ACMS Virtual Speaker Series – Field Sciences in the Khuvsgul Region

Olaf P. Jensen is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Center for Limnology. His research group studies fisheries and aquatic ecosystems, including marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments with the ultimate goal of improving the scientific basis for sustainable management. Dr. Jensen’s work relies on a combination of mathematical modeling, data synthesis and field studies in locations ranging from coastal ecosystems of Louisiana and New Jersey to the lakes and rivers of Mongolia and Wisconsin. Dr. Jensen created the Mongolian-American Aquatic Ecology Research Initiative to coordinate a diverse interdisciplinary group of scientists working on freshwater ecosystems in Mongolia. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, followed by a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship at the University of Washington.

Badamgarav (Badmaa) Dovchin is an Interdisciplinary PhD candidate at Land Resources and Environmental Science department of Montana State University (MSU). She has a BA and MA in Cognitive Linguistics and Teaching from University of the Humanities of Mongolia, MS in Environmental Science with Fulbright Scholarship from MSU. She is a program leader/instructor for Round River Mongolia program, before the current position, she has worked as a community development coordinator for “BioRegions International” NGO for 10 years and organized research trips in Mongolia from the USA. Prior to that she was a tour guide for “Boojum Expeditions”, lead horseback and hiking trips all over Mongolia. Her research field focuses on soil quality and community resiliency issues of rural Mongolia specifically in Darhad Valley; with local stakeholder participations and incorporating both Western Science and Traditional Knowledge the communities of her focus are working on improving decision making systems that tackle the above.

Dr. Paula T. DePriest is the Deputy Director of the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute. Previously she was a scientific advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution, and a research scientist and curator of the Lichen Collection at the Department of Botany of the National Museum of Natural History. Dr. DePriest completed her Ph.D. in Botany at Duke University in 1992, and held positions as Adjunct Professor at Duke University (1997-2004) and George Mason University (1998-2004). She served as Chair of the Smithsonian Congress of Scholars (2001-2002) and Chair of the National Museum of Natural History Senate of Scientists (1999). She was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002. Since 2002, Dr. DePriest has conducted fieldwork in the Tsaatan reindeer herding regions of northern Mongolia, exploring the plants, landscapes, and worship structures that comprise their annual nomadic migration. Dr. DePriest is a member of the Smithsonian Institution’s multi-disciplinary American-Mongolian Deer Stone Project, and a board member of the Mongolia Society and the American Center for Mongolian Studies. She works with Mongolian and international partners to protect archaeological, cultural heritage, and ecological resources across Mongolia.

Rebecca Watters is a wildlife biologist and writer from Bozeman, Montana. She is the executive director of the Wolverine Foundation and founder of both the Mongolian Wolverine Project and the Round River Conservation Studies Mongolia semester program, both of which work closely with protected areas in northern Mongolia. Rebecca served as a Peace Corps environmental volunteer in Kharkhorin, Mongolia, from 2000 – 2002, and currently divides her time between conservation work in the Western US and Mongolia. She has a master’s degree in environmental science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.