Olle Calles

In rivers with hydropower development, river connectivity is degraded or, in many cases, completely disrupted, resulting in bottlenecks for the life-history completion of riverine fish populations in general and of diadromous fish populations in particular. To resolve such anthropogenically induced bottlenecks, fish passage solutions are typically implemented at migration barriers. Evaluation often shows that passage solutions perform poorly. Even more alarmingly, the vast majority of the implemented passage solutions remain unevaluated and their functionality is hence unknown.

I have led several research projects on fish migration and the design, implementation and evaluation of fish passage solutions funded by e.g. Formas, the KK-foundation, Energiforsk and Horizon 2020 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. Examples of ongoing projects are Using machine learning for improved eel downstream passage design, LIFE Connects and Improve Aquatic LIFE (EU-LIFE Nature and Biodiversity).

I am currently the contact person for the River Ecology and management research group (RivEM)  (https://www.kau.se/en/nrrv).

I have been teaching throughout my academic career, and I am currently the course leader of Biological methods and analyses (bachelor) and Scientific Methods in Freshwater Ecology (master). I also give lectures in Ecology, Freshwater Ecology, and Conservation Science for Sustaining Biodiversity. I find teaching and course development very rewarding and take great joy in contributing to the successful education of our students. This has been achieved by teaching theory, concepts and practical biology at the undergraduate level, as well as course development and supervising bachelor and master theses and engaging students in ongoing research projects. To increase the contact between students and potential employers, one of my main activities as subject representative (ämnesföreträdare) in 2019 was to initiate “Grön dag” (Green day) 2019-2021 with workshops and presentations by potential employers, researchers and students. Grön dag 2024 will be held in November. 

Externally funded applied research projects is all about external cooperation of which I now have more than 20 years’ of experience. I have collaborated with a large variety of external partners such as County Administration Boards (e.g. Gävleborg, Kalmar, Blekinge, Uppsala, Skåne, Halland), municipalities (e.g. Gävle, Falkenberg, Mönsterås, Karlstad etc.), major power companies (e.g. Uniper, Vattenfall, Fortum, Statkraft, Tekniska verken etc.), privately owned power companies (Vebro industri AB, Ulf Levein, Knut Aal AS etc.), consultancies (e.g. Sweco, Norconsult, Fiskevårdsteknik AB, Hydroterra) and international companies and organizations like Latvenergo (Latvia), World fish migration foundation (Netherlands), WWF (Netherlands), ICE (Costa Rica) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Italy).

‪Olle Calles‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