People

Rani Lill Anjum

This project brings together academics from a range of backgrounds to consider the theoretical foundation of causation. A large international network of philosophers and scientists is recruited, plus two institutional partners.

From left: Fredrik Andersen, Elias Nunez, Rani Lill Anjum Photo: Håkon Sparre

Project Director

Rani Lill Anjum, Principal Investigator, Research Fellow in Philosophy, UMB School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Research: causation, dispositions, conditionals.

PhD students

Fredrik Andersen, PhD-student, Department of Philosophy, University of Santa Catarina and CauSci, UMB (from 1 September).
Research: Philosophy of physics, causation, time, space, Kant.

Elias Núñez, PhD-student, CauSci, UMB School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Research: Philosophy of biology, causation, emergence.

Visiting Professors

Stephen Mumford, University of Nottingham Photo: Candy Lange

Stephen Mumford, Professor of Metaphysics, Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham and Professor II, CauSci and UMB School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Research: dispositions, causation, properties, persistence and modality; methodological issues in metaphysics; truthmaker theory; moral virtues and vices; metaphysics of absences, lacks and nothingnesses; essentialism.

John Dupré, University of Exeter Photo: Guido Castagnoli

John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Director of the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (EGENIS) at University of Exeter.

Research: biological classification; adaptationism and optimality; reductionism; indeterministic accounts of causality; evolution and the limitations of evolutionary psychology; and the biological basis of sex and gender.

Other collaborators

Thomas Bøhn, PhD, Scientific Director of Centre for Biosafety (GENØK). Research: invasive biology related to biodiversity and ecological interactions, and on the impact of genetically modified organisms on experimental model systems and on real food-webs.

Rebecca Carver, PhD-student, Department of Physiology, Institute for Basic Medical Research, University of Oslo. Research: science communication - public & media understandings of the gene.

Anjan Chakravartty, Director and Associate Professor, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto. Research: philosophy of biology and physics; scientific realism; dispositions, causation, laws of nature, and natural kinds; scientific models, representation; the nature of abstraction and idealization.

Dorothy Jane Dankel, Researcher, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) and Institute of Marine Research, University of Bergen.

Dagfinn Døhl Dybvig, Associate Professor, Bodø Graduate School of Business, Bodø University College. Research:

Kristina Engelhard, Researcher, Philosophisches Seminar, University of Cologne. Research: potentialities and dispositions, centered on macro-entities such as organisms, social entities or complex systems.

Thor Eirik Eriksen, PhD-student, Department of Philosophy, University of Tromsø, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Univ. Hospital of North Norway. Research: to approach the phenomena behind labels such as the "medically unexplained" through phenomenological investigations.

Tor Egil Førland, Professor of History, University of Oslo. Research: historical and social science methodology and explanation.

Ruth Groff, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, St. Louis University. Research: the metaphysical infrastructure of the history of social/political thought, critical realism, causal powers and agency.

Stein Holden, Professor of Economics, UMB School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Research: policy evaluation and use of impact assessment methods to identify causal effects of policy changes, shocks, etc. primarily in developing countries; identifying impacts of land tenure reforms, agricultural subsidies and productive safety net programs.

Andreas Hüttemann, Professor, Philosophisches Seminar, University of Cologne. Research: Causation, Explanation, Laws, Dispositions.

Jonathan D. Jacobs, Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department, St. Louis University. Research: Metaphysics — especially causal powers, properties, causation, laws of nature, and modality — and philosophy of religion.

Trond Jacobsen, Professor of Philosophy, Department for Social Sciences, Lillehammer University College. Research: multiple manifestation and the causal homogeneity of biological kinds.

Jonas Jensen, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Tromsø. Research: a realist and causal interpretation of quantum physics developed by David Bohm and an investigation of Schrödinger’s philosophy of quantum physics.

Max Kistler, Professor and Director, Institut Jean Nicod, Paris. Research: higher-level causation and downward causation.

Georg Kjøll, PhD-student, CSMN - Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, IFIKK, University of Oslo. Research: causal perception, causal agency, determinism, free will, moral and social responsibility.

Anita Leirfall, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen and temporary Associate Professor at Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Torill Christine Lindstrøm, Professor, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen.

Harald Martens, Professor of Chemometrics, Research Scientist/Professor II, Centre for Integrative Genetics (CIGENE)/Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Senior Researcher, Nofima Mat, Ås. Research: Multivariate data modeling, multichannel measurements.

Magni Martens, Senior Research Scientist, Nofima Food: Sensory and Consumer Science/Centre for Biospectroscopy and Data Modelling. Professor of Sensory Science, affiliated to University of Copenhagen. Research: sensory perception and data modelling.

Jennifer McKitrick, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Research: metaphysics, dispositions.

Anne Ingeborg Myhr, Senior Researcher, Centre for Biosafety (GENØK). Research: the use of DNA vaccines, elaboration of philosophical perspectives on GMOs, and capacity building in risk assessment and management of GMO use and release in the Third World.

