After a Bachelor degree in Biology with a focus on taxonomy and conservation of the Magnoliaceae family in Vietnam, I pursued a Master’s degree in Plant Science at the University of Milano and University Grenoble Alpes.  My strong research interests in Botany are biodiversity, ecological networks and conservation. For my Master thesis, I studied the effects of glacier retreat on biodiversity and plant–insect interaction dynamics. Now, I'm doing a PhD in Environmental Sciences.

Coming from the tropical country of Vietnam, studying and doing research in the Alps is one of my dreams, a way to enlarge my scientific research and also to understand the impact of global warming on one of the important mountain ecosystem where we appreciate the amazing landscape.

Education and professional positions

12/2022 - present         PhD student in Sustainable Development and Climate Change, University of Milan and Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori 

04/2021 - 12/2022 Research Fellow and Lecturer, Gimnasio Campestre

01/2020 - 06/2020 Scientific evidence researcher, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK government

03/2019 - 11/2019 Researcher and member of the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford 

11/2018 - 03/2019 Training course on “Interdisciplinary Food Systems”, IFSTAL

09/2018 - 11/2019 MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, University of Oxford

11/2017 - 03/2018 Lab technician, Wolfson Carbon Capture Laboratory

06/2015 - 06/2018 BSc in Marine Biology and Zoology, Bangor University

After receiving my MSc in Geographic Information Science at Beijing Normal University, I have started my PhD at University of Lausanne since October 2022.

During my master, my research focused on the impact of ecological restoration on evapotranspiration in greening areas.

Now, I am passionate about understanding the impact of climate change on eco-hydrological processes in mountainous areas.

Funded by China Scholarship Council of the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Co-supervised with Prof. Nadav Peleg.

 I am a landscape ecologist and ecological modeller with more than ten years of postdoctoral experience in conservation science. I am interested in understanding how nature and society interact, and how both can be influenced by environmental policy and ecosystems management. I use quantitative tools to understand ecological patterns and processes across multiple spatio-temporal scales, from waterholes to forest stands to whole continents. I have applied these tools to many ecological questions, for example projecting species’ habitat suitability under climatic and land use scenarios or quantifying and mapping ecosystem services in semi-natural ecosystems under human management and climate change. Then, I use that ecological information to assist conservation planning. For example, to evaluate trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity conservation and agricultural or clean energy development at large scales or to identify optimal areas for forest restoration to maximize ecosystem service provision and ecological connectivity.

After10 years of international research experience at institutions such as Monash University (Australia), the University of Melbourne (Australia), the Forest Science Center of Catalonia - CTFC - and the CREAF (Spain), the CATIE - Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (Costa Rica) and University of Toronto (Canada), I currently work in between the Biodiversity Change Lab and the ECOSPAT group at University of Lausanne on assessing the impacts of climate change on the biodiversity of glacial and periglacial landscapes across the Alps within the context of the PrioritICE Biodiversa+ project. I´m also a research associate at the Conservation Biology Division of the University of Bern (Switzerland) where I co-lead a project on the same topic, with a special focus on the potential impacts on biodiversity of future infrastructure development after glacial melting.

Website: https://alemoranordonez.wordpress.com/

My work aims to better understand how soil, plant and arthropod communities respond to global change in mountain areas, and how this affects ecosystem functions. To do this, I combine statistical models and eDNA with field observations. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Biodiversity Change group, I will be working on the influence of pastoralism on communities living on glacial margins, with the aim to propose conservation measures for these particular ecosystems.

Having studied mathematics up to my Master's degree and then going on to do a PhD in biology, I find myself at the frontier between the two disciplines. I'm particularly interested in conservation biology and the impact of climate change on biodiversity.

05/2024 - present Postdoctoral position in the MITEX project (University of Milan & University of Turin)

09/2019 - 02/2023   PhD in ecology, evolution and modelling on the collective motion of locusts (University of Montpellier)

03/2019 - 09/2019   Research Engineer on the development of statistical methods to detect pleiotropy (University of Pau)

09/2017 - 09/2018 Master degree in Mathematics and Biostatistics (University of Montpellier)

09/2013 - 08/2016 Bachelor's degree in Mathematics (University of Nantes)

Co-supervised with Dr. Ludovica Oddi.

I’m research assistant recently graduated at University of Milan with a master in environmental sciences.

My interests are focused on plant sciences, soils, and ecosystems. During my studies I had the opportunity to improve my knowledge of Natural Sciences and learn different research techniques.

My work is about the impact of spruce plantation on the native ecosystems of Italian Prealps. The study includes plants and arthropods samplings and field experiment of agroforestry to understand how native forest could be restored. I also worked as supervisor of two bachelor’s degree thesis on the same argument.

Currently, I'm study plant chemical diversity.

After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science, I am now pursuing a Master’s in Biogeoscience at the University of Milan.

I am passionate about understanding the complexity of interactions within ecosystem communities and developing innovative conservation strategies.

My current thesis explores how alpine ecosystems are responding to global change. By combining field observations with eDNA data, I aim to investigate the impact of livestock grazing on communities within rapidly changing proglacial environments.

I am currently completing my studies in Natural Sciences at the University of Milan and working on my thesis which aims to analyze the role of natural selection agent in Swiss proglacial environments.

My interest focuses on understanding the different ecological conditions of proglacial environments due to deglaciation and how plant communities respond and adapt, with a particular interest in soil development.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of Milan (Italy), where I became deeply fascinated by plants, I decided to continue my studies in plant biology. Now, I am completing my master’s in Plant Science through a joint program between the University of Grenoble and the University of Milan. 

My thesis project aims in investigating the impact of glacier retreat on pollination networks and plant phytochemical diversity. I am very excited to further fuel my understanding of plant ecology, especially in today’s fragile climatic context.

Elizabeth Norton

MSc Environmental Science, University of Zurich (12/2016–12/2017)

Then: Botanic garden employee