Committee

Karen G Villholth (President)
Karen has a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in chemical engineering and hydrogeology from the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Washington. She has more than 15 years of experience in soils and groundwater research and water resources management. She has pioneered the Danish research scene within specific areas such as flow and transport within macroporous and fractured soils, pesticide transport, and colloid-facilitated contaminant transport. Since 1999, Karen G Villholth has been involved in broader issues of water resources management. She was responsible for introducing the first course on “Integrated Water Resources Management” at the Technical University of Denmark. She has been assigned to several international projects concerning water resources management, groundwater management, water resources decision support modelling, institutional capacity building, data collection, and Geographical Information Systems. Karen has ample experience in teaching and training from the Technical University of Denmark and Asian Institute of Technology. She has supervised several interns and Ph.D. students. Karen joined IWMI, Sri Lanka, 2004-2007, where she developed multi-disciplinary research related to the impacts of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on groundwater. In addition, she was the project leader of a large capacity building project for professionals within groundwater governance in Asia, and she participated in the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. Today, Karen is working with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). She is continuing inter-disciplinary research on groundwater and groundwater management, often in a development context. She has initiated several research projects and is participating in various initiatives related to research coordination within development, water, and climate change.

Steve Ulf Hansen (Secretary)
Steve has a M.Sc. in chemical engineering and hydrogeology from the Danish Technical University. Steve has more than 22 years of professional experience, of which 15 years were obtained from consultancy services and 7 years from the regional groundwater authority. The past 4 years he has worked mainly on projects related to the governmental groundwater resources mapping and protection. Steve works for the consulting engineering firm, Grontmij | Carlbro, where he is team leader for the Odense Office. Steve has experience from working as a consultant in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Steve works mostly with geological descriptions, drilling methods, tender preparation, and drilling supervision, planning, design, execution and interpretation of pumping tests and other hydraulic tests, including geophysical methods and surveys. Steve also works as project manager on groundwater and surface water investigations, and evaluation of groundwater quantity and quality and strategic planning, also under the Water Framework Directive. Steve possesses thorough experience in consultancy related to soil and ground water investigation, protection, and pollution.

Klaus Hinsby
Klaus is a hydrogeologist with 21 years postgraduate experience in evaluation of aquifers and groundwater chemical and quantitative status. He has been employed at the Geological Survey of Denmark since 1988 (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, GEUS since 1995). He has special experience and interest in the assessment of groundwater chemical status for protection of water resources and ecosystems e.g. according to EU Water Framework and Groundwater Directives. Through the years he developed an extensive experience in the application of hydraulic tests, groundwater dating by environmental tracers and the combined use of geophysical logging and groundwater sampling for the characterisation of physical and chemical properties of groundwater bodies. Currently he is involved in several research projects regarding climate change impacts on groundwater quantity and quality especially with respect to saltwater intrusion in coastal zones and nitrate discharge from groundwater to associated aquatic and dependent terrestrial ecosystems.

Bent Kjær Hansen
Bent graduated as Geologist from the University of Copenhagen, 1998, with a thesis on groundwater acidification of riparian zones in Denmark. He has a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark specializing in geochemical processes in the vadose zone. He has worked for the County of Frederiksborg for ten years with responsibility for the administration and planning of the earth mineral extraction field and environmental planning for the region. Now he is working for the municipality of Frederikssund. His areas of responsibility include groundwater use, mapping, and protection, planning and administration, coastal protection and earth mineral extraction.

Birthe Eg Jordt
Birthe has a M.Sc. in geology from the University of Aarhus, and is specialized in clastic sedimentology. Birthe has more than 18 years experience, of which the first eight years were obtained in the Norwegian oil industry. The past ten years she has worked in Denmark mainly on projects related to the governmental groundwater mapping. Birthe works for the consulting engineering firm, Orbicon | Leif Hansen A/S, where she daily serves as Head of Section with the responsibility for geological and geophysical projects. Birthe's main interest is geological modeling, an interest that was initiated in the Norwegian oil industry. She has applied on geological modeling in a range of different tasks related to mapping and protection of groundwater resources in Denmark, and she initiated the work on the national guidance on geological modeling

Flemming Fogh Pedersen
Flemming has 20 years of professional experience working with groundwater resource related projects. He graduated as M. Sc. in geology/geophysics from the University of Aarhus in 1990, and is specialized in applied geophysics. In 2009, he finished a MBA-study. Flemming has been involved in numerous projects within survey and mapping of the groundwater resource, especially in Denmark, but he has also worked internationally at groundwater survey projects in Vietnam, the Philippines and in Germany. He is head of the Water & Environment department in ALECTIA’s office in Aarhus.

Rolf Johnsen
Rolf Johnsen is employed at Central Denmark Region Department of Environment (Region Midtjylland, Miljø). He s a master of science in Geology from the Aarhus University and a MBA (Certificate) from Aarhus Business school. He has been member of the IAH committee since summer 2011.
Rolf Johnsen is Project Manager of the EU project CLIWAT dealing with "Adaptive and sustainable water management and protection of society and nature in an extreme climate" The project has a special focus on groundwater and climate and is co financed by The European regional development fund under InterReg IVB. Further, he is project manager of the cluster project "WaterCAP", which is about clustering the outcomes of 6 InterReg IVB projects all dealing with water and climate change. The project will call for an interactive work with existing projects representing science, the public sector and practitioners working in this area of intervention. Adapting to climate changes is a start of a new process. In both CLIWAT and WaterCAP, Central Denmark Region is lead partner.
In addition, Rolf Johnsen is Member of the ENCORE Steering Group. The ENCORE is a European platform for political co-operation between regions in Europe. The steering group arrange meetings every second year bringing politicians and policy makers together.
In 2009 and 2010 Rolf Johnsen was responsible for a series of workshops dealing with climate changes and adaptation strategies in Denmark and especially in Central Denmark Region
In the period from 2002-2007 Rolf Johnsen was employed as Geohydrologist in department of contaminated sites and groundwater at the Vejle County 2002-2007. During the employment he was involved as Project Member of an EU project dealing with "Ancient groundwater reservoirs in buried valleys (BURVAL) - Sustainable water resources for the future".
In the beginning of the employment in Central Denmark Region from 2007-2010 he was employed as group coordinator in department of soil and natural resources at Central Denmark Region.
Rolf Johnsen started in 2000 and independent consultant company mainly offering tasks within hydrology and contaminated sites. The company was named GeoAqua Consult.