Coordinator

Karlijn van den Broek

Karlijn van den Broek is an Assistant Professor in the Innovation Studies group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, and a visiting scholar at Heidelberg University. She is an environmental psychologist focusing on people’s understanding of the complexity of environmental problems (mental models) and how this understanding influences decision-making and pro-environmental behaviour.

E-Mail: k.l.vandenbroek@uu.nl | Profile

Researchers

Michał Bączyk

Michał is a PhD candidate in the Innovation Studies group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. He is interested in the overlap between circular and sustainable behaviour. Currently, he is working on consumer-related rebound effects of circular business models with a focus on understanding and quantifying consumers’ behavioural responses to circular products and services.

E-Mail: m.baczyk@uu.nl| Profile

Lisette van Beek

Lisette is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Governance group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and the Urban Futures Studio. With a background in cognitive as well as environmental sciences, she is primarily interested in how climate science information is presented and perceived and the way in which this informs climate policy. Previous research areas include serious gaming, risk perceptions and framing in scientific visualizations.

E-Mail: l.m.g.vanbeek@uu.nl| Profile

Kristina Bogner

Kristina is an Assistant Professor in the Innovation studies group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. She is currently working on the transition of higher education institutions and phase-outs in transitions. She is particularly interested in how individuals feel and behave in these processes. E.g. in the changing practices and identities of (engaged) scholars in the light of the impact orientation of universities. And in emotions and coping resources and responses in phase-outs resulting from sustainability transitions.

E-Mail: k.b.bogner@uu.nl| Profile

Martina Bubalo

Martina Bubalo is a PhD candidate at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University. She has a research background in landscape perception. In her current research, she will investigate the connection between nature contact, mental health and pro-environmental behaviours among urban youth.

E-Mail: m.bubalo@uu.nl| Profile

Blanca Corona

Blanca Corona is an Assistant Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development in the group Energy and Resources. Her research focuses on the quantitative sustainability assessment of circular and innovative products or technologies, mostly through Life Cycle Assessment approaches. She believes that understanding how users interact with product systems and their surroundings is pivotal in shaping meaningful and effective sustainable strategies. Therefore, a focal aspect of her research revolves around incorporating the human dimension into quantitative sustainability assessments.

E-Mail: b.c.coronabellostas@uu.nl| Profile

Ine Dorresteijn

Ine is an Associate Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with main interests in human-environment interactions and sustainability. Her research revolves around topics at the intersection of society and ecosystems, such as biodiversity and wildlife, ecosystem services and disservices, livelihoods and human well-being, and the role of governance in shaping social-ecological system dynamics. Transdisciplinarity, the active involvement of stakeholders, is an important component in her research.

E-Mail:i.dorresteijn@uu.nl| Profile

Javanshir Fouladvand

Javanshir Fouladvand is an Assistant Professor at Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. He holds a PhD from Delft University of Technology in complex socio-technical (energy) system design. In his research, Javanshir investigates how the technical, behavioural, institutional and market conditions influence the decision-making processes related to the complex socio-technical (energy) system and transition. Javanshir is particularly interested in collective action and collaborative approaches to governance critical infrastructure, such as energy systems. He employs various qualitative and quantitative approaches in his studies, including agent-based modelling, optimization, questionnaires, interviews and focused groups.

E-Mail: j.fouladvand@uu.nl | Profile

Hannah Galster

Hannah is a PhD candidate at the Energy and Resources Group of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Utrecht University) and the Energy and Materials Transition unit of TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research). Her work centers around the incorporation of human behavior in Energy System Modelling. In her interdisciplinary research, she aims to combine knowledge from social sciences with energy modelling, believing that bridging the two domains can ensure mutual benefits and improve the quality of insights derived from existing energy system models.

E-Mail: h.s.galster@uu.nl>| Profile

Christine Hedde-von Westernhagen

Christine is a PhD candidate at Eindhoven University of Technology within the Technology, Innovation & Society group, and a visiting researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Her work targets the interplay of individual beliefs and social norms in bringing about tipping dynamics in the energy transition. Holding a master’s degree in Applied Statistics (Utrecht University), she focuses on quantitative methods for modelling social processes. She likes to apply her methodological skills to new topics, so far covering areas such as colonial history, sociology of science, and epidemic modelling.

