Advisory Board

The Advisory Board (AB) consists of members that were appointed by the Organizing Committee. Duties of the AB include, but are not limited to, making recommendations regarding plenary speakers and special focuses for the conference, soliciting nominations for awards, and reviewing the submitted oral and poster abstracts.

Juergen Geist (Technical University of Munich, Germany) | Co-Chair

Juergen is Chair Professor of Aquatic Systems Biology and the Director of the Limnological Research Station at Technical University of Munich, Germany. In his research, he focuses on understanding the effects of multiple stressors on the functional ecology of stream and lake ecosystems, integrating interactions from the molecular to the ecosystem level. He is also interested in translating research findings into evidence-based conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.

Eva Enders (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canada) | Co-Chair

Eva is a Research Scientist at the Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg. Her research team studies the effects of a variety of natural and anthropogenic changes on freshwater fishes in the central and arctic regions of Canada. Research areas include in particular fish passage, the impacts of hydropower on fish, and fish migration.

Lee Baumgartner (Charles Sturt University, Australia)

Lee has lived and breathed fish passage research for over 20 years and has worked in government, universities and private industry. His research has been in several broad areas, including fish passage and fish migration, dietary interactions among native fish species, the impact of human disturbance on aquatic ecosystems and, more recently, mitigating hydropower impacts on tropical rivers in South East Asia. Dr Baumgartner’s work has also focused on developing innovative methods for assessment (such as the adaptation of sonar technology to migration studies) and improving existing fish collection techniques. Much of his work is applied and has fed back into adaptive management strategies which have resulted in state and national policy fish passage development. Lee presently manages over $5M in fish-passage research projects and has active global collaborations.

Maria João Costa (Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Maria João has integrated diverse research projects addressing the effects of anthropic pressures for freshwater communities, particularly macroinvertebrates, fish and amphibians. Her research has focused on understanding the dynamics of these communities to point and nonpoint sources of pollution and to landscape alteration. During the past five years, she has studied the effects of extreme flow variability associated to hydroelectricity production and the potential of habitat enhancement solutions for Iberian cyprinids in flume conditions. She is particularly interested in understanding the flow components that trigger specific movement behaviour and physiological changes in freshwater fish.

Laurent David (University of Poitiers, France)

Laurent David is Professor of fluid mechanics in the university of Poitiers. He is at the head of the team HYDEE (Hydrodynamics and Environmental flows). Since twenty years, he develops 2D and 3D optical measurements (TR-PIV, surface and volumic PIV). His research interests are free surface flows, turbulent and unsteady flows, fluid structure interactions and ecohydraulics (upstream and downstream migrations).

Paul Franklin (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand)

Paul is a freshwater fish ecologist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand. He has spent the last ten years getting to know New Zealand’s unique fish fauna and the challenges they face. Paul leads New Zealand’s fish passage research and has been working closely with stakeholders to develop national guidance on fish passage management and assessment of fish passage barriers.

Guillermo Giannico (Oregon State University, USA)

Guillermo is an Associate Professor and Fisheries Extension Specialist at Oregon State University, U.S.A. The focus of his work is on freshwater fish ecology. He holds degrees in biology, resource management and environmental studies. As part of his job he carries out research and is responsible for public education and outreach on salmonid ecology and behavior, fish habitat restoration, land use impacts on aquatic ecosystems, fish passage and watershed management. His extension and outreach clientele include watershed councils and other non-government organizations, farmers and foresters, government agency personnel, school teachers and high school students (in particular youth from underserved communities).  

Matthew Gordos (NSW Department of Primary Industries | Fisheries Division, Australia)

Matt built his first rock dam at the age of five across a small central Pennsylvanian stream.  Since then, he’s spent the past 14 years atoning for his errant youth by assisting with the research, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of fish passage outcomes in NSW that include technical and natural fishways, dam removals, and road crossing remediation.  Matt presently manages the NSW Fish Passage Program which has resulted in over 500 barriers being remediated, thereby improving fish access to over 16,000 km of waterway. Matt’s current emphasis is working collaboratively with key stakeholders to develop a coordinated, state-wide strategy to fish passage remediation in NSW for the next 20 years.