Ronny Selbæk Myhre, PhD-student, Department of Philosophy, NTNU. Research: evolutionary and developmental mechanisms of primordial conciousness; neural mechanisms of spatial and temporal cognition; neurointentionality; evolutionary and developmental mechanisms of animal form.

Johan Arnt Myrstad, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Tromsø. Research: Kant, Philosophy of science, in physics and biology; analysis of causal models in use in classical and modern physics.

Svein Anders Noer Lie, PhD-student, Department of Philosophy, University of Tromsø. Research: property emergentism and anti-reductionism with respect to biological entities.

Gry Oftedal, Researcher and Principal Investigator of Philosophical Foundation of Systems Biology (PSBio), IFIKK, University of Oslo. Research:

Stig Omholt, Professor and Director of Centre for Integrative Genetics (CIGENE), Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Research: the development of a framework or theoretical foundation being capable of explaining and predict how observed genetic variation results in observed phenotypic variation in causal terms.

Deborah Oughton, Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Ethics co-ordinator, Norwegian University of Life Sciences; Adjunct Professor at University of Oslo in charge of the Science Ethics and Society course. Research: ecotoxicology, risk assessment and the ethical and philosophical challenges that come from bridging science and policy in risk management. Environmental impacts of radiation and nanoparticles.

Johannes Persson, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Lund.

Alexander Powell, BSc (Bristol), MSc (Sussex), PhD (Exeter). Research: explanation, causation and related issues, with a focus on molecular, cell, systems and synthetic biology. Broad interests in naturalistic and cognitive approaches to epistemology and in the systems and practices surrounding scientific knowledge creation and dissemination.

Alexander Reutlinger, Research Assistant, Department of Philosophy, University of Cologne. Research: causation (counterfactual and interventionists theories of causation and Bayes' Nets approaches), ceteris paribus laws (i.e. non-universal generalisations in the special sciences, and their impact on theories of causation and explanation); metaphysics of science (direction of causation, dispositions, Humean Supervenience, structural realism), Philosophy of the Social Sciences.

Elena Rocca, Research Affiliate, PhD in Developmental Biology from the MDC institute for Molecular Medicine in Berlin in 2008. MA in in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies from Università degli Studi di Padova in 2001. Research: safety and sustainability of biotechnology, especially in agriculture.

Thor Sandmel, Cand.Real., Dr.Philos., Department of Mathematics, University of Oslo. Research: a general investigation of how the natural dialectics of human reason expresses itself in current science, and a specific investigation into the philosophy of quantum physics, and the later attempts at quantum gravity.

Allen Stairs, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland. Research: foundations of quantum mechanics.

Markus Stepanians, Professor and Head of Research Programme "Law & Technology", Human Technology Centre of RWTH Aachen University. Research

Roger Strand, Professor, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), Univ. of Bergen. Research: theories of post-normal science; studies of uncertainty and complexity in the science-society relationship; ethical and societal aspects of emerging science and technology.

Mauricio Suárez (BSc. Edinburgh, MSc., PhD. London), tenured Associate Professor, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Philosophy, Complutense University, Madrid. Principal Investigator of Methods of Causal Inference and Scientific Representation (MCISR). Research: Philosophy of science (physics, in particular quantum mechanics). Suárez is known for his attempt to revive Henry Margenau's latent interpretation of quantum mechanics, and his advocacy of quantum propensities.

Camilla Svensen, Researcher, Department of Aquatic Biology, Norwegian College of Fishery Science. Research: a study of various aspects of marine plankton dynamics, such as ecology of zooplankton and regulation mechanisms for vertical carbon flux.

Birger Svihus, Professor of Nutrition, Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). Research:

Terje Traavik, Professor and Scientific Director of Centre for Biosafety (GENØK). Research.

Sigurd Tønnessen, PhD-student, Department of Philosophy, University of Tromsø. Research: a theoretical and philosophical analysis of Kepler’s and Leibniz’s mathematical and dynamical arguments in the development of physics.

Jonathan Webber, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Cardiff University. Research: the nature and knowledge of character and personality traits.

Ryan Wesley, Research Student in Philosophy, University of Bolton. Research: Conceptions of causation and explanation in ancient philosophy. The process metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and its applicability to contemporary metaphysics and accounts of causation.

Fern Wickson, (PhD, BA (Hons), BSc), Researcher, Centre for Biosafety (GENØK), Tromsø. Research: social, ethical and environmental aspects of new and emerging technosciences (e.g. biotechnology, nanotechnology, synthetic biology).

Henrik Zinkernagel, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Granada. Research: philosophy of cosmology, philosophy of time and philosophy of quantum physics.

Published: 10.01.11
Updated: 27.11.12
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Del med en venn:

Causation in Science

UMB School of Economics and Business
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)
Postbox 5003
NO- 1432 Ås
For visitors: Tårnbygningen, Christian Magnus Falsensvei 18, office T353

Contact person: Rani Lill Anjum (rani.anjum@umb.no), Phone: 64 96 57 12