MONTHLY UPDATES
PEOPLE
Principle investigators
donatus_1999[at]yahoo.fr
Donat Nsabimana
Donat is Associate Professor and Dean of School of Forestry and Biodiversity and Biological Science at the University of Rwanda. He earned his PhD at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2009 with a thesis entitled Carbon stock and fluxes in Nyungwe forest and Ruhande Arboretum in Rwanda. Donat is an expert on soil processes in relation to climate and he supervises and co-supervises many BSc, MSc and PhD projects within the Rwanda TREE project.
goran.wallin[at]bioenv.gu.se
Göran Wallin
Göran has worked with research and capacity building with the University of Rwanda since 2004 and has been the main supervisor of two completed PhD projects based on field work in Rwanda. He is a plant ecophysiologist with expertise in carbon dynamics and rich experience in conducting manipulative field experiments related to global change. Within Rwanda TREE, he has scientific main responsibility for establishing and running the field sites and he is currently main supervisor of three PhD projects.
johan.uddling[at]bioenv.gu.se
Johan Uddling
Johan is Professor in plant ecophysiology with particular expertise in leaf physiology and impacts of environmental change on plant and ecosystem functioning. Within Rwanda TREE, he has main responsibility for studies of leaf physiological responses and mechanisms and processes involved in predisposing trees to climate-induced mortality. Johan has main responsibility for facilitating Double Degree PhDs and is the main supervisor of three ongoing PhD projects in the Rwanda TREE project.
Researchers
lasse.tarvainen[at]bioenv.gu.se
Lasse Tarvainen
Lasse’s research focuses on understanding the processes controlling the gas exchange, resource use efficiency and performance of boreal and tropical tree species. Within Rwanda TREE, he explores the large interspecific variation in photosynthetic heat tolerance/avoidance strategies. He also uses novel experimental approaches to elucidate the links between carbohydrate starvation and hydraulic failure in predisposing trees to climate-induced mortality.
Postdocs
Mirindi Eric Dusenge
mirindi.eric.dusenge[at]bioenv.gu.se
Mirindi Eric conducted both BSc and MSc research on tropical tree physiology within the Rwanda-Sweden collaboration. He defended his PhD thesis on boreal climate change ecophysiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2019. Thereafter, he has been working on an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded project that aims to investigate the impact of warming on tropical tree physiology in the Rwanda TREE project. The projects also includes modelling to explore large-scale implications of key results in collaboration with Lina Mercado from the University of Exeter, UK.
PhD students
Aloysie Manishimwe
aloysie.manishimwe[at]gmail.com
Aloysie is assistant lecturer at the University of Rwanda and conducts doctoral research in the Rwanda TREE project. She is admitted PhD student under a Double Degree agreement between the University of Rwanda and the University of Gothenburg. Her research focuses on how climate and species identity influence the morphology, chemistry and thermoregulation of leaves.
Bonaventure Ntirugulirwa
ntirugulirwabonaventure[at]gmail.com
Bonaventure is research fellow at Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), admitted as PhD student under a Double Degree agreement between the University of Rwanda and the University of Gothenburg. His Rwanda TREE research concerns the climate sensitivity of growth, survival and plantation suitability of native tree species in different regions of Rwanda.
Etienne Zibera
ziberaetienne[at]gmail.com
Etienne is PhD student at the University of Rwanda after having previously worked as research technician and field assistant in several Rwandan-Swedish collaborative research projects. His PhD project focuses on native tree species’ productivity and carbon dynamics in natural tropical montane forest plots in Nyungwe as well as in the Rwanda TREE project.
Maria Wittemann
maria.wittemann[at]bioenv.gu.se
Maria is PhD student at the University of Gothenburg. She conducts research on the climate sensitivity of Rwandan tree species both at the Rwanda TREE sites and in climate-controlled growth chambers in Gothenburg. Her research focuses on temperature responses of photosynthetic biochemistry as well as physiological traits predisposing tree species for climate-induced mortality.
Myriam Mujawamariya
mmujawamariya[at]gmail.com
Myriam is assistant lecturer at the University of Rwanda and conducts doctoral research in the Rwanda TREE project. She is admitted PhD student under a Double Degree agreement between the University of Rwanda and the University of Gothenburg. Her research explores the leaf physiological responses of tropical rainforest tree species to heat and drought.
