Profile
Thorjørn Larssen is Deputy Managing Director of The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), a leading research institute on the aquatic environment. Thorjørn is a water and environment expert with background in environmental chemistry from the University of Oslo. As a scientist he has been working on wide range of topics related to environmental pollution, from pristine lakes impacted by long range transported air pollutants in Norway, to extremely polluted hot spots near mining and chemical industrial sites in China. He has co-authored more than 100 peer reviewed research papers and book chapters. He has been Adjunct Professor at the University of Oslo, guest professor at Tsinghua University and at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thorjørn has been involved in international research, capacity building cooperation and science policy dialog for more than 25 years. He has extensive experience from work on the ground in Asia and Europe. He has contributed to the knowledge base for international conventions on long range transported air pollutants, persistent organic pollutants, mercury, and most recently plastics. Thorjørn is also the leader of the European Topic Centre on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, a large consortium of European expert institutions supporting the implementation European environmental policies with data and policy assessments.
