I am currently a Professor in Earth System Science. My research focuses on the study of the co-evolution of social-ecological systems to develop a greater understanding of the complexities that tie social and ecological systems and to determine their dynamics and resilience in the face of rapid and accelerating global change.
In 2010, I received my doctorate in Ecology from the University of California in Davis, USA, and a Graduate Academic Certificate in Conservation Management. I then moved to the University of California in Berkeley, as a Postdoctoral Fellow until 2012, and then to become a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University, until 2013. In the same year, she also obtained a Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Stanford Business School. From 2013 until 2018, I was an Assistant Professor at the Universiteit Utrecht, NL. Since then I have become a Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Zurich, where I study biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and how they change nature’s contributions to people and their relations with the supporting biodiversity, which might threaten their livelihoods and well-being. These interconnections are co-occurring within and across sectors, such as the Food-Water-Energy nexus and resolving these issues are at core of achieving challenging political goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the biodiversity targets and climate action goals.