Lisiane Hahn (Neotropical Environmental Consulting, Brazil)

Lisiane is a Brazilian biologist and technical director of Neotropical Environmental Consulting Company. Her work and research interests in the last 15 years are focus on the investigation of fish migration in South American rivers, especially in the Amazon basin, employing technologies such as radio and acoustic telemetry. She also leads the studies about the performance of fish passages in largest dams in Brazil. Lisiane has M.S. in Zoology and PhD in Freshwater Ecology

Margaret Lang (Humboldt State University, USA)

Dr. Margaret Lang is a Professor of Environmental Resources Engineering at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. She earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an M.S and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Lang’s research focuses on the engineering design aspects of stream and watershed restoration with research projects funded through agencies such as the National Marine Fisheries Service, US Forest Service, and California Department of Transportation. Her particular research interests are natural system hydrology and hydraulics, and laboratory and field studies of fish passage structures. Dr. Lang is a licensed Professional Engineer in California.

Martyn Lucas (Durham University, UK)

Martyn Lucas is an Associate Professor in Aquatic Animal Ecology at Durham University, England. His team has particular expertise in fish migration, biotelemetry and river restoration and are part of the EU-funded AMBER (Adaptive Management of Barriers in European Rivers) project. With Etienne Baras he coauthored Migration of Freshwater Fishes (> 1000 citations) in 2001. More recently he has emphasized the needs for all native fish species to be able to disperse past man-made barriers, rather than river reconnection programs considering only the more conspicuous ‘migratory species’.  Through the ‘Rivers Trust’ movement in the UK, he helps improve the ecological condition of river habitats.

Sérgio Makrakis (Western Paraná State University, Brazil)

Dr. Sergio Makrakis is Associate Professor at the Western Paraná State University (Unioeste), Brazil. Evaluated the longest fish passage in the world, the Canal da Piracema at Itaipu Dam. Evaluates and monitors the fish ladder of Porto Primavera Dam in the Upper Paraná River since 2004. Participated in the Life+ Segura Riverlink project sponsored by the European Union as Advisory Board. Contracts with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Government of Laos to review the feasibility reports of hydroelectric projects on the Mekong River. Member of the committee of experts of Initiatives for the Future of Great Rivers - IFGR, as a guest member of the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR), France. Leader of the Research Group on Technology in Ecohydraulic and Conservation of Fishery and Water Resources - GETECH, and Coordinator of the Laboratory of Ecohydraulic and Hydrobiology – LATECH.

Rosa Olivo del Amo (University of Murcia, Spain | World fish Migration Foundation)

Rosa is a Forestry Engineer specialized in river restoration and currently working in a shared position for the University of Murcia and the World Fish Migration Foundation. Firm believer of the need of diverse and free-flowing rivers, her work is focused in the project design of river restorations, fish migration solutions and non-native species management, supporting and facilitating the implementation of European policies, facilitating knowledge exchange between policy makers, managers and expert community  and increasing public and stakeholder awareness through the projects AMBER (Adaptive Management of Barriers in European Rivers) and LIFE INVASAQUA.

Michaël OVidio (University of Liège, Belgium)

Michaël Ovidio is Professor of Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries Management at the University of Liège in Belgium. He is the Director of the Laboratory of Fish Demography and Hydro-ecology and Vice-Director of the Freshwater and Oceanic Science Unit of Research. His fundamental research topics are centered on the behavioral ecology and population dynamics of freshwater fish. Michael has also strong international experiences on the restauration of ecological continuity in rivers, fish-passage efficiencies, fish migration and on standardized evaluation of the level of longitudinal fragmentation in rivers. He’s interests for his research to be used for conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.

Bernardo Quintella (MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Bernardo is a Biologist with PhD degree in Conservation Biology. At the present time he is an Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and an Invited Assistant Researcher at the University of Évora. His main area of research focusses on the study of fish migrations, an integrative approach covering all categories of fish movements. Present research interests include river restoration and fish passage problematic. One of his major achievements in the fish passage area was the implementation of the Pilot Project in River Mondego, a good example of the high societal impact that research may achieve if put in practice. Through the development of an innovative management approach, linking habitat rehabilitation (i.e., restoration of the longitudinal river continuity) with sustainable management of fisheries, it is being possible to conciliate the exploitation and conservation of diadromous fish in River Mondego. The management actions that where successfully put in practice with this pilot project that started 20 years ago are now being replicated to other river basins.

