Physicist within marine optics and lightscape modeling
Håkon Sandven is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bergen within the MSCA COFUND programme SEAS; exploring how light shapes marine ecosystems in a rapidly changing climate. His research bridges marine optics, biogeochemistry, and oceanography, focusing on the reciprocal relationships between optical and biogeochemical processes from Norwegian fjords to the Central Arctic Ocean, especially how the underwater light environment is governed. Sandven combines field observations, radiative transfer modelling, and remote sensing to understand how variations in light availability influence primary production, and ecosystem dynamics. His published work has improved our knowledge of advanced scattering measurements and light-driven processes in polar and subpolar seas, with a particular emphasis on the ecologically important Barents Sea.
Current projects investigate how sea ice and terrestrial runoff structures the biologically relevant lightscape in the northwestern Barents Sea and the Central Arctic Ocean. Sandven’s research also includes optical effects of glacial meltwater and coccolithophore blooms in Norwegian fjords, using radiative-transfer modelling and field observations to assess how these processes reshape local light environments. His work on coastal waters, through the SFI Smart Ocean project, also includes testing of wireless underwater optical communication and development of radiative Monte Carlo simulations relevant for communication and novel sensors such as lidar.
See his research output in ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8042-510X
Sandven's most recent CV (December 2025).