Your Leaders

Dr. Boris Sheftel

Dr. Boris Sheftel was born in Moscow, December 2, 1951. As a student, he took part in zoomedical expeditions in the South of Siberia, where he studied tick encephalitis in taiga ecosystems. He studied at the Biological Department of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. For the next 20 years he was head of ecological expeditions of the Severtsov Institute of Evolution and Ecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, based at the Yenisei Ecological Station at Mirnoe (middle Yenisei Taiga). His main scientific interest is the long-term population dynamics of small mammal populations. Dr. Sheftel's PhD thesis was devoted to ecological mechanisms of coexistence of nine species of shrews in the same place in the Middle Yenisei taiga. Dr. Sheftel also took part in studies of bird migration and banding, plant succession after forest fires and some other programs. 

Currently he is active in Russian eco-tourism development, and specialized in organization and providing of field educational practices with foreign students. Dr. Sheftel also continues his scientific work in Mongolia in the joint expedition of Goettingen (Germany) and Ulaan-Bator (Mongolia) Universities.

Dr. Dolf Harmsen

Dr. Dolf Harmsen was born in the Netherlands, but has spent most of his adult life in Canada. He studied forest biology at the Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands, and zoology at the University of Toronto, Canada. After a Ph.D. from Cambridge, U.K., he hastaught in Kenya (University of East Africa) and at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. His ecological research has focussed on community structure and trophic relations. Most of his recent work has been with muskox grazing ecology on Banks Island, and habitat selection of moose in northern Ontario, as well as with spider-mites in simple laboratory ecosystems. 

Dr. Harmsen has taught field courses in many different environments, including the Canadian arctic. Since retiring from Queen's University, he has worked in eco-tourism and nature documentary films. He is currently writing a book on ecology for the educated lay person.