Filipe Romão (Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Filipe is a fish biologist with strong interests in the conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems biodiversity. He worked in the Portuguese Environment Agency during the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in Europe. Having to work with different biological elements allowed him to build a solid experience in river dynamics and ecological integrity. He is currently a post-doc researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon. With over 12 year's experience, he spent most of his research career investigating freshwater fish ecology both in the field and laboratory, primarily assessing fish behavior and the efficiency of fishway designs for non-salmonid species.

Sara Sandberg (Fortum, Sweden)

Sara is an Environmental Project Manager within Fortum, the third largest power generator in the Nordic countries. She coordinates the Hydropower Environment Portfolio, including a prioritized list of environmental improvements related to Fortum’s hydro power plants. Her background is managing R&D hydropower programs funded by the industry as well as national agencies. The vast collaboration on both technical and environmental issues has given her a wide network with various fields of competences. With Fortum her focus is on the work of re-assessing conditions in hydropower permits. That work will include challenges in terms of finding river specific solutions to improve the ecosystems while also developing the flexible, renewable power production. She holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Linköping.

Hersília Santos (Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais, Brazil)

Hersília is Professor in Civil Engineering Department at Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (Brazil). Her research focuses on ecohydraulic issues in neotropical freshwater system, acting on fish passages models (numerical and scale models); fish swimming capability (voluntary and non-voluntary tests); river models (2D and 3D numerical models) and fish habitat suitability.

Javier Sanz-Ronda (University of Valladolid, Spain)

Javier is a Hydraulics Professor at the Forestry Engineering School of Palencia (University of Valladolid, Spain). He has been working in fish passes design for more than fifteen years. His research focus on fish passes ecohydraulics and assessment. He coordinates the research group GEA (Applied Ecohydraulics Group).

Stefan Schmutz (Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Austria)

Stefan is a professor for aquatic ecology at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management focusing on the ecological integrity of running waters. He has worked on ecological status and multiple stressors assessment and mitigation methods for ecological impacts of hydropower such as e-flow and hydropeaking. He is an expert in river continuity, fish migration, and fish pass technologies. Special focus is dedicated to river restoration, habitat improvement and prioritization of restoration measures. He has led or been involved in multiple EU or national-level projects on stress assessment, climate change impacts and distribution modelling.

Dan Shively (U.S. Forest Service, USA)                                

Dan is the National Fisheries Program Leader for the Forest Service, a branch of federal government with the United States.  He has been a fisheries biologist with the federal government for 30 years, much of that in the Pacific Northwest.  Dan oversees the Fisheries and Aquatic Ecology Program for the Forest Service, spanning over 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands including some of the best quality freshwater habitat remaining in the country important for conserving biodiversity as well as providing for recreational, commercial, and subsistence fisheries.  Dan’s wide range of interests and expertise include fish passage among many others.  His passion for fish and river conservation grew out of his childhood passion for fishing on rivers and streams in Oregon.  From there he pursued his interests through fisheries science and watershed studies at Oregon State University which developed into a lifelong career protecting and conserving the nation’s fisheries resources.  Dan has been with the International Fish Passage Conference since its inception and has served on the Advisory Board in various capacities over the last few years. 

Luiz Silva (Federal University of São João del-Rei, Brazil | Charles Sturt University, Australia)

Luiz Silva is an Associate Professor in the Federal University of São João del-Rei and an Adjunct Researcher in the Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS). Luiz has been involved with fish passage research for over 15 years in Neotropical systems, particular in hydropower dams. Most recently, his research has been focused on developing capacity to study downstream passage, particularly the effects of shear and pressure changes. He has also been involved in studies investigating fish transfer through pumped-hydro schemes looking into the effects of compression on fish. His research has been used to inform mitigation and conservation measures in the Neotropics.