E-Mail: c.hedde.von.westernhagen@tue.nl| Profile

Luja von Köckritz

Luja researches the potential of emission reductions through circularity measures. Measures like switching to other transport modes, increasing the reuse of products, or reducing consumption require significant behavioral changes. However, in global climate models, such as the IMAGE model with which Luja works, these behavioral changes are assumed to simply get adopted. Therefore, Luja wants to improve the backing of circularity measures to see how much they could be adopted so that projections of future material and energy use in the IMAGE model are better connected with human decision-making mechanisms.

E-Mail: l.m.s.vonkockritz@uu.nl| Profile

Laura Piscicelli

Laura Piscicelli is an Assistant Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. Her research focuses on the role of consumers in the adoption and diffusion of sustainable products, services and business models. Laura is an editorial member of the journal Sustainable Production and Consumption.

E-Mail: l.piscicelli@uu.nl | Profile

Hens Runhaar

Hens Runhaar is Associate Professor of Governance of Nature and Biodiversity at Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University and Visiting Professor at Wageningen University and Research. His research focuses on interventions by governments, companies and NGOs to protect or enhance nature and biodiversity, with a special interest in agriculture. Part of his work focuses on how citizens, in their different roles as consumers, voters and volunteers, can be stimulated to positively contribute to biodiversity recovery.

E-Mail: h.a.c.runhaar@uu.nl| Profile

Annuska Toebast

Annuska is a PhD candidate in the Innovation Studies group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Annuska aims to connect research and practice in her work. With a background in marketing and communications, her research focuses on sustainable fashion consumption. Annuska works on her PhD research, exploring the perspective of sustainable fashion retailers on how they instigate consumers’ sustainable fashion behavior. Annuska has a Masters’ degree in Business Communication, as well as a Masters’ degree in Business Strategy (both Radboud University), and studied at Berkeley (University of California).

E-Mail: a.toebast-wensink@uu.nl | Profile

Vivian Tunn

Vivian Tunn is an Assistant Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Vivian has worked on the circular economy for the last 5 years. First, she investigated circular business models for consumer markets in her PhD and then worked at CBS and contributed to the Dutch work program monitoring and steering circular economy. She is especially interested in how and why consumers adopt, use and interact with circular economy solutions and resulting rebound effects.

E-Mail: v.s.c.tunn@uu.nl | Profile

Jennifer Uchendu

Jennifer Uchendu is a researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Jennifer is interested in eco-anxiety and related environmental emotions in young people.  She is a climate justice advocate with lived experience of eco-anxiety and youth organizing in the global south. Jennifer is also the founder of SustyVibes and The Eco-anxiety Africa Project, a first-of-its-kind initiative in Africa exploring the experiences of eco-anxiety in African youth populations through research and advocacy. She has been involved in several international research projects on eco-anxiety in Africa, Europe and North America. She was also part of the Mecca project, for which she led a workshop and dialogue on the research outcomes with stakeholders in Lagos. Jennifer is an alumnus of the Institute of Development Studies, UK and is regularly invited to speak on youth eco-anxiety at conferences and events.

E-Mail: j.o.uchendu@uu.nl|Profile

Leanda Vedder

Leanda Vedder is an interdisciplinary PhD candidate at the Energy and Resources as well as the Innovation Studies group of the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University. She has a particular interest in sustainability issues at the interface of people´s perception of environmental problems, environmental impact and technology. Her research is centered on the acceptability of wind energy and investigates the involved stakeholder’s perception of the impact of wind power deployment. Close collaboration with the Horizon Europe project WIMBY forms the foundation of her work. She has a background in environmental system sciences with economics from the University of Graz and a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development from Utrecht University. During her Master’s, she was a research assistant for an ongoing research project that maps the perception of biodiversity loss within the Utrecht University community.

E-Mail: l.vedder1@uu.nl|

Tina Venema

Tina Venema is an Assistant professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. In her research, she investigates how and when people’s physical and social environment influences their decisions. A few specific examples include the effectiveness of nudge interventions, the role of habits in behaviour-change and which types of behaviours are most likely to be guided by (implicit) social norms.

E-Mail: a.g.venema@uu.nl|Profile

Niko Wojtynia

Niko researches the transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems. One area of interest is the way farmers, consumers and other important actors are shaped by, and in turn can try to influence, the environment within which they operate.

E-Mail: n.wojtynia@uu.nl| Profile