Patrik Ulvdal

The reson for me being a researcher is that I want to develop new solutions and knowledge that can make forestry more sustainable. My primary focus is on economical sustainability, for example, by improving decisions leading to higher efficiency. Higher efficiency also impacts the other pillars of sustainability positively. 

I am employed as a doctoral student at the department of forest resource management in Umeå (northern Sweden) since the 2nd of September, 2019. The aim of my doctoral studies project is to describe and analyse uncertainties in forest information used in forest planning. The goal is also to develop new planning methods that take these uncertainties into account.

Besides being a researcher, I am also an industrial doctoral student at Holmen Skog AB (a Swedish forest company) in Örnsköldsvik. My work there focuses on long time planning of their forest management.

Supervisors
Karin Öhman, professor (main supervisor)
Lars Sängstuvall, doktor
Göran Ståhl, professor
Ljusk Ola Eriksson, professor 

Funding
Kempestiftelserna (1/3)
Holmen Skog AB (1/3)
Department of forest resource management (1/3)

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Other academic duties:
Chair of the PhD Student Council at the Swedish Forestry Students’ Union, 2020-01 – 2022-12
Vice hair of the PhD Student Council at the Swedish Forestry Students’ Union, 2023-01 – 
Member of the faculty board at the faculty of forest sciences, 2022-01 –

I have taught on the following courses:

SG0226 Forest Planning with PlanWise as Decision Support, 7.5 credits 
- 20 Jan – 19 Feb 2020
- 18 Jan – 18 Feb 2021
- 17 Jan – 17 Feb 2022
- 16 Jan – 16 Feb 2023

I spend most of my time on my doctoral project, which is divided into four subprojects:

- I: Handling uncertainties in forest information: the hierarchical forest planning process and its use of information at large forest companies (published)
- II: A simulation of the combined effects of uncertain information and contradicting goals in a hierarchical forest planning setting
- III: The problem with remote sensing data in long-term area-based forest planning
- IV: Implementing methods to deal with uncertain information

Cooperation with society is one of the most important tasks for academia according to me. That is why I try to take all possibilities I can get to reach out with my and my colleagues’ results and get input on real-world problems in need of research. My doctoral project is in itself an excellent example of close cooperation between industry and academia. 

Some examples of what I have done:

- 2022-11-24 Presented results in a workshop on forest planning under uncertainty within the research programme Mistra Digital Forest.
- 2022-05-19 Presented results at a poster session within Mistra Digital Forest.
- 2021-12-16 Presented preliminary results in a workshop within the research programme Mistra Digital Forest.
-2020-11-19 Was a judge in an innovation race for students organised by the research programme Mistra Digital Forest.
- 2019-11-19 Participated in a workshop with large forest companies in Sweden. 
- 2019-11-01 Participated in a workshop with the Swedish Forest Agency. 
- 2019-09-25 Presented my future research in an open seminar series called Worth knowing at SLU.

2016 – Master of Science in forestry (Jägmästarexamen), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå Sweden

2016 – Master of Science in forest management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lomma Sweden

2014 – Bachelor of Science in forest science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå Sweden

MSC student theses (30 hp):

2021 - Main supervisor for MSc in forestry student Martin Persson’s master thesis in forest science: The forest planning process among medium-sized forest owners – description of the group and how they adapt the traditional planning hierarchy.