Background and activities

I was appointed Associate Professor in Population genetics at Dept. of Biology, NTNU, in 2014. I am currently head of the Behavior and Evolution section at Dept. of Biology. In my research I focus on questions in the intersection between genetics, evolution, ecology and conservation biology.

I use house sparrow populations along the coast of mid- and northern-Norway as my main study system. In addition, I am involved in collaborative projects where we e.g. study arctic fox in Scandinavia (with Dr. Nina Eide and Dr. Øystein Flagstad at NINA), water voles at the coast of northern Norway (with Prof. Stuart Piertney and Martha Gavan, Aberdeen University; Pål Thorvaldsen at NIBIO), and zebrafish in the lab (with Ass. Prof. Fredrik Jutfelt, NTNU).

I finished my PhD in 2002: "Causes and consequences of individual variation in fitness-related traits in house sparrows". During my PhD I spent 1.5 years with Prof. Hans Ellegren at Dept. of Evolutionary Biology, University of Uppsala, Sweden. 2003-2004 I was postdoc in Conservation Biology at Dept. of Biology, NTNU. 2005-2008 I was research scientist on the Storforsk-project "Population genetics in an ecological context", and then spent some months with Prof. Jon Slate at Dept. of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK. During 2009-2012 I was principle investigator on the RCN-funded project "The genetic basis of response to selection in natural populations – insight from state-of-the-art genomics analyses".

I was also principle investigator on the project "The effect of population size on short-term rates of evolution in natural populations" financed by the RCN. The project was associated with the Centre of Excellence, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) at NTNU, and was running 2013-2015.

In connection with these projects I have collaborated with the research groups of Prof. Glenn Peter Sætre, University of Oslo, and Prof. Sigbjørn Lien, Norwegian University of Life Scienes, to sequence the house sparrow genome. Furthermore, my research group uses state-of-the-art genomic techniques such as high density SNP-genotyping and genome-resequencing to answer our questions. Much of this work is  carried out in collaboration with Associate Professor Arild Husby (CBD and Helsinki University). For advanced statistical modeling and analyses we collaborate with Professor Ingelin Steinsland and Professor Jarle Tufto at Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, NTNU.

I teach in these courses:

  • BI1001: Cell and molecular biology
  • BI2017: Genetics and evolution 1
  • BI3082: Biodiversity and conservation 2
  • BI3083: Evolutionary and ecological genetics

These people are currently connected to my research group:

Postdocs/research scientists:

  • Ingerid J. Hagen (researcher)
  • Jostein Gohli (postdoc)
  • Alina Niskanen (postdoc)
  • Bernt Rønning (researcher/senior engineer)

PhD-students:

  • Ane M. Myhre (with Bernt-Erik Sæther and Steinar Engen)
  • Peter Sjolte Ranke (with Bernt-Erik Sæther, Thor Harald Ringsby and Henrik Pärn)
  • Lars Rød-Eriksen (with Nina Eide, NINA, Siw Killengreen, UiT, and Ivar Herfindal, NTNU)
  • Dilan Saatoglu
  • Michael P. Pedersen (with Thor Harald Ringsby)
  • Sarah Lundregan

Technicians:

  • Henrik Pärn

Master students:

  • Sonja Kristina Johansen (with Thor Harald Ringsby)
  • Sarah Lundregan
  • Elisa Keeling Hemphill
  • Nils Håkon Pettersen (with Jonathan Wright)
  • Ida Pernille Ø. Andersskog
  • Live Rud-Johansen
  • Talal Mohammad (with Jonathan Wright)

I have a number of available MSc-projects related to my research. Please contact me if you are interested!

Scientific, academic and artistic work

Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database

Journal publications

Books

  • Sviland, Maria; Jensen, Henrik; Moe, Børge; Borg, Åsa. (2007) Gråspurv, farskap og forskningsmetoder. 2007. ISBN 978-82-7923-052-6.

Part of book/report

  • Jensen, Henrik; Szulkin, Marta; Slate, Jon. (2014) Molecular quantitative genetics. Quantitative Genetics in the Wild.

Report/dissertation

  • Jensen, Henrik. (2002) Causes and consequences of individual variation in fitness-related traits in house sparrows. 2002.
  • Jensen, Henrik. (1998) Diet composition parental energy-provisioning in a pelagic seabird, the Antarctic petrel Thalassoica antartica. 1998.