Kevin Bishop

From 2016-2020 I served as SLU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for both research infrastructure and SLU’s environmental monitoring and assessment that provides timely decision support for public policy. I served the as Director of the Sweden’s National Research Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES, 2023-2024). I was honored to recieve the Rossby Prize in Nordic Geophysics (2017) administered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for “…significant contributions in environmental research and for his commitment to the sustainable use of natural resources.” In 2019 I was elected as a Fellow of Sweden’s Royal Academy of Forestry and Agriculture. 

My research interests focus on defining and managing human impact on aquatic ecosystems. I bring a hydrologist’s perspective to issues surrounding carbon cycles and mercury pollution in forest landscapes, with a particular focus on the transport and transformation of both natural and anthropogenic constituents as they move through catchments. .  I also work to build capacity for environmental monitoring and assessment in the mountain highlands of Ethiopia and the Lake Tumba Landscape of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I have been working to increase the relevance of SLU's environmental monitoring and assessment for Agenda 2030. Two key elements of this effort emerged in a FORMAS project I led (2018-2020, Dnr 2018-02341). One is more explicit inclusion of economy and society, alongside the environment in monitoring and assessment. The second is encouraging public engagement through participation in building the social knowledge base and then applying this in governance. I am following up on this transdisciplinary approach to monitoring and assessment as a co-PI in the MISTRA Environmental Communication Program (2020-2023, www.slu.se/en/subweb/mistra-ec/). This work continues with a SIDA project (Contribution 16210) in the DRC where involvement of stakeholders from the local villages to the regional government is a key element in the planning of environmental monitoring, and then assessing the results.

Courses I have led include the basic level Environmental Analysis Course (5hp) in the Water and Environment Civil Engineering Progam at Uppsala University (2011-2016), the Master’s Level course Environmental Assessment (5hp) for the MSc. in Sustainable Development run jointly by Uppsala University and SLU (2011-2020), and the PhD level literature seminar in Environmental Monitroing and Assessment at SLU (2002-present). I shared the responsibility for creating and running the MSc. Program in Integrated Water Management at SLU (2006-2010).

PhD 1993 in Geography, Cambridge University

MSc 1985 (with distinction) Engineering Hydrology, Imperial College, London

BA 1983 (summa cum laude) Haverford College
      with honors in Philosophy and Geology 

AAS 1979 (summa cum laude) in Forest Technology, The Ranger School
       State Univ. of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry 

Since 2022 I serve as the elected chairperson of the eLTER Interim Council where representatives from some twenty countries are endeavoring to create a new European Research Infrastructure - eLTER (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, Critical Zone and Socio-Ecological Research). This will unite over 250 field research sites and socio-ecological platforms across Europe to help meet the challenges of understanding the complex interactions between people and nature over the long term.

I began my education in practical forestry and went on to complete my undergraduate degree in Philosophy. A Marshall scholarship took me to England where I studied geography and hydrology, My Ph.D. thesis at Cambridge University “Episodic increases in stream acidity, catchment flow pathways and hydrograph separation” led me to SLUs Vindeln Forest Research station where a few weeks of planned field work led to several years in residence. I was appointed as the first Professor of Environmental Assessment at SLU in 1997. In 2010 I took up a professorship in Aquatic Climatology at Uppsala University. For the next six years, I split my time between SLU and UU and SLU, while also the director of the Uppsala Water Center in an effort to further inter university cooperation in the field of water. In 2017 I returned full time to SLU to serve as the Pro Vice Chancellor.