urban landscapes".

Johannes Wegmann obtained his BA in International Economics and Development at the University of Bayreuth, and his MSc in Economics at the University of Cologne, with several months of fieldwork in Ghana, West Africa. He is interested in the interactions of spatial factors and opportunity costs.

In the context of FOR2432 his PhD project deals with preferences and decision-making behavior.

FOR2432-Project B02
Farm Management, University of Göttingen (johannes.wegmann@agr.uni-goettingen.de)

Johannes Wegmann graduated in July 2019 with the thesis entitled "Groundwater Use and Management along the Rural-Urban Interface: Attitudes, Preferences, and Decision Making Behavior". He continued working in the project in Phase II until July 2020.

Dr. Suddapuli studied Agricultural Sciences and Soil Science in Sri Lanka and the Phillipines and worked as project officer, researcher and lecturer, before she obtained a PhD degree in Germany at the Institute of Soil Science, University of Hamburg. She joined University of Kasselas a member of Research Unit FOR2432 in April 2018,and analyses the influence of urbanization on the crop production in and around Bengaluru, India, with a focus on horizontal and vertical nutrient flows. She uses an array of methods such as microlysimeters, resin cartridges, and photoacoustic gas measurements in on-station reference trials and on serval on-farm fields to detect intensity and efficiency gradients in agricultural management along the rural-urban transects.

FOR2432-Project A01
Ecological Crop production and Agro-ecosystem research in the tropics and subtropics
University of Kassel (r.suddapuli@uni-kassel.de)

Linda Steinhübel holds a B.Sc. in Biodiversity and Ecology from the Georg-August-University Göttingen. Afterwards she continued her studies in Göttingen and obtained her M.Sc. in Sustainable International Agriculture specializing on International Agribusiness and Rural Development Economics. During her Master studies she spent one semester (ERASMUS) at the SupAgro in Montpellier and interned at the Laboratoire Montpelliérain d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée (LAMETA), a research group of the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA) in France.

Her research in the FOR2432 group primarily focuses on dynamics of agricultural specialization, intensification, and commercialization in the rural-urban interface of Bangalore.

FOR2432-Project C05
Agricultural Policy, University of Göttingen(linda.steinhuebel[at]agr.uni-goettingen[dot]de)

Linda graduated in October 2019 with her Thesis entitled. "Urbanization, agricultural intensification, and environmental services: A spatial analysis".

FOR2432-Project C01
Grassland Science and Renewable Resources
University of Kassel (supriyaD@uni-kassel.de)

Supriya finished her PhD entitled "Evaluation of remote sensing based spectral and 3D Point Cloud data for crop biomass estimation in Southern India" in October 2019.

Doctoral Researcher until March 2019
FOR2432-Project B01
Ecosystem Modeling, University of Göttingen (msciain@uni-goettingen.de)

Johannes Bettin holds a BA in Political Science & Economics from University of Jena, and an MA in Development Economics from University of Göttingen. He was a visiting Student at Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá) and Sciences Po (Paris), and had several internships, e.g. at Wuppertal Institute, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation Quito, German Embassy Bogotá, arche noVa e.V. (Dresden), Proyecto Horizonte e.V. (Cochabamba).

His PhD thesis in FOR2432 has a focus on Social-Ecological Preferences and Urbanization in India. He carries out surveys and choice experiments to explore preferences and decision-making towards pro-environmental behavior and the management of common pool resources, taking naturally available irrigation water as an example for regulating ecosystem service provision. The exploration is  framed within a motivational framework, with exogenous variation introduced by different kinds of urbanization, aiming at more general enquiries into the origins of social trust.

FOR2432-Project B02
International Agricultural Economics, University of Göttingen
(johannes.bettin@agr.uni-goettingen.de)

Johannes Bettin graduated in April 2019 with his thesis entitled. "Social-Ecological Preferences and Urbanization in India".

Researcher until March 2019 in FOR2432-Project C05
Economics and Development Economics, University of Göttingen (debosree@gmail.com)

Postdoctoral Researcher until October 2019
FOR2432-Project B02
International Agricultural Economics, University of Göttingen (monish.jose@uni-goettingen.de)

Scientist in project A01 until December 2018

Doctoral Researcher until March 2019
FOR2432-Project A02
Soil Science, University of Kassel (s.leh@uni-kassel.de)

Doctoral Researcher in Project C05 until April 2018

Doctoral researcher in project C01 until November 2017

Beate Madan (Koch) was a doctoral researcher in project A01 until September 2018, working on intensification effects on matter flows in rural-urban cropping systems. She contributed to the setup of an on-station factorial field experiment at UASB and analyzed horizontal and vertical flows of nutrients and carbon at the micro and meso-scale.