Erlend Ignacio Fleck Fossen

Erlend has worked at CICERO since September 2024. At CICERO, he is particularly interested in studying and predicting how climate change is affecting the spread and frequency of infectious diseases. A better understanding of this is achieved by considering the links between environmental, animal and human health through a “One Health” approach. He also investigates how air pollution and heat affect human health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Erlend has previously worked as a biostatistician doing epidemiological research related to cancer and genetics. Before this he worked as a biologist researching how animals respond (within generations) and potentially adapt (across generations) to changes in climate (specifically temperature). He has developed and applied methods in statistics, bioinformatics and machine learning to study and predict cancer outcomes (e.g., survival) and changes in quality of life of head and neck cancer patients. He has previously also worked on diverse topics such as transcriptomics, life-history evolution, thermal plasticity and adaptation, quantitative genetics, allometry of metabolism, and population dynamics, primarily using water fleas (Daphnia) and nematodes as model systems, as well as biosystematics in water scavenger beetles.

Education and previous employment

• 2022-2024: Postdoctoral Researcher, Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology (OCBE), Department of Biostatistics, University of Oslo, Norway
• 2019-2021: Postdoctoral Researcher, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Sweden
• 2014-2018: PhD Candidate, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
• 2017: Visiting Scholar, Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Belgium
• 2012-2014: MSc in Biology - Evolution and biosystematics, NTNU, Norway
• 2009-2012: BSc in Biology - Ecology and evolution, NTNU, Norway