Rupantaran Team at NMBU

Bishal Sitaula

Bishal Sitaula is Professor at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). His main research interest is agriculture and environmental issues, education for environment and personal transformation. He has also published on ecosystem processes and climate gas emission.. For several years she has conducted research on ecosystem processes relevant for climate change. He was project leader for several education and research project in South. Bishal Sitaula is currently working as visiting scholar at Naropa University at Boulder Colorado exploring new approaches to education, environment and development using transformative/contemplative approaches.

Petter D.Jenssen

Professor Petter D. Jenssen has several decades of experience in water and wastewater technology and development. He has more than 40 papers in peer-review journals. He has developed a 5 year program in «green» civil engineering and two parallel MSc programs in Nepal and Pakistan in Sustainable Water Sanitation Health and Development. He has headed development of nature based and alternative sewage system design in Norway and has initiated and headed a 4 year, 40mNOK, national research program entitled «Natural systems technology for wastewater treatment». Several of these treatment alternatives are highly interesting in developing countries as well as for cold conditions. In addition to wastewater treatment he has research experience in: hazardous waste site evaluation and risk assessment, water supply and pollution transport in groundwater, composting and biogas, pollution from agriculture and agricultural drainage. He has been a member of the WHO expert panel in the area of Safe reuse of Excreta and Greywater in Agriculture, vice president of the Norwegian Water Association and co-president of the International Ecological Engineering Society. In 1999 he hosted the third international conference on “Ecological engineering for wastewater treatment”. He has one international patent in filter technology. Petter Jenssen won the 2017 Nordic price for Sustainable (circular) sanitation.

Manoj Kumar Pandey

Dr. Pandey was an associate professor at department of civil engineering, Tribhuvan University (TU), from 1988 to 2008. He has 20 years of teaching and consulting work experiences in urban and rural water supply, wastewater management, solid waste management and environmental impact assessments. Currently he is working as a researcher at IMV, NMBU. He is the team leader of the Life Cycle Analysis component of the Bill and Melinda gates foundation funded project “Evaluation of decentralized small-scale sanitation (4S)” (Project amount: US $ 900000). He has headed NUFU funded postgraduate program in Environmental Engineering, at Institute of Engineering (IOE), TU from 1997 to 2001. At NMBU, IPM (now IMV) he was involved in the administration of NOMA funded Master’s program in Sustainable Water and Sanitation Health and Development from 2008 to 2014. He has worked as an environmental consultant with international consulting firms and donor agencies including Asian Development Bank. As an Environmental expert he has conducted Environmental Impact assessment of water supply, wastewater, hydropower and irrigation projects. He has supervised 10 Msc. Students at IMV, NMBU and more than 50 MSc. Students at IOE, TU.

Birgitte Bjønness

Birgitte Bjønness is an Associate Professor in science education at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). She has a broad background in science education, with specific expertise in inquiry-based teaching and learning. Her research includes teachers’ roles in supporting inquiry-based learning, teachers’ complex beliefs about nature and scientific inquiry, as well as action research built on collaboration between teachers and researchers in schools. Her research interest includes education for sustainable development, especially how students’ can be involved in environmental projects developing their own school.

Astrid Sinnes

Astrid Sinnes is Associate Professor in science education at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). Her main research interest is education for sustainable development. She has also published on gender issues in science education and science education for community development. For several years she has conducted research on how schools and teacher education institutions can transform in order to prepare students and teachers to contribute to the “green shift” in education. Astrid Sinnes has been a visiting scholar at Earth Institute, Columbia University. She has recently published a book on education for sustainable development for teachers and teacher educators.

Erling Krogh

Erling Krogh has masters in Agricultural Economy (NMBU and Cultural Anthropology (University of Olso). His ph.d. is within Rural Sociology (NMBU). He is fond of folk dances, choir singing and was an actor at the student theatre at NMBU for several years. Erling also is educated within alternative medicine. Together with his Tanzanian friend Solomon Nicholaus Mwakasumba, he has initiated a range of development projects in Mgeta, Uluguru Mountains. Erling is head (and Sigrid a board member) of the organization Friends of Mgeta, https://mgetasfriends.com/, formally established in 2015.

Sigrid Gjøtterud

Sigrid was first educated as a nurse, and taught health- and social care in vocational school. For two decades, she has been involved in teacher education first at Oslo and Akershus University College, then at NMBU. Her research is mainly Action Research projects within Education for Sustainable Development in Teacher Education, in Norway and Tanzania, and community development in Tanzania. Supervising Pedagogy is a main field of interest and she is involved in research tied to cross-cultural PhD-supervision.

Since 2000, Sigrid Gjøtterud and Erling Krogh have developed and implemented practical pedagogical education in agriculture, forestry, fishery and management of natural resources at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). In the same period, Linda Jolly and Ering Krogh have developed and coordinated NMBU’s further education related to School gardens and Farm as a pedagogical resource. Through the last 17 years, NMBU has given about 40 further education courses, each 15 credits, all over Norway. NMBU functions as a national competence centre for education in Farm as pedagogical resource, School gardens and the above mentioned branch of practical pedagogical education. The Norwegian model for School/Farm cooperation is adopted in sister projects in Sweden, Finland, Netherlands and Austria. Since 2011, Sigrid Gjøtterud and Erling Krogh have expanded the practical projects and action research on farm/school cooperation to Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania. The Tanzanian projects relates to research cooperation between NMBU and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.