Olivier Jean Leonce Manzi
olivier.manzi[at]bioenv.gu.se
Olivier is PhD student at the University of Gothenburg. His Rwanda TREE research explores the variation in photosynthetic heat tolerance and tree water-use strategies among species with contrasting ecological strategies. He also aims to link traits related to physiological heat tolerance and tree hydraulics to responses of tree growth and survival to heat and drought, which vary greatly among species.
Postdocs
Mirindi Eric Dusenge
mirindi.eric.dusenge[at]bioenv.gu.se
Mirindi Eric conducted both BSc and MSc research on tropical tree physiology within the Rwanda-Sweden collaboration. He defended his PhD thesis on boreal climate change ecophysiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2019. Thereafter, he has been working on an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded project that aims to investigate the impact of warming on tropical tree physiology in the Rwanda TREE project. The projects also includes modelling to explore large-scale implications of key results in collaboration with Lina Mercado from the University of Exeter, UK.
Postdocs
Mirindi Eric Dusenge
mirindi.eric.dusenge[at]bioenv.gu.se
Mirindi Eric conducted both BSc and MSc research on tropical tree physiology within the Rwanda-Sweden collaboration. He defended his PhD thesis on boreal climate change ecophysiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2019. Thereafter, he has been working on an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded project that aims to investigate the impact of warming on tropical tree physiology in the Rwanda TREE project. The projects also includes modelling to explore large-scale implications of key results in collaboration with Lina Mercado from the University of Exeter, UK.
Principle investigators
donatus_1999[at]yahoo.fr
Donat Nsabimana
Professor and Dean of School of Forestry and Biodiversity and Biological Science at the University of Rwanda. He earned his PhD at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2009 with a thesis entitled Carbon stock and fluxes in Nyungwe forest and Ruhande Arboretum in Rwanda. Donat is an expert on soil processes in relation to climate and he supervises and co-supervises many BSc, MSc and PhD projects within the Rwanda TREE project.
goran.wallin[at]bioenv.gu.se
Göran Wallin
Göran has worked with research and capacity building with the University of Rwanda since 2004 and has been the main supervisor of two completed PhD projects based on field work in Rwanda. He is a plant ecophysiologist with expertise in carbon dynamics and rich experience in conducting manipulative field experiments related to global change. Within Rwanda TREE, he has scientific main responsibility for establishing and running the field sites and he is currently main supervisor of three PhD projects.
johan.uddling[at]bioenv.gu.se
Johan Uddling
Johan is Professor in plant ecophysiology with particular expertise in leaf physiology and impacts of environmental change on plant and ecosystem functioning. Within Rwanda TREE, he has main responsibility for studies of leaf physiological responses and mechanisms and processes involved in predisposing trees to climate-induced mortality. Johan has main responsibility for facilitating Double Degree PhDs and is the main supervisor of three ongoing PhD projects in the Rwanda TREE project.
Researchers
lasse.tarvainen[at]bioenv.gu.se
Lasse Tarvainen
Lasse’s research focuses on understanding the processes controlling the gas exchange, resource use efficiency and performance of boreal and tropical tree species. Within Rwanda TREE, he explores the large interspecific variation in photosynthetic heat tolerance/avoidance strategies. He also uses novel experimental approaches to elucidate the links between carbohydrate starvation and hydraulic failure in predisposing trees to climate-induced mortality.
Postdocs
Mirindi Eric Dusenge
mirindi.eric.dusenge[at]bioenv.gu.se
Mirindi Eric conducted both BSc and MSc research on tropical tree physiology within the Rwanda-Sweden collaboration. He defended his PhD thesis on boreal climate change ecophysiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2019. After having worked on a couple of postdoc projects in Sweden and the UK, he is now coordinator of the Centre for Climate Change, Sustainable Livelihoods and Health at the Western University, Canada. Mirindi Eric's main research interests are to understand and predict how tropical and boreal trees will respond to climate change.
Myriam Mujawamariya
mmujawamariya[at]gmail.com
Myriam is senior lecturer at the University of Rwanda and successfully defended her PhD thesis based on research in the Rwanda TREE project in 2021, under a Double Degree agreement between the University of Rwanda and the University of Gothenburg. She is now conducting postdoc research within the Rwanda TREE project. Myriam's research explores leaf physiological responses of tropical rainforest tree species to heat and drought.
