Ms. Lise Øvreås

Lise Øvreås is a Professor in geomicrobiology at the University of Bergen, Norway. She produced a master of sciences in general microbiology in 1991 and a Dr.scient degree in molecular microbial ecology in 1998 at University of Bergen. Øvreås was a researcher at UNIFOB for 8 years before she became a professor at University of Bergen in 2007. From 2007- 2011 she served a group leader for the “Deep biosphere” in the Center of excellence in Geobiology. From 2010 – 2014 she was a vice dean for research and education at the faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences at University of Bergen. Since 2016 she has been an adjunct professor at University Center in Svalbard (UNIS).

Øvreås specific expertise is in the use of molecular approaches (omics) to study complex microbial communities, such as those residing in soil, sediments, glacier ice and marine systems. Øvreås is currently studying the impact of climate change on microbial communities in Arctic ecosystems including a focus on the impact of thawing permafrost and melting glacial ice and sea ice. Her research also focuses on the diversity of prokaryotes along environmental gradients.

Øvreås is a Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA, since 2013) and the Norwegian Academy of technical Sciences (NTVA, since 2014). She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and VISTA board (a collaborative partnership between Equinor and DNVA) and she is the Norwegian representative at the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). She is the chair of NORPART programme (Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation).She is the Norwegian Ambassador in the International Society for Microbiology (ISME) and is the deputy leader of The National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT).

In 2012 – 2013 Øvreås was awarded the Fulbright Arctic chair grant and had a research stay at Laurence Berkeley National Laboratory, at Berkeley, California.