Arne Pommerening works as Professor in Mathematical Statistics Applied to Forest Sciences at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Umeå. He is a theoretical forest scientist and his research areas include woodland structure analysis and modelling, spatio-temporal dynamics of plant point patterns, individual-based modelling with a focus on plant interactions, plant growth analysis, methods of quantifying and monitoring biodiversity and the analysis of human behaviour of selecting trees. He has also developed a keen interest in the question of how marked point patterns based on mapped plant communities evolve through time. The ontogenesis of such patterns can be studied by using individual-based models, which is an intriguing field of research. Much of his research is in quantitative ecology including computer-based simulation experiments and it is strongly interdisciplinary and international.