PhD students
Aloysie Manishimwe
aloysie.manishimwe[at]gmail.com
Aloysie is assistant lecturer at the University of Rwanda and conducts doctoral research in the Rwanda TREE project. She is admitted PhD student under a Double Degree agreement between the University of Rwanda and the University of Gothenburg. Her research focuses on how climate and species identity influence the morphology, chemistry and thermoregulation of leaves.
Bonaventure Ntirugulirwa
ntirugulirwabonaventure[at]gmail.com
Bonaventure is research fellow at Rwanda Forestry Authority (RFA), admitted as PhD student under a Double Degree agreement between the University of Rwanda and the University of Gothenburg. His Rwanda TREE research concerns the climate sensitivity of growth, survival and plantation suitability of native tree species in different regions of Rwanda.
Etienne Zibera
ziberaetienne[at]gmail.com
Etienne is PhD student at the University of Rwanda after having previously worked as research technician and field assistant in several Rwandan-Swedish collaborative research projects. His PhD project focuses on native tree species’ productivity and carbon dynamics in natural tropical montane forest plots in Nyungwe as well as in the Rwanda TREE project.
Maria Wittemann
maria.wittemann[at]bioenv.gu.se
Maria is PhD student at the University of Gothenburg. She conducts research on the climate sensitivity of Rwandan tree species both at the Rwanda TREE sites and in climate-controlled growth chambers in Gothenburg. Her research focuses on temperature responses of photosynthetic biochemistry as well as physiological traits predisposing tree species for climate-induced mortality.
Olivier Jean Leonce Manzi
olivier.manzi[at]bioenv.gu.se
Olivier is PhD student at the University of Gothenburg. His Rwanda TREE research explores the variation in photosynthetic heat tolerance and tree water-use strategies among species with contrasting ecological strategies. He also aims to link traits related to physiological heat tolerance and tree hydraulics to responses of tree growth and survival to heat and drought, which vary greatly among species.
Alumni
Postdocs
Brigitte Nyirambangutse
brigittenyiridandi[at]gmail.com
Brigitte completed her PhD thesis entitled Carbon and nutrient cycling in Afromontane tropical forests at different successional stages at the University of Gothenburg in December 2016. Her PhD research was conducted in Nyungwe forest and focused on the role that tropical montane forests of Africa have in the global carbon cycle. Brigitte currently works as Senior Officer at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) Rwanda Program where she organizes and leads work in the field of climate change risk, adaptation, mitigation and capacity building.
Postdocs
Thomas Berg Hasper
thomas.olof.berg[at]gmail.com
Thomas defended his PhD thesis Tree stomatal regulation and water use in a changing climate – from tropical to boreal ecosystems at the University of Gothenburg in December 2015. Doctoral research conducted in Rwanda explored stomatal and photosynthetic regulation in 21 tropical woody species in relation to taxonomy and functional traits. Today, Thomas runs his own company The Natural Media that make science accessible to curious people, organisations and companies by providing high quality photography and filmmaking services.
Site managers / field staff
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Alphonse Twahirwa
Alphonse has worked at the Makera site since the start of Rwanda TREE. He works with maintenance and security and is also assisting researchers in different measurement campaigns.
Athanase Sibomana
Athanase is field manager at the Rubona site. He was promoted to this position after having previously worked as field assistant and security staff at the site for some years.
Dominique Maniragaba
Dominique has worked at the Makera site since the start of Rwanda TREE. He works with maintenance and security and is also assisting researchers in different measurement campaigns.
Emmanuel Munanira
Emmanuel has been field manager at the Makera site from the start of Rwanda TREE. He works at Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) with responsibility for the forest reserve neighboring the site. Emmanuel also plays a key role as community leader in the local area.
Epaphrodite Gakwerere Nkuba
Nkuba is a research technician at Rwanda Forestry Authority (RFA) in Huye. In Rwanda TREE, he has been involved in the establishment and technical aspects of running the field sites. He also works in the regular tree stem measurement campaigns.
Gelase Kayindo
Gelase has been field manager at the Sigira site from the start of Rwanda TREE. He has a study background in science and has previously worked for several years at the Ruhande Arboretum where our group has conducted some research (e.g. Ntiwahiganayo et al. 2020).
Josephine Nyirawenda
Josephine has been field manager at the Sigira site from the start of Rwanda TREE. She has a BSc in Agronomy and Soil Sciences from the University of Rwanda.