Biography
Mika Kaibara Portugaise is a D.Phil student in the department of Engineering Science under the supervision of Professor Paulo Savaget. Mika holds a B.Des in Architecture from OCAD University in Toronto, M.Eng in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, and M.Sc in Environment and Natural Resources with a specialization in Environmental Management, Science, and Policy from the University of Iceland.
Research Interests
- Urban Mining
- Ecosystems across spectrums of formality
- Electronic waste
- Resource recovery
Current Projects
Mika is researching urban mining of electronic waste (e-waste) through an ecosystems lens. Urban mining refers to the recovery of usable resources contained in waste streams, and e-waste, in particular, has the potential to become a vast secondary resource mine for both precious metals and Critical Raw Materials (CRM) toward a Circular Economy, although widespread commercial viability of urban mining has not yet been reached.
Her research explores cases of informal and formal urban mining ecosystems in order to understand their conditions for emergence, how stakeholder networks and interdependencies comprise actorhood, and how they have (or can) build resilience towards external intervention. Through this exploration, Mika’s research aims to provide results that inform the development of viable and productive urban mines across spectrums of (in)formality.
