Biography
Nadja is pursuing a DPhil in Systems Engineering at Oxford, where she conducts research on the Urban Bioeconomy, a concept to help cities become more sustainable and productive in terms of its biological resources.
A German Rhodes Scholar with Chinese heritage, she previously studied chemical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. She researched on Resource Efficiency Policies at Tsinghua University Beijing and on Change Management and Circular Economy at the University of São Paulo.
In addition, she obtained work experience in industry, policy and consulting at Siemens, Systemiq, BASF, Linde and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
As the President of the “European Young Engineers”, an NGO that represents about 500,000 members, she supports young engineers across Europe to get engaged and broaden their horizons in the fields of energy, water, circular economy, STEM in politics, diversity within STEM, future of work, future skills and more.
Research Interests
In light of rapid urbanisation and inefficient usage of biological resources, Nadja investigates the different bioeconomic components of cities, including urban food systems, ecosystem services and effective waste valorisation schemes based on the principles of circular (bio)economy. She is passionate about exploring potential synergies between different societal, economic and environmental subsystems to bring about more efficient ways of resource production, consumption and distribution in cities.
- Urban Bioeconomy
- Urban food systems
- Ecosystem services
- Biowaste recovery
- Biological resource flows
- Urban biocycles
- Industrial ecology
- Urban agriculture
