Prof. Oystein Evensen

Øystein Evensen is head of the research group "Host-pathogen interactions in infection and immunity" at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He obtained his degree in veterinary medicine from the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in 1984 and his Ph.D. in pathology from the same institution in 1987. He worked for more than 10 years after his Ph.D. as a postdoctoral and research scientist at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute in Oslo, Norway, and more than 7 years in the pharmaceutical industry at Alpharma (1995-2002) (which later became PHARMAQ), studying the development of vaccines for finfish, particularly salmon. Over the last 19 years, he has been a full professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, where he heads a research group comprising more than 15 people, which includes two associate professors, several research scientists, and postdoctoral and Ph.D. students. The research group's focus is on the viral and bacterial diseases of farmed salmon, mechanisms of infection, and vaccine development. The main research focus over the last years has been cardiomyopathy syndrome of Atlantic salmon, and the research group was the first to describe the cause of the disease: piscine myocarditis virus. The group has ongoing research programs on the pancreas disease virus. Evensen's groups also work on developing vaccines against sea lice infection/infestation in Atlantic salmon with financial support from FHF (Seafood Research Fund).