Doctoral Researcher Paz Araya is a doctoral researcher at IRI THESys. She has a Master in Energy Economics and the title of Mechanical Engineer. Before joining the institute, for 12 years she worked in studies on energy efficiency policies, energy education strategies and prospective supporting decision-makers for sustainable energy policies in Chile. Paz also has…

Doctoral Researcher Julia Behringer is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Agriculture and Food Policy in the Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin funded by DAAD. Her main research interests are citizen participation in public and private food governance, global democracy, sustainable agricultural transitions, political discourse, and e-government. Julia has a background as…

Graduate Program Board

Doctoral Researcher Laura Betancur Alarcón joined IRI THESys in August 2021 as a PhD Researcher in the ‘Water for Whom’ project. She is researching everyday water use practices and adaptation strategies in communities affected by hydro dams through a multi-sited ethnographic study in Colombia. Laura holds a master’s degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science…

Doctoral Researcher Pius Borona is a doctoral researcher at IRI THESys. In his career spanning six years he has worked on several topical environmental issues in East and West Africa. He previously worked at World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya on Ecosystem Based Adaptation (EbA) in West Africa. Additionally, he was involved in climate variability and…

Doctoral Researcher Ana Buchadas is pursuing a PhD in the Departments of Geography Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with co-supervisor in Université catholique de Louvain. In her PhD, she will address deforestation frontiers in tropical dry forests, understanding deforestation and advancing agricultural frontiers, their impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services and local livelihoods. Ana has a bachelor’s degree…

Doctoral Researcher David Meng-Chuen Chen is a doctoral researcher at IRI THESys and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He completed his BSc. in International Agriculture and Food Systems at McGill University (2015) and MSc. at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in Integrated Natural Resource Management (2020). His master’s thesis produced projections of…

Doctoral Researcher Heindriken Dahlmann is a doctoral researcher at the IRI THESys and the Geography Department of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her PhD project is funded by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Heindriken’s research focuses on telecoupled water flows, especially in the form of virtual water embedded in agricultural products. Within her PhD project, she tries to disentangle…

Doctoral Researcher Cristián Flores Fernández works with Prof. Dr. Tobias Krüger in the Hydrology and Society research group of the Department of Geography and IRI THESys. His PhD project studies the transformations and uncertainties that brine extraction for lithium and potassium mining generates in the socio-natural metabolism of the salt flats of northern Chile. From…

Doctoral Researcher Jelena Grosse-Bley is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a visiting predoctoral fellow with the Lise Meitner Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. She holds a M.A. in Modern East Asian Studies from Georg-August Universität (Göttingen) and a M.Sc. in Environmental Management…

Doctoral Researcher Marvin Heine is an environmental sociologist and is deeply interested in the senses, their phenomenology, mediations, and politics. He is a doctoral researcher at the IRI THESys and is associated with the ERC ‘Wavematters’ project (PI: Ignacio Farías). His master’s thesis has been about city soundscapes and how these shape and are